First Surrender (Chance Encounters #3)

Chapter Forty-Six

Jackson

H oliness Tabernacle. The long-time church of Reverend Porter. I insisted he be available for a meeting today because I’m ready to get answers from this family. If they’re involved then the crime ends today.

My phone rings as I pull into the church parking lot and I plan to ignore it until I see Nat’s name.

“Hey, sweetheart, I have one more stop and then I’m on my way home.”

Silence greets me. When she still doesn’t speak, I inspect my phone screen to confirm the call didn’t drop. “Nat? You there?”

I glance up to the church doors where the reverend stands patiently, waiting. His white robe reflects the sun brightly, but my eyes are drawn to his face. His glasses are darkened.

Transition lenses.

I’ve seen him before.

“ I’m sorry. I have to go… I love you.”

She loves me.

Those words should fill me with endless elation… Instead, my heart sinks. Why would she say that to me now?

Of all times, why now?

The call disconnects and I call her back instantly but it doesn’t even ring before it goes to voicemail. I look back toward the church doors and the front steps are empty.

The ache in my chest deepens. Something is wrong.

I call one more time for good measure but the same thing happens. When I pull up my app to find her location, it tells me what I already know. Her phone is off. Her last location ping is at the gas station off of Rt 70. It’s on the opposite side of town from me.

This could be nothing but I’ve never ignored my gut before. I call it in over the radio, directing the nearest deputy to the gas station until I can get there.

The entire drive there is filled with painful silence. The dread is drowning out any coherent thoughts in my mind. I hardly hear the radio transmission being directed toward me.

“Sheriff, her car is not here but we found a cell phone in the roadway. It’s crushed. We’re going to talk to the employee inside now.”

Jesus Christ. Something bad happened. This isn’t right.

“Where’s Dec?” I say out loud to myself. It’s after school, he should have been with her. Maybe Dec went to Charlie’s house after school. Luckily, Dec’s texted his friend off of my phone a few times and I have his mom’s number.

“Hey, Sienna. Is Dec with you?” I ask as soon as she answers.

“No, he’s not. Is everything okay?” She’s a parent, she already knows that something is wrong. She hears it in my voice like I can hear the concern in hers.

“Uh, not sure. Let me know if you hear from him or Natalie. Please, it’s important.”

I make the only other phone call I can think of before I pull up on the scene. “I need you guys. Now.”

My deputy comes out of the convenience store of the gas station and jogs over to me as my feet hit the pavement, heavily. “The clerk doesn’t remember her, she never went inside, but she did notice a tow truck pull in about fifteen minutes ago. Assumed someone was having car troubles. The vehicles were in the far row of pumps and she couldn’t see anything else. She’s pulling the CTV for us now but it will take a minute.”

“Dammit, we don’t have a minute!” I scrape my hands over my face and take a deep breath. Behaving irrationally won’t accomplish anything but can feel my self-control evaporating. I need to get it together.

“Sheriff.” My other deputy waves me over to the storefront but he hesitates before he says his next words.

“What? What is it?”

“It looks like an abduction. A man approached her side of the vehicle and a few minutes later the tow truck hooked her car up and drove off. The man returned to a black Ford Ranger and then followed closely behind. There’s a kid in the backseat, but it’s blurry.”

“Let me see. I need to see it.” I watch the four-minute video from beginning to end five times before I accept what I’m seeing.

Declan took them. He took them.

A truck screeches to a stop outside and my head whips in that direction. My first breath of relief escapes my lungs. The cavalry has arrived.

“What the fuck is going on?” Nathan thunders as I approach them, buckling a thigh holster and securing his gun. Jesse’s standing by the passenger door untucking his button-down shirt and pulling it off.

“Declan took Natalie and Dec. He towed their car off with them inside. That’s all I know.”

“Well, let’s get ‘em back,” Jesse quips, pulling a hat down on his head with one hand, holding the barrel of a rifle in his other. “Start from the top, give us all the details.”

So, I do. I tell them about every single incident involving Declan Randolph. His crimes, the drugs, and his relationship with Dec and Natalie.

“This is the drug dealer you thought might be connected to the other stuff? The 5k bombing? Callie’s case?” Nathan ponders, looking at me closely.

“Yeah. Thomas Jameson was shanked in the same jail that Declan was in and I also suspected that he conspired to set Natalie and Dec’s apartment on fire but I haven’t been able to prove either crime. Jameson was related to Sheriff Donahue’s wife, Vanessa Porter. They were cousins,” I explain, trying to make sense of the pieces.

“God dammit,” Jesse mumbles. “These small towns are insane.”

“Vanessa Porter is involved?” Nathan asks.

“I’ve spoken to her. She’s defensive of her family but she doesn’t seem to be involved. I had a meeting with her father, Reverend Porter but…” My explanation discontinues as my brain makes sense of my thoughts.

Nathan and Jesse are looking at me, waiting for my next words.

“I was just there. I got the call from Natalie then left, and came straight here. I never spoke to him.” The air in my lungs deflates. “Fuck.”

“You mean you had a meeting with a man who was possibly tied to these crimes while Natalie and Dec were being taken on the other side of town?” Nathan interprets my distress clearly.

“He was in the courtroom the first day I saw Declan. I didn’t think anything of it then. He’s an old man, a reverend.”

“Old men are often the most cynical,” Jesse adds. “His sons were killed, his son-in-law was killed, his nephew was just killed in jail.”

“His great nephew, too,” I add. “I killed Kyle when he took you,” I tell Jesse.

“I think you just found your criminal mastermind, Malec,” Nathan suggests, eerily.