Reclaimed (Powell Sanctuary #5)

Chapter 33

33

Aiden

“Talk to me,” I bark into my cell phone.

“We’re coming up on where the device location stopped tracking. I’m warning the two of you now, stay back or I’ll cuff you both and put you in a squad car headed back to town.” Sutton wastes no time getting right into it.

“I just need to know if she’s there or not. Don’t make me wait.” A current of anxiety zips beneath my skin. When the line went dead, we knew one of two things happened.

One: He got rid of her phone.

Two: He got rid of her phone and her.

“I won’t,” Sutton promises. “Pull over and I’ll call you right back.”

Lee moves the truck steadily onto the shoulder. “Done,” he says loud enough for Sutton to hear over the speaker.

“Hang tight,” Sutton says before the line cuts off.

“You know if you weren’t here, I wouldn’t have stopped,” I mutter. I feel like I’m coming out of my skin.

“Yep,” Lee replies.

“And if it were Juniper, you wouldn’t have stopped either.”

“Yep.” He cuts me a glance, shifting the truck back into drive and easing down the side of the road. “We wait for his call and then we’ll get moving quickly again.”

He keeps us traveling north, just at a slower speed. The two of us have no way of knowing exactly where Isla’s phone cut off since Silas had Juniper’s phone with the GPS. All we know is the cops have moved far enough ahead that we can hardly see their flashing lights.

“Sutton’s going to be pissed you didn’t stay at his command.”

“We’re just going far enough to keep them in our sights.”

A second later, my phone rings again. I stab the button and put it on speaker.

“We’ve located her phone. She isn’t here.” Sutton’s voice is clear in the cab.

“You’re sure?” I ask.

“A team is going to stay behind and comb the area, but we were pretty close to this location. He wouldn’t have had time to bring her off the main road and get out of here before we showed up.”

“That isn’t exactly comforting.”

“It’s what I have for you, Aiden. I’m sorry. We won’t stop looking.” Sutton’s gruff voice is unusual coming from him. He’s carrying the weight of this investigation on his shoulders. “Hang on.”

My palms sweat as silence pours through the line. There’s a rustle, as if Sutton’s on the move. An onslaught of devastating images rips through my head the longer he keeps me waiting. I refuse to believe my mind telling me they found something else.

Or someone.

“Sutton,” Lee barks, noticing the palpable anxiety filling the cab. He hits the gas, racing toward the flashing lights ahead.

A hundred feet back, he slows to a stop. My shoes touch pavement before he even has it in park. His footsteps thunder behind me, hot on my heels as I seek out Sutton or Silas in the group of blue and gray uniforms.

“Shit, Powell, I said hang on .” Sutton scowls at me before flicking his gaze behind me at Lee.

“What is it?” I snarl.

“We have a call about the car. It was seen leaving the highway and turning right on Parkway Road. The caller lost sight of them after that, but a deputy is in pursuit.”

“They have sight of them?”

Sutton shakes his head. “Not yet, but there isn’t much out there. Once you get around Rainbow Lake, the road turns into a T. Local cops are blocking traffic on either end. They’re blocked in.”

My shoulders sink. “So now it’s only a matter of finding out where he’s taking her.”

“They’re pulling property records for the hunting cabins out that way looking for anyone named Henry.” Sutton’s hand falls heavily on my shoulder. “We’re doing everything that we can.”

While all I can do is sit and wait, Isla’s out there facing a gunman alone. I thought what I went through earlier this year was a nightmare, but this… This is infinitely worse. I’d rather take on Frankie’s gunman a thousand times. At least he was standing in front of me, looking me straight in the eyes. I don’t even know what this Henry fucker looks like.

A sudden flurry of activity yanks me back to reality. Radios crackle with disembodied voices. Sutton listens intently as he squints into the waning sun. When he turns to find his lead detective, I follow. Something is happening.

A stern man with white hair begins talking. “We’ve located the property of Henry Newton. Deputy Kramer reports seeing smoke in the vicinity. SWAT has been activated.” He continues discussing staging and coordinates. As they disburse, I move to Sutton’s SUV.

“No,” he growls.

“I’ll stay in the car.”

“As if I can trust you to do that.” He drops his hand to his belt.

I snort, but there’s no humor behind the noise. Only desperation. “Are you going to tase me, Sutton?”

“Thinking about it.”

“Let me be there. When they bring her out, she’s going to need me. Don’t make her go through this without me.”

He jerks his head at the door. “Get in.” I dive into the passenger seat before he can say another word. Lee quietly slips into the back.

We whip down the highway in a quiet line of red and blue. About twenty minutes and a series of turns later, we come upon the area. I know because of the plume of black smoke rising from within the trees.

We’re close.

Sutton’s radio sparks to life.

“Confirmed sight on the suspect’s vehicle. Confirmed sight of one adult male and one adult female on a bed in the main room.”

Every muscle in my body locks. Lee’s hand lands on my shoulder from the back as if he thinks I’m about to run. “I’m okay,” I lie through my teeth to reassure him.

“No you’re not.” His fingers depress the muscle. “Just letting you know I’ve got your back.”

Time seems to stop. Sutton explains procedure but all I can think is fuck procedure. I know they all have families to get home safely to, but my family, my life , is a few hundred feet away in the arms of a homicidal maniac and there’s nothing I can do.

Not one damn thing.

“I have to go.” Sutton opens his door and steps out. He’s strapped in a bulletproof vest, his face stoic. “I need you to stay in the car, Aiden.”

Our eyes lock across the driver’s seat. “I will.”

“No matter what you see or hear. Do not get out of this car.”

“I said I will!” I explode. I see him flick his gaze to Lee before returning it to me.

“I’m going to get your girl.”

“Bring her back to me, Sut. Please bring them both back to me.”

The deep inhale he takes is visible. “Stay here.” His palm crashes once against the top of the vehicle and then he’s gone.

My skin itches with the need to get out and run. The fight element is strong, bursting through me like an electric current. But I stay put. I’m lucky to even be here. I don’t have any training or a weapon. I can’t go off half-cocked around a bunch of trained officers. I’d find myself face down in a pair of cuffs before I could even tell them my name.

At the sound of a single gunshot that all changes. Sutton’s order fades into the background of my consciousness as I hear the shouts.

Shot fired!

There are three hearts beating in that cabin.

Two of them I’d willingly die for.

The door flies open and my feet carry me across the forest floor before I consciously decide to move. Before I can reach the edge of the driveway, Lee’s arms band around my chest.

“Let me go!”

“No,” he grunts. “Hang on, Aiden. They’re getting her.”

The SWAT team breaches the cabin, but it’s not enough. It’s not me in there. “She needs me .”

“I know. You’re right here. As soon as they get her out, you’ll have her!”

“Fuck.” I push his arm, pull it, beat against it. In the end, I grip it as I feel like I stop breathing.

“She’s coming soon. Hang on, brother.”

Minutes pass like hours staring at the empty hole in the front of the cabin where the door normally is. The black void beckons me. Leading me inside to what could very well be the end of my life. I simply refuse to return to the empty shell I was without her.

A flicker of movement has me bracing against Lee. Sutton’s salt-and-pepper head emerges first, his arm wrapped tight around the love of my life. Her face is pressed against his vest, but she’s walking.

She’s alive.

The weight around my chest falls away and I sprint across the brown, dying grass and carpet of pine needles. Her head pops up, her terrified eyes finding mine.

“Aiden!” she screams, fighting against Sutton’s hold.

He doesn’t have to restrain her for long. In a second, I’m there. We collide, and I pull her flush against my body. “I’m here.” I breathe against her hair.

“You’re here.” She begins to cry.

“Shh.” I palm the back of her head, tucking her face into my throat. The feeling of her warm breath against my skin washes away any remaining fear. She’s safe. She’s in my arms. Now it’s time for me to put aside my feelings and take care of her.

“Get it off.” Her shoulders shake as she claws at the neckline of the dress draped across her body.

“I need a cover,” I say hoarsely. Sutton sprints away at my request. “Come on, starshine. We’ll get you free.”

But she doesn’t wait. Isla starts tearing the fabric from her skin. The threadbare cloth rips and shreds beneath her fingers. Just as the disintegrating material pools at her feet, Sutton returns with a thick blanket.

I drape the soft material around her. Brushing her hair off her face, I inspect her for damage. A purple bruise on the left side ignites fury like I’ve never felt before in my life.

“I’m going to kill him,” I growl.

Sutton tucks his hands in his vest. “You’re a little too late. He’s already dead. He spotted us and reached for his gun.”

Friction from my hands brings heat into Isla’s arms. “Who got him?”

“Some deputy.”

I study the grim line of Sutton’s mouth. “Get his name. I want to shake his fucking hand.”

Isla whimpers in my hold. “Get this off too,” she begs, frantically twisting the fingers of her left hand with her right one.

“Let me see,” I request soothingly. Did he carve his signature mark into her?

My eye twitches at the sight of the gold band biting painfully into her skin. The finger is swollen and pulsing in an angry red. Gripping her wrist, I hold her arm upright above her heart.

“Sutton,” I bite out, indicating her finger.

He takes off again in search of a cutting tool.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” My hands flutter over her body. I’d touch her and look myself but I’m too scared to hurt her.

She shakes her head. “No.”

“The baby?”

“He’s okay too.”

My eyes search hers. “Are you sure?”

Isla flattens my palm on her stomach. I stare at her, holding my breath as we wait and wait and wait some more.

Thump.

My shoulders sag at his little heel or knee or elbow punching my palm.

After what feels like an eternity of being apart, I finally cup her cheeks and kiss her. Her mouth against mine breathes life back into me, chasing away the lingering cold.