“Try saying thank you. One of us had to be smart enough to think ahead,” she says like it’s obvious.
Well, to her, it probably is. “What the fuck are you going to do? Hack the computer system for an address or something?” Chase asks.
If he was within hitting range, she’d smack him. When she’s in the car, we crowd around like we’re witnessing some kind of miracle. Instead, she just clicks on the navigation app and checks the history. “See? This is the problem with men. You guys overcomplicate everything. He’s not from here. Any address that isn’t somewhere in the city in the recent history is where he’s staying. Now let’s go before Isaac gets here to process this car.”
I shouldn’t have doubted her.
CHAPTER 31
EASTON
If Asher isn’t here, we literally have nothing else to go on. Pure, unbridled fury has my blood too hot and my hands shaking. Surely, the cops can’t think that Aaron will just tell them where he is. He’d rather leave him there to die, just to know that he’s suffering.
“Are we going to go to jail for, like, breaking and entering or something?” Brady asks from the back seat.
Blakely shrugs, weaving around slow-moving cars like a professional. “I have a really fucking good lawyer on retainer and the Chief of Police credits me with his kid getting through college. I’m pretty sure we’ll be all right. If not, well, we all have clean records and that’s good for leniency in sentencing.”
“I’ve always said I was saving it for a good reason,” Chase adds, relatively calm given the circumstances.
My brother nods in sage agreement. Beneath the righteous anger, there’s unending gratitude for how much they care about this. By the time the cops let us go, it was already late. But when I found out they planned on interrogating Aaron for Asher’s location, there was no way I could walk away. Luckily, Blake thrives in morally grey areas, such as breaking into his car and checking the address log of his navigation system.
My nervous system is an absolute wreck after the anxiety leading up to the setup. The terror of letting myself be in Aaron’s control again, even for a moment. Now, after feeling like we’re the only ones who care about finding that kid alive, I am very not okay. But there’s nothing to be done except get through it. Asher needs me. I don’t have the luxury of falling apart anymore. At least not until I know he’s safe.
Why the fuck does he have to be so far out of the city? Is this what he thought would keep him under the radar now that law enforcement was on the lookout? He kept me in a remote location too, which even then felt weird. Maybe he was unraveling more than I thought.
It’s nice to think about anyway—that he was afraid that I’d get him caught.
I have an easier time breathing normally once we’re away from the snarling Seattle traffic. “He’s gonna be there,” Blake says, glancing over from the driver’s seat. “It’s not like that fuckhead could manage staying in one place—keeping Asher somewhere else and always knowing what you’re up to. It’s just not realistic.”
Yeah, logically, I get that. However, I’m not sure I’ll believe it until it’s all said and done. Maybe I’m well and truly insane, but there’s this tugging in my chest screaming that Asher doesn’t have much time left.
Yeah, that did sound a bit nuts. It’s there, though.
Finally, Blake turns into a long, unpaved driveway in the middle of absolute nowhere. Heart pounding, I’m out of the car before she can throw it in park, running towards the door without even bothering to look around first. They call after me, but I’m not slowing down. Chase and Brady’s heavy footsteps join mine all the way up to the creaky front porch. This place is a fucking shithole. I’m an asshole for hoping he’s here.
I try to shoulder the door open, but it’s firmly locked. That panic I shoved down in the car threatens to bubble back up. My body slams against it again and again. Useless thing that it is doesn’t make the slightest difference. There’s voices demanding things that I don’t hear over the roaring in my ears.
Hands grab under my elbows, lifting up and away. I think I scream.
“Easton, baby,” Chase growls in my ear. “It’s okay. Just give him some room.” Only because that voice has been able to reach me no matter how far I’ve gone into the darkness, am I able to take a breath. “There you go. We just didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Brady takes his turn at the door with far more strength than I managed. The first time, nothing. My teeth grind together. The second, it creaks loudly,allowing me another breath.
Distantly, I hear Blakely tromping around the house, banging on the windows and calling out. “I think I saw something in that back room, but it was hard to tell. All the windows are locked,” she says, rushing our way.
“If we can’t get the door open, we’ll break a window,” Chase announces firmly.
Brady takes a deep breath and tries again with more force. This time, we hear a crack. My heart leaps in celebration. Chase joins him now that he knows I’m not going to get myself hurt, and with the two of them, it finally breaks.
I shove around them and sprint in the direction Blake indicated. The smell hits me like a brick wall: old blood and decay.
Still, I run until I can fling the only closed door wide open. A scream builds and dies in my throat from the sight of a human being, horrifically still, laying in a bed in the center of the room with his arms chained above his head. Bruised and swollen, bloody and broken.
My stomach rolls. It can’t be too late for him. “No, no, no.” Despite the black hole in my chest consuming me, my legs carry me forward until I’m kneeling beside him. “You’re okay. You’re okay,” I insist, searching for signs of life. His arms are ice cold and a scary color. “Get these off him,” I shout to someone, anyone. “Get them off!”
There’s rattling and slamming behind us. “We can’t find the keys,” Brady returns. “We’re looking.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, get out of my way.” Blake comes around the other side of the bed, pulls a pin from her hair and starts maneuvering it inside the lock. An eternity passes in the seconds she’s twisting it. When it finally clicks, allowing the cuffs to pop open, I nearly sob in relief. We bring his hands down to his sides, and I begin to rub them, hoping to get blood flowing again.
