The call ends, and the truck is swallowed by the sound of tires crunching over compacted snow. The headlights sweep ahead, and every bend feels like another chance to miss them.
It feels like it takes forever for Atom to get out of the truck to make decisions on left or right. By the fourth time we do it, headlights pull up behind us with a flash. Atom looks out of the rear window and gives them a salute. “It’s Jackal and Shade.”
Long, painful minutes drag by. My phone sits in my sweating palm. I look at it as if Wren’s face is gonna appear on it any second.
“C’mon,” Atom mutters. “Send us something, Vex.”
When we reach the edge of town, my heart sinks. From here, the road goes in five different directions, so Wraith pulls over to the side. “Which way do you want to go? We can send Jackal and Shade off down one of the other routes.”
“Where could he take Wren? Maybe a private airfield. Couldn’t be the airport. Too public and Wren wouldn’t play nice.”
Then, my phone screen lights.
One vibration.
Half a second.
Then, a notification I missed a call.
But before I can react, it happens again.
“I think Wren’s trying to call.” I fumble the keys, trying to find their number to call back.
Atom’s phone rings, and we look at it hopefully. “It’s Vex.”
But it’s Calista’s voice that shouts, “Do not answer or dial that phone.”
I drop my phone as if it’s burning me. “Why?”
My phone pings again. “I need to fucking call Wren.”
Atom switches to speaker phone.
“Don’t,” Calista says. “Wren obviously can’t talk. I’m guessing they found a discrete way to call and hang up to give us multiple pings on the tower. If you call, Chase might realize they have their phone.”
I’m not sure what a heart attack feels like, but when I imagine Wren at the other end of this signal, likely terrified, knowing full well what this man wants to do to them, I feel like my whole chest is about to detonate.
“Find them,” I plead.
“Got it,” Vex says. “Wren’s phone bounced off a tower near an old industrial strip.”
He gives us the approximate location, and Wraith pulls back out onto the road so fast, his tires spin.
“How many warehouses are there?” Atom asks.
“Eight,” Vex breathes. “You’ll have to clear them quietly, or he’ll know you’re coming.”
Wraith shakes his head. “Fucker knows we’re not going to let them go. He better be ready.”
After all the stops and starts on the way, we arrive at the warehouses in a convoy. But Wraith parks up far enough away that the rumble of the trucks shouldn’t make it to where Chase is.
“Where the fuck do we start?” Wraith grumbles.
“Find my truck; he won’t have wanted to drag Wren far,” I say.
With weapons raised, we move stealthily through the compound. While my gut tells me to just run, to storm through every door, I know that won’t help us.
We weave through the site, but I lead us toward the rear of the property. If I had to park a truck in hope of not being seen, that’s where I would do it. I reach the end of the warehouse and peer around the corner before snatching my head back.
