“Faster,”Jesse growled from the passenger seat.
“I’m going as fast as I can, Jesse,” Holden said, far too fucking calmly.
It wasn’t fast enough.He’dwanted to drive, but Holden refused to let him. And yeah, maybe he wasn’t in the best state to be behind the wheel, but sitting here in the passenger seat,knowingAspen was with Dylan…he felt so fucking helpless he could barely breathe.
Deputies were scouring the streets looking for her. Pulling over cars. Running license plates and looking for rentals or stolen vehicles. But the asshole could be anywhere, including already in hiding.
There were too many options and not enough answers.
His fingers tightened around his Glock as he scanned the streets around him.
“Remember when Lock went missing?”
Jesse frowned. “The mission in Frankfurt.”
“Yeah, we thought we’d never find him, but not only did we find him within the hour, he was kicking ass. He’d basically done all the work before we got there.”
“That was different. Lock’s trained in a hundred ways to kill someone. He knows how to protect himself.”
“He still shouldn’t have made it out. He was outnumbered and the assholes had machine guns.”
“Lock’s smart.”
“So’s Aspen. Don’t lose hope.”
Aspenwassmart. But this asshole had almost killed a woman before, and hell, there might be women hehadkilled that they didn’t know about.
“She’s going to be okay.” Jesse said the words quietly, and more to himself than to Holden, almost like he was willing them to be true.
“She’s going to be okay,” Holden repeated.
They turned a corner—and Jesse straightened. A crashed BMW. It had hit a telephone pole and sat partly off the road.
He lifted his phone and called the station.
“Amber Ridge Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Finch speaking.”
“Claudia, I need you to run some plates.”
“Give them to me.”
They pulled over behind the car, and both climbed out as Jesse relayed the plates.
The typing of keys sounded over the line before Claudia spoke again. “Rental car, under a Karen Davies.”
Aspen’s mother. “It’s him.”
Jesse studied the inside of the car. Blood. It was on the driver’s side, mostly on the headrest. But where was the driver?
Holden popped the trunk. “Empty.”
Where the hell were they?
He was about to tell Claudia to send all the deputies to his location when she spoke again.
“Hang on, Luke has a call on another line from a woman by the name of Sky Williams. She’s in the doggy daycare on Fifth and says there’s a man with a gun in the building.” There was a short pause. “He matches Dylan’s description.”
“Get everyone therenow.” Jesse hung up and turned to Holden. “They found Dylan. This way.”
