To anyone else, it would look like she left willingly.
But I knew better. There was no way she’d leave me. Not by choice. Not after everything that happened yesterday. She was protecting the baby. She was doing whatever they asked because someone had threatened our child.
“She didn’t run,” I said. Of that, I was certain.
“I know.”
“She wouldn’t leave without her phone. Without her purse.”
“I know, Kick.”
I rewound the footage. Watched it again. The way Isabel held herself, spine straight, chin up. The way she didn’t look back at the cottage.
She was scared. She was complying. And there was only one reason she would do that.
“They threatened something,” I said. “They threatened me. Or the baby. That’s the only way she’d go with them.”
Bas nodded. “That’s what I thought too.”
“Baron.”The name tasted like poison. “He had us followed. From Paso Robles. He knew exactly where we were.”
I handed the phone back to Bas and paced. I didn’t know where to start. What to do. There was only onething I was certain of beyond knowing Isabel was forced to leave—I needed Los Caballeros, and I needed them now.
I called Snapper. He answered on the first ring, and three minutes later, he said he’d call the minute they got to the airfield and were on their way. I didn’t know who he meant by “they,” and I didn’t care.
“My father’s on his way back. The sheriff is with him, and he’s making calls.”
The sheriff? Making calls? I couldn’t think straight. Blood rushed through my veins, and I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin.
“He’s trying to determine what resources Baron has, who he might have hired.” Bas looked up at me. “We should go back to the house.”
“Give me a minute.” I searched every room of the cottage, looking for anything at all that Isabel might’ve left as a clue, but nothing looked new or out of place.
Just as we walked into the house, Thomas arrived with a man he introduced as Clayton Boone.
“I’ve got deputies on their way,” he said as he shook my hand.
“You’re the sheriff?” I asked since he was dressed in plain clothes.
He may have responded, but I didn’t hear him when my cell buzzed with a call from my brother.
“Snapper? Talk to me.”
“We just boarded at Paso Robles Municipal. Flight time on the Cessna is under thirty minutes. Press arranged for a helicopter to get us at the Sonoma Country Airfield, so we’ll be to you in under an hour at the most. In the meantime, we’re calling in every favor from everyone we know.”
I thanked him and ended the call.
Thomas, Bas, and Clayton were all head-to-head and on their phones. An alert sounded, and Bas raced into another room. I followed him. On the monitor, I saw Press at the gate. “That’s Lavery Barrett,” I told him. Bas pressed a button on his cell, and the gate opened. Press arrived seconds later, and I met him outside.
“We’ll find her,” he said, pulling me into a quick embrace.
“Baron is behind this. I fucking know he is,” I seethed.
“There is no question,” he responded as I led him inside.
“I think I know where he took her,” Bas said, spinning in my direction when we walked inside.
“Where?”
