Prez starts pacing back and forth. “Hey, D. It’s Prez. Have you heard from Rory this morning? Yes, I know what time it is. Aren’t you at work yet? What? No. No one has seen or spoken to her for the past hour or so. Austin and Trevor are looking for her. She was supposed to meet up with them.”
I’m helping Connor organize his books on the coffee table when my phone rings in my back pocket. Seeing Aurora’s name and face on the screen has me breathing a sigh of relief even though I’m mad as hell at her. I tap accept.
“Are you at the center now?”
I hear a small whimper and am suddenly thrown back to the night when she called me asking for my help after her sister’s boyfriend attacked her.
“Aurora?” I hand Connor off to Shelby. Covering the phone, I ask her, “Can you take him outside? Now, please.”
She doesn’t question why. “Yeah, sure.” Shelby starts talking to Connor about showing her how to throw a football as she carries him out of the living room.
Prez walks over to stand next to me. I put the phone on speaker as my heart tries to jackhammer itself out of my chest. “Aurora, are you still there? Talk to me, baby. Where are you?”
“Jackson?” Her voice sounds faint.
“I’m here. Tell me where you are?”
Her hiss of pain is clear as it comes over the phone. “I… I don’t know. It’s dark. I can’t see anything.”
She cries out and I’m shouting, “Aurora, please, baby! Tell me where you are? Are you okay?”
Prez clamps a hand on my shoulder, and I grab it, holding tight.
“Rory, it’s Prescott. We need you to talk to us.”
“He said to tell you to do what they say,” she whimpers, and my gut tightens as nausea burns my stomach. Realization hits me hard and fast. Someone took her.
Prez looks at me, mouthing, “Who?”
“Who, baby?”
Her scream is the one of nightmares and I almost drop the phone. Prez and I are yelling her name when we hear a man’s voice.
“You will be contacted in one hour, Mr. Hallstead. Do not call the authorities. You will do as instructed or you’ll find lovely Miss Montgomery’s burnt body in a ditch. Do you understand?”
Gripping the phone like a vise until the screen cracks, I shout, “If you fucking touch her, you piece of shit, I will break every goddamn bone in your body and setyouon fire!”
“That’s not how this game is played, Mr. Hallstead. Do as you’re told or she dies—painfully.”
“Jackson!” Aurora’s high-pitched wail has the hairs on my skin standing up. Before I’m able to tell her that I love her, that I’ll find her, to not give up, the line goes dead.
“Aurora! Aur—goddammit!”
Prez stops me from hurling my phone across the room. I yank my arm from his grasp. Someone has my woman. Someone hurt my sunshine. If it’s the last thing I do, that person will pay with their life.
“Can you track her phone?” Prez asks.
“No, but I know who can.”
“I’ll call Dustin. He may have some stuff at home that could help us locate her.”
“I need you and Shelby to take care of Connor for me. Please, don’t argue with me,” I tell him when I see he’s about to protest. “I’ll bring her home, Prez. I swear on my life I will.”
I just got her back. I can’t lose her again. I’m so fucking scared. I don’t know what to do.
“You better,” Prez says, his frustration and anger evident.
With shaking hands, I quickly dial the only person I know who can help me.
