Cade spoke first, trying to squash his emotions and think logically. "I don't think he would walk off. He'd want to see Natalie too badly to leave."
"If he did go to the trees and was injured, we would have found him," Tag observed.
"He could have gone further away. To a neighboring house, maybe?" Rodriguez suggested.
"Why would he do that?"
"I don't know, maybe someone came, and he was trying to hide?"
"Wouldn't he come back in that case?"
"Someone took him," Cade said flatly, knowing in his gut it was true. Over the whooshing in his ears, he heard Natalie gasp and internally flinched.
"What makes you say that?" Tag asked.
"He wouldn't leave. He knew we'd bring Natalie to him, so he wouldn't leave unless he was forced. If he was just hiding, he'd be back by now." The truth of the words settled like lead in his chest.
A few seconds ticked by in silence.
Annabeth said, "Okay, besides that, any other theories?"
No one spoke.
The wordless confirmation squeezed Cade's lungs and choked off his words.
"If he was taken, then by who?" Annabeth asked.
"Someone in the operation," Taylor concluded.
"Maybe they came to the house and found him? Realized what was going on?"
Tag countered, "Why take him? Why not kill him?"
The soft choking sound Natalie made felt like a blow to Cade's solar plexus. Damn it, he should be protecting her, like he should have protected Tristan.
But he failed them both.
"Information, most likely. But where would they take him?"
"To the boss?" Taylor suggested.
"To the Handler," Cade answered, instinctively knowing that was the answer.
"Who we don't know how to find," Tag concluded.
Cursing viciously, Cade ran a hand through his hair and tried to push away the ugly thought that Tristan could already be dead. The thought of his face, slack and lifeless, his body bloodied and battered, made him want to vomit.
"Maybe they're holding him as a hostage?"
"The Handler is going to know soon that we've gotten all the girls out and his guys are dead. What information does Tristan know besides that? What reason do they have to keep him?" Tag pressed.
"He wants theBroker's laptop," Cade concluded. If the Handler did have Tristan, that was the only plausible reason to keep Tristan alive. But what would Tristan tell him? And what would the Handler do to get that information out of him? Fuck, would he torture him?
Bile rose in Cade's throat, and he choked it down while the others digested that intel for a few heartbeats. Annabeth broke the stony silence by asking Natalie gently, "Hey, I know this is a lot, but we'll find him. Try to trust us. Is there anyone you want us to call?"
"No," Natalie answered, her voice quivering, "There's no one, just me and Tristan."
Cade winced, and Annabeth shot him a concerned look over Natalie's shoulder.
