He picked up the controller and looked around. If anyone had a gun, he was fully exposed.
He turned to see his brothers with their weapons drawn, covering him. Ben looked particularly furious.
At me.He’d understand if he had a woman. The uncharitable thought rose unwelcome in his mind.
“Get back here before you get your ass shot,” Ben shouted.
Yeah, by friendly fire.
Elias ran back to his brothers and one horrified-looking Realtor.
“What the fuck, Lion? You’re not gonna be any good to Wren with a damn bullet in your head.”
“Sixteen minutes she’s been gone. Maybe a little more. She’s near, but she’s in the woods. Might as well be a needle in a haystack.” He glanced at the dog. “She a tracker?”
“Damn straight, Willow’s the best. Give her the controller to get Wren’s scent.”
“Hang on.” Elias tapped the screen on Wren’s phone. “We can give Willow—and us—a starting point if I can open her phone.” He was shit out of luck if it was bio-locked and needed her fingerprint.
It was only password-protected.
Thank God. Wren had a chance if he could guess the numerical password.
“We don’t have a camera on the house, but we might have something else,” Elias told them.
“With any luck, the drone filmed the kidnapping.”
Ben nodded, then turned to Chase.
“If your help’s at an end, you might want to head on home right about now. Maybe even drop this listing.”
Chase turned white as a sheet. He looked at Elias and his brothers. Their weapons. The determined looks on their faces.
“I never saw a thing.” He turned to go into the house then stopped.
“She’s a good person and that’s rare anymore. When you find her, tell her I still have work for her.”
He left without looking back or saying another word.
TWENTY-THREE
Wren had just sent her drone into the air when Chase’s phone buzzed. He looked at the screen.
“Hey, that’s the owner texting.”
“Is there a problem?” She watched the live footage from her drone on her phone.
“Only a small one. One of their sensors in the garage is out.” He finished texting a message back and looked up. “This might take some time. They don’t remember where the spare batteries are.”
“Oh, shoot.”
“Tell you what. I know you want to get back to Gina and Lach’s party and I don’t want to keep you, so how about you keep going with the drone and I’ll go battery hunting, and then if you get done before I do, come on in and you can get started on the interior shots.”
Wren looked up from the screen. “Sounds good. Good luck finding the batteries.”
“Thanks, I’ll need it.” Chase jogged across the lawn.
“And then we can both go to the party,” Wren called after him.
