They rounded another corner, and she glimpsed what she’d hoped to see. A street sign. She caught the wordSwissbut nothing more. Mentally, she ran through all the street names she remembered. Assuming they were still in the general Mystery Lake area, three streets had the name Swiss in it, two on the west side of the highway and one closer to the lake. They wouldn’t be climbing up if they were by the lake, so she dismissed that option. Of the other two, one, Alpine Swiss Way, was in a neighborhood by the elementary school. The other, Swiss Incline Lane, wound through the mountains, only occasionally dotted with cabins. If the house lights she’d seen were any indication, she’d place her bet on being on the latter.
And as they made yet another turn, and she glimpsed another street sign, she gave herself a mental high five. She knew exactly where they were. And how to find her way back to town.
Now all she had to do was break free of her zip ties, slip away from Weeks and Beeks, and make her way through the coming blizzard.
Easy peasy.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Aswirling mess of anger, fear, frustration, and panic twisted inside Lovell like a mini-tornado as he navigated to the address Philly had texted him.
Gone. Daphne was fucking gone.
And the storm was sitting full on top of Mystery Lake, obliterating any evidence, making it next to impossible to track her.
His windshield wipers adjusted their speed as a gust of wind kicked up even more snow onto his car than what was falling.
Turning the corner, he spotted her rental. Not hard with five of his brothers’ cars and trucks parked out front, along with two HICC SUVs and two police vehicles. The sight of so many people coming together for Daphne should ease some of his panic, but it only pissed him off more. This shouldn’t have happened. None of them should be here. Daphne should be tucked up in bed at Callie and Philly’s. Maybe with a hot toddy.
He pulled in behind North’s truck and jumped out of his car, not bothering to don his jacket or hat as he headed for the house. Snow caught on his lashes, and the bitter wind slapped his bare skin, but he ignored it all and marched to the front door.
Not bothering to knock, he threw it open and strode in, swinging it shut behind him. His entrance startled the four cops—including Ryan Warwick, the chief of police—and all five dropped their hands to their weapons.
“Lovell,” Ryan said, relaxing his stance. His officers followed suit.
“Ryan,” he said. “What do we have?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Callie sitting on the couch, Philly beside her. Tear tracks lined her face, but he couldn’t look at her right now. Daphne had gone missing on her watch.
Ryan glanced at Mantis, who nodded for him to follow. The urge to shout at people to stop loitering around the house and get out looking for her threatened to detonate inside him. He managed to swallow it down, barely, and trail Mantis into what appeared to have been Daphne’s room.
“She was taken at approximately five by Weeks and Beeker. We believe they stole a truck and snowmobile, parked it at the state park five miles south of here, then rode over through the woods. They stopped about two hundred yards out and snowshoed the rest of the way in. Presumably, not to be noticed.”
“It’s six thirty. Philly put the call out twenty minutes ago. What took so long?”
Mantis rolled his lips. “Callie didn’t notice until she woke up.”
“Woke up?” Rage, hot and red, roiled through him.
“She’s not been feeling well, and Daphne told her to lie down while she packed. Callie expected Daphne to wake her up when she was ready to leave. When she woke up on her own over an hour later, Daphne was gone.”
Nothing was going to happen to Daphne, he’d make damn sure of that. But if it did, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to look at his sister-in-law the same.
“What do we know? Can we track her? Does she have her phone?” he demanded.
Mantis shook his head. “There was a half-washed pot in the sink, and there are footprints on the back porch. The best we can guess is that Daphne saw them coming through the kitchen window and, wanting to protect Callie, stepped outside. For whatever reason, she didn’t put her phone in her pocket. Instead, she turned on the recording app and recorded their entire conversation. Callie found the device on the windowsill outside when she started looking for her sister.”
“She didn’t take it?” he asked.
“No,” Ryan replied. “When we find her, we’ll ask, but we think she assumed they’d toss it so we couldn’t track her.”
“And if she couldn’t have it with her, then she’d leave it, and the evidence, for us to find,” he said. Ryan and Mantis nodded. “I want to hear it.”
Mantis eyed him, then held out a phone. “Leo unlocked it permanently. You don’t need a passcode.”
“He’s working on this now?” Lovell had seen him talking with Tucker and Teague in the living room.
Mantis nodded. “And Ava’s working from home. Her family didn’t want her out driving in this tonight.” Mantis hesitated. “It’s not easy to listen to. Daphne holds her own, but at the end, we’re pretty sure they tased her.”
