“I had family who owned land around there when I was younger.” She pointed to the portion of the highway closest to the blinking dot. “Do you see this curve here?”
“Yeah,” Derek said impatiently.
“They call it Dead Man’s Curve. As you can tell, it’s a very sharp turn.” She looked at the others. “It got its nickname years ago because there have been several accidents there. People aren’t paying attention, and the curve sneaks up on them. They take it too fast, and...”
She didn’t finish, but they all got the gist of what she was trying to say.
“No.” Derek shook his head. “No fuckin’ way.” He stood and grabbed the department-issued laptop. To Jake, he asked, “Can you take me there?”
The other man tipped his chin. “Truck’s out front.”
“Let’s go.”
Without another glance at York or the others, Derek practically ran toward the station’s large, double doors. It barely registered when he heard York tell Eric she was coming with him.
He’d let his brother deal with her. She was no longer his concern.
Pushing one of the large, double doors open, Derek stepped outside and jogged down the concrete steps. When he got to the sidewalk, Coop gave him a nod.
“We’ll follow you.”
He and Mac jogged down a ways to where Mac’s Jeep was parked while Derek jumped in the passenger seat of Jake’s truck.
With Jake driving and Trevor in the back seat, Derek kept his eyes on the laptop in front of him. Using his cell phone as a hotspot, he was able to keep the connection going as they drove.
The forty-minute drive to the deadly curve seemed to take forever. For the first few miles, Jake and Trevor each made attempts to reassure him. To ease the gut-wrenching fear rolling through his system while he watched that fucking red dot.
They were only minutes away now thanks to Jake breaking land-speed records to get to Charlie. According to the tracker, she still hadn’t moved.
With his leg bouncing up and down continuously, he prayed the explanation was anything but the horrific scenario his mind kept conjuring up.
The easy-going, glass-half-full Derek was gone. Replaced by a man who was lost.
“Goddamn it!” Derek slammed the palm of his hand against the dash. “I should’ve seen this. I should’ve—”
“You can’t do that to yourself, D. This isn’t your fault.”
“The hell it’s not!” His head spun to Jake’s. “I promised her. Isworethat bastard would never lay a hand on her again.” Tears welled in his eyes, and he had to swallow twice before continuing. “I pushed her. Convinced her to go along with it all. The blackmail. The divorce. Moving to Dallas to be with me.”
A flash of their first night together went through his mind, the image like a punch to his solar plexus. Derek blinked, sending a single tear down each of his cheeks.
Brushing them away angrily, he sniffed and continued kicking his own ass.
“Charlie tried to tell me this would happen, but I was too fuckin’ cocky, to listen. I knew I had eyes on Porter. Never thought he’d have eyes on us, too. That had to be how he got away with it all. He stayed in New York and had someone else doin’ his dirty work for him here.”Just like Charlie said all along.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Derek pinched the bridge of his nose and ran a hand down his face to regain some composure. He needed to be clearheaded when he found her.
The truck remained quiet for the remainder of the trip until Jake started to slow the van.
“There’s the curve.”
Tearing his eyes from the screen, Derek glanced at the road ahead.
“Tracker’s still in the same position. We should be there....about....now.”
Jake pulled the truck over to the side of the road. Derek looked around, but—as Detective York had said—there was nothing. No car or building. Just a bunch of trees.
“Here.”
