“That’s what family’s for.”
When Travis drove off, Brantley took a few deep breaths before turning his truck on and heading for JJ’s house.
“We’re gonna find you,” he said aloud. “I swear on my fuckin’ life.”
And he meant it.
Ten minutes later, Brantley pulled in behind JJ’s SUV and parked. He exited his truck and skimmed the neighborhood, wondering if JJ was close. They were going on the assumption that she was being kept nearby when the reality was she could be anywhere. She’d been missing for three and a half hours. Hell, they could be to Dallas at this point.
But why would Molly take her that far? The only motivation she could possibly have would be to get her closer to Baz. Or to hurt him. Either way, if he were Molly’s endgame, it would benefit the woman to keep JJ close.
As he was walking to the door, a familiar truck pulled down the street, coming to a stop directly in front of the house. Brantley made a detour across the lawn.
“Dad? What’re you doin’ here?”
Frank Walker got out of the truck holding several bags, which he passed to Brantley before he walked around to the passenger side and helped Brantley’s mother out. She also had a handful of bags, passing several to Frank as they came back around.
“We brought food,” Iris said in her no-nonsense tone. “Any word on JJ?”
“Not yet.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth when the screen door opened and Luca appeared.
“Elana just called,” he said before realizing Brantley’s parents were there. “Iris. Frank. Good to see you.”
“Likewise,” Frank said to Luca.
Luca held the door so they could file into the house.
“What did Elana say?” Brantley asked.
“She talked to Reilly Jameson, and she said she saw an old Hyundai parked behind the General Store last night. She didn’t think anything of it, aside from the fact she didn’t recognize it. It was white, Brantley.”
“She happen to get a license plate?”
Luca’s expression said it all. “No, but she did notice it had a sticker in the back window that was partially peeled off.Honor Student at Manorwas the only part she could make out. She also said the back passenger door had a dent in it.”
Manor was only about twenty minutes south of Coyote Ridge. At one time, it had been a small town, similar in structure to Coyote Ridge, but over the years, it gave up small town, country charm for income received from retail and residential growth.
“Expand the search to Manor,” Brantley instructed.
“Already done,” he replied. “I sent a list of vacant businesses and houses for sale to Slade and Atticus.”
“Get it to Travis,” Brantley told him. “He’s gettin’ his brothers to help with the search.”
“Will do.”
For a brief moment, Brantley felt a glimmer of hope. It was almost enough to alleviate the vise grip on his chest.Almostbeing the keyword.
***
Atticus fought the urge to press hisfoot into the imaginary gas pedal on the floor. Slade had been driving around for the past hour searching for any sign of JJ, and he was doing it at a snail’s pace. He’d only shown signs of life ten minutes ago after they received a text message from Luca advising them to head to Manor to start looking at the abandoned businesses in the area.
Based on the information Atticus pulled up on his phone, Manor wasn’t huge. They had a population of roughly fourteen thousand people and were steadily growing, thanks to the housing developments that were popping up everywhere. It was much like Coyote Ridge in that it had hundreds of acres of farmland dispersed across seven square miles.UnlikeCoyote Ridge, it was slowly being eaten away by residential and commercial growth. To sum it up, it wasn’t very big, but when you were searching for one woman, it felt as big as New York City.
“Hey. You good?”
Atticus glanced down at Slade’s hand, which was gently curled around Atticus’s wrist.
