Lily gripped the steering wheel as she followed the kidnapper’s van down the highway, her fingers tingling from lack of circulation. Her foot nudged the accelerator impatiently. She wanted to follow the van closer. What if too many cars got in front of her? What if she lost sight of them? But she was surprised they hadn’t noticed her already, so she kept a steady pace. Thankfully, the BMW's top was up. She was just another silver car on the road. Nothing to see here, folks.
A sign for the next city flew by. Molly’s head whipped to the side like she was taking note, but Lily couldn’t tear her focus away from the van long enough to read it. All that mattered was that they were coming up to another crossroads. Would this be where they turned off?
She didn’t know how many routes there were into Seattle. At least, she assumed that’s where they were headed. Didn’t all bad guys do their business from a penthouse suite at the top of the biggest building in the city? Or maybe some dirty, abandoned warehouse? But she had to be ready to follow them anywhere in case all those action movies she’d watched had been wrong.
A “reduced speed ahead” sign came up. She ground her teeth but obeyed; the last thing she needed was to get pulled over. And if she didn’t keep up, if she lost them, then she’d lose Ethan. Forever.
Molly whined, anxiously shifting her front paws on the passenger seat. She seemed to eye Lily uncertainly, her tiny little eyebrows pulling up in question. Where’s Dad? You’ve kidnapped me, haven’t you? I knew it. I’m just too irresistible.
“We’re going to get him back. Don’t you worry,” she told the pup.
And what do you think you’re going to do? You can barely remember to stay on the right side of the road.
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far yet. This is a one-step-at-a-time operation.”
All right, don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’ll be here when you need backup.
“That’s a relief to hear.” She wondered when Molly had developed an English accent. They’d clearly been spending too much time together.
As she spoke out loud, her shoulders inched back down, and her back muscles relaxed. Anything to help soothe her nerves. But she began to wonder if Molly wasn’t right. What would Lily do once she caught up to them? She needed help, but from who?
Skylar obviously knew what was going on, but he’d gone underground. Ethan trusted his friend Luke with his mother’s life, but Lily didn’t have his number. There was the sheriff who’d expected them to arrive at his office by now for further questioning. She still had his card on her. However, if she rang him, that could get back to the Phantom and put Ethan at risk.
So, who could they trust? Who would care enough about him to put their neck on the line? And then the answer came to her: family.
“Piper,” she breathed.
Molly barked at the name, maybe familiar with it after spending time at the dachshund rescue center. Ring her! Ring her!
Of course, Lily thought. Piper was married to an influential man who must have connections or, at the very least, money to throw around and get things done.
She reached for her phone on the charging tray and rang her aunt, who picked up right away.
“Lily! How’s your trip—”
“Auntie, I need to talk to Piper. No time to explain. Can you give me her number?”
“Actually, I’m at the center with her right now,” Marilyn said. “Here she is.”
There was a soft murmur in the background and a scratch against the mic as the phone changed hands. Finally, Piper answered.
“Hello?”
“Piper, your brother’s in trouble, and he needs your help.”
There was a sharp intake of breath on the line. Lily clenched the phone in her hand, silently pleading with Piper.
“Just tell me what I can do,” she said.
Lily filled her in as quickly as she could, while she continued to tail the van. It all came out in a flood of words as Foot-in-Mouth Lily began to take over.
“Wait,” Piper said. “Where are you?”
She scanned her surroundings. There were a lot more cars around her now. Houses and businesses peeked from behind trees on either side of the highway.
The van suddenly took an off-ramp. Lily gripped the wheel and turned off after them.
She read the sign as she passed it. “Port of Olympia?”
“Olympia. Okay, that’s a start. Keep on them. I’ll call you back.”
Lily hung up and focused on the road. As she saw all the intersections ahead, her blood pressure spiked.
The first traffic light was green. Afraid to lose them, she stepped on the accelerator, closing the distance between her and the van. She made it through just as the light turned. At the last second, a boxy delivery truck turned in front of her, cutting her off.
She hit the brakes, almost coming to a full stop. The van continued ahead, while the truck blocking her path took its sweet time to get up to full speed.
“Step on it,” she muttered.
Molly whined next to her. Who taught you how to drive?
Lily couldn’t see around the truck, much less get around it on the single-lane road. Bringing up a fist, she slammed it down on the horn, like that was going to do anything. But she couldn’t let the van get away.
She hugged the center line, and at a break in oncoming traffic, she used that German engineering to blow past the truck. When she whipped back into the lane again, the road ahead was clear. But the van was nowhere to be seen.
“No. No. No. Where did they go?” She banged on the steering wheel as she approached a red light.
When she came to a stop, she crept forward, trying to peer down the sideroad. Maybe the Phantom’s men had turned off onto another route. Or they could have stopped to fill up at a station; they’d been driving for a while, after all. She had to double back and look for them.
She careened around the corner. The tires chirped against the pavement, and Molly slid across the passenger seat. Her nails scraped against the leather, leaving fork-like trail marks.
Cruising around the immediate area, she searched every petrol station, then every convenient store in case they got snacky, then the fast food drive-throughs. Even bad guys had to eat sometime, right?
With every intersection she passed through, every block she cruised by, a debilitating sense of hopelessness filled her. Finally, she had to admit she’d lost Ethan.
Pulling into a strip mall, she threw the car into park and laid her forehead against the steering wheel. She’d failed.
You can’t handle this.
As much as she wanted to forget the damn self-help book, step six annoyingly crawled into her brain: Watch the Self-Talk. While she hated to admit it, the book was right. She’d listened to that kind of talk for long enough.
She wouldn’t give up. She’d already let herself do that when she’d told her mum to book a flight. But right now, Ethan needed New Lily, and that’s who she needed to be. Fake it till you make it, right?
Dabbing at her eyes, she straightened up and took stock of where she was. She’d parked in front of a coffee shop. Olympia Brew and Bites.
She’d been too distracted to think too much about it before, but now the name tugged at a piece of information tucked away at the back of her brain, something she’d thought unimportant. Now, it meant everything.
Olympia. Where had she heard it before?
She remembered a dark corner, music playing on the jukebox, too many drinks. And then it came to her, as much as she wanted to wipe that night from her memory.
Skylar had said Judge Banks’s cabin was near Olympia. While Ethan claimed the judge was trustworthy, it was a strange coincidence that she was there now, out of all the cities in Washington State. And, well, it was her only lead.
Picking up her phone, she rang Piper back.
“Hello, Lily?”
She bit her lip. “I’ve lost him. I’m so sorry. But I might have a lead. It’s a long shot, but—”
“What is it?”
“Can you get me the address for Judge Banks’s cabin near Olympia? He was the judge for the Phantom case.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Hang tight.” Then Piper hung up.
Lily stared at the phone, wondering how long she was supposed to “hang tight.” What should she do in the meantime? What could she do?
Molly grumbled next to her. Lily suddenly realized it had been hours since the poor thing had eaten. She scooped up the puppy and hopped out of the car.
After a quick visit to a patch of grass, she opened the car’s boot and poured some food and water into the dog bowls. The moment she set the chow on the ground, the puppy began wolfing it down.
While Lily paced in front of the café, she twirled a strand of hair around her finger over and over. When the dog bowl was nearly empty, her phone dinged with a text. Her hands were shaking so much, she could barely read it.
It was the judge’s address. She searched it up on her phone. It was close. Less than twenty minutes away.
Another text came through from Piper.
We’re getting the right people involved, so just hang back. I’ll keep you updated.
Hang back? How could she just hang back and do nothing? Whatever Piper was planning would take time, and the Phantom wouldn’t wait patiently for Ethan to give up the evidence. She’d seen enough mobster movies to know how they got information out of people. Isn’t that what had happened to Carson Moore?
She wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to Ethan.
Step Twenty-five: Fight for Something You Love.
Grabbing Molly, she hopped back into the car and punched the address into the GPS. “What do you think? Do you want to go save him?”
Molly yipped and reared up on her hind legs to show she was geared up to go. Ride or die.