| |
I sighed and scrubbed at my tired eyes. It’d been fifty-six hours since she’d disappeared, and each minute that ticked by without answers was excruciating. I’d wasted an entire fucking day stuck in the hospital, and our questioning yesterday and today hadn’t yielded a damn thing. I swore we’d spoken with every single person in Pine Ridge and the valley beyond, but no one admitted to seeing anything or anyone out of the ordinary. There were only so many databases I could access, only so many threads I could pull before I hit a dead end. I wasn’t too proud to admit it—I needed help.
Something deep in my gut told me I needed to focus around the Chicago area. Thankfully, it was where I’d grown up, and I still retained some contacts there. I knew several of my former SWAT teammates still lived in the area, even if they weren’t still active on the force. A glance at the clock on the wall told me it was just after six p.m.
Picking up my phone, I dialed a number I hadn’t used in more than three years. My stomach dipped with disappointment when it went unanswered and rolled over to Frankie’s voicemail. I left him a quick message asking him to call me when he got a chance. I gave no other details before I hung up, and I prayed that he would take the time to get back to me.
Leaning back in my chair, I stared at the decades-old water stain on the ceiling. Two months ago, I’d sat here on Christmas Day, staring at that same goddamn broken heart-shaped stain, thinking of her. Everything reminded me of her; I couldn’t get Jules off my mind. I’d asked myself a million times what I’d missed. What was she going to tell me in the car?
“Before I came here, I... I was supposed to be married.”
I could only surmise that it was her fiancé she’d fled from months ago. She’d been terrified of men when she first arrived, and she constantly had one eye over her shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop. During her time with me, she’d begun to relax. But all that had changed the day before she’d disappeared. Why? Had she suspected he’d found her? She didn’t keep in contact with anyone from her previous life that I was aware of, so what had tipped her off? I wondered if she’d seen him somewhere, either in town or at Briarleigh.
Jack was reviewing camera footage from around the resort to see if Jules had come into contact with anyone matching the man’s description. I hoped he found something—anything—because we had less than nothing to go on.
Whoever the hell had kidnapped her must have some serious resources at their disposal to track her down; she practically lived off the grid. If he were wealthy, it would explain the armored vehicle and ability to find her. I suspected long ago that she’d come from money, yet she didn’t have a single thing to her name. She refused to keep a bank account, didn’t have a valid driver’s license, and the car she was currently driving was unregistered. I’d strongly considered putting it in my name, but if the person hunting her had the kind of connections I speculated, then doing so would have pointed right to her location.
Goddamn, I wished she’d been able to tell me before everything went down. The worst part was, there wasn’t a single damn thing to give me any indication of where she might be or with whom. My phone rang and I picked up. “Donahue.”
“Hey, man, how’s it goin’?” Frankie sounded winded, like he’d just gotten done running ten miles. Knowing him, it was a good possibility.
“Good. What’s up with you?”
After some obligatory small talk, I cut to the chase. “Need your help with something. You still have friends in the bureau?”
“Whatcha need?”
Steeling my heart and voice, I told him about Jules, reciting the facts as I would any case.
Frankie’s tone was hard when he spoke. “Let me put out some feelers, and I’ll let you know what I come up with.”
I thanked him and hung up, frustrated. I felt like all I’d done over the past two days was hurry up and wait. Each thread I pulled raised a hundred more questions I didn’t have the answers to. I knew she was twenty, and I knew her height and weight, the color of her eyes and hair. Beyond that, her past was a blank slate. I didn’t know her last name, her heritage, her hometown. I could guess, but I didn’t have the resources to even begin to accurately narrow it down. I needed someone with computer experience who could access databases across the government channels. She had to be in there somewhere, I just needed to find the person who could help me with that.
It was frustrating as fuck being stuck in limbo like this, with no answers and no leads to follow. While my deputies were covering the daily shit that popped up, I’d been focused entirely on Jules. It wasn’t fair to them, but they understood. This was personal, and they hadn’t hesitated to help one of their own. I would burn down the world to find her, and I would never give up on her.
All I knew was I couldn’t sit here any longer, and I pushed out of my chair. O’Neill nodded to me as I left, and I knew he was still dedicating his spare time to finding Jules, leaving no stone unturned. I climbed into the cruiser and headed toward my house. I kept putting off going to the cabin, unable to bear the thought of going home and not seeing her there. I’d seen every article of clothing she’d brought with her. There was no cell phone, no laptop or tablet—not even a fucking journal.
I parked in the garage, then entered my house for the first time in more than a month. I’d left the heat on low so the pipes wouldn’t freeze, but most everything else had been moved into the cabin. It felt dark and empty and lifeless. There was no fucking way I was going anywhere near the bedroom. Instead, I collapsed on the couch, propping one foot over the armrest so I could stretch out. It was the first time I’d lain down since I was released from the hospital. I’d gotten a total of about six hours of rest over the past couple days, catching short naps in my office when my body refused to stay awake any longer. My eyes burned, but I refused to admit that it was anything more than lack of sleep causing the moisture there. I threw one arm over my face and tried to turn my brain off. I just needed a few minutes, then I’d get up and get back to work.
The vibrating of my phone jarred me from sleep, and I bolted upright, grabbing for the phone that rested on my stomach. My body’s internal clock told me I’d slept for about an hour, and I felt more exhausted than I had when I laid down. I fumbled it for a moment before sliding my thumb across the screen and lifting it to my ear. My voice was scratchy with sleep and rougher than normal. “Donahue.”
“Hey, man. Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face and shook my head as I pushed to a sitting position. “No, no. You’re good. What’s up?”
“I reached out to a friend of mine from the bureau and told him your story. He’s retired now and working for a private firm in Texas, but I think he’s the man you need.”
“That’d be great,” I replied.
“I’ll shoot you his contact information now. He’s expecting your call.”
Almost as soon as he said it my phone pinged with a notification, and I saw Jason Doyle’s phone number pop up on my screen. On the other end, Frankie continued to speak. “I’ve got some friends here on the force who might be able to help too. If we can get Doyle to narrow down her ID and possible location, they may be able to track her down for you.”
“I really appreciate this,” I said softly.
Frankie cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Let me know how it works out, and don’t hesitate to call if you need anything.”
I hung up with the promise to do so, then tapped the contact information he’d sent my way. A man answered seconds later, as if he had been waiting for my call. “Doyle.”
“Sir, this is Sheriff Eric Donahue from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in Montana,” I introduced myself.
“I figured that was you,” the man spoke. “Heard you need my help with something.”
“Yes, sir. I need the full name and possible location of a young woman—my fiancée,” I added.
If he thought my request odd, Doyle didn’t say a word. “The more I know, the better I’ll be able to help you. Start at the beginning.”
I drew back to two months ago, and relayed everything that had happened since her arrival. I told him my suspicions that she had once lived in or around the Chicago area from a conversation we’d once had.
“Physical description?” he asked.
“Five-foot-two, approximately one hundred fifteen pounds. Dark brown hair, green eyes. Twenty years old.” Jules had celebrated her birthday right before Christmas, and I gave him the date. She had no reason to lie about that, so I assumed December twenty-first was her true birthdate.
He made a thoughtful sound. “Anything else you can think of?”
I shook my head. What I really knew about her was pitifully little. “No, sir. I just... I’ll appreciate anything you can dig up for me.”
“Give me some time and I’ll get back to you.”
I fucking hated waiting for answers. But more than that, I hated not having her here with me. I wanted her back in my arms, her skin pressed to mine, right where she belonged. I prayed that I’d have another chance to hold her, because a future without her wasn’t worth living.