I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. The words beat against his skull with the force of a jackhammer, causing him to stumble as he made his way outside. Low-hanging tree branches slapped him in the face as he rushed through the woods.
I WAS WRONG!
He clenched his hands into fists and wrestled back the urge to hit something. How could he have been so clueless?
Julianne had been right all this time. Lilly hadn’t run away. There was only one explanation for her necklace to be here in Royce’s house. Her disappearance was obviously the result of foul play.
Had Nate turned on his girlfriend? The woman he’d claimed to love? The woman Nate himself had tried to find after she’d disappeared?
Had Nate Otwell been working with Kurt Royce on his human trafficking scheme even back then? Before he’d graduated from college? Before Brody had gone into the army?
Nausea clawed up his throat and he tamped it back with effort, determined to face his failures head-on.
His fault. He could have saved so many innocent lives if only he’d believed Julianne, instead of the lonely kid he’d met in juvie.
The same guy who had actually saved his life, interfering when the others had ganged up on him in an attempt to beat him up.
The man he’d once called friend.
Brody dropped to his knees, bowing his head, battling wave after wave of self-loathing.
Dear Lord, why? Why not reveal the truth about Nate before now? Why let so many years pass by? Why?
Soft, warm arms wrapped around him, Julianne’s honeysuckle scent somehow managing to penetrate the depths of his despair. “Don’t do this to yourself, Brody,” she whispered, resting her cheek against his back. “Please don’t. God is the one in control here, not us.”
He shook his head helplessly. “I—it’s my fault—I can’t...”
“No. It’s Nate’s fault. No one else’s. His fault and Royce’s. Besides, we’re onto them, Brody. They’re on the run because we’re hot on their heels, tracking them down. You can’t give up now, not when we’re so close to finding them. This is the time to lean on God’s strength.”
Her hands were splayed across his chest, and he found himself covering them with his own, needing something good to hold onto. She squeezed him tighter, supporting him in a way he didn’t deserve.
Julianne was once the best part of his life, and now he knew what a colossal mistake he’d made in letting her go.
He tried to open himself up to the Lord, silently begging for help in finding Otwell and Royce, before any more innocent people were harmed.
Please, Lord. Please show me the way.
The nausea faded, and the tight bands around his chest loosened. Julianne was right, this was the time they needed to lean on God the most.
“I called Max, he’s on his way with Zeke.”
He nodded and sucked in a deep breath. Okay, enough wallowing in things he couldn’t change, there was still plenty of work to do. He turned his head, barely able to see her in the darkness. “Thanks, Julianne.”
She surprised him by capturing his mouth in a tender kiss before releasing him. Thunder nudged him with his nose, and he found himself smiling at the dog’s attempt to cheer him up. He stood and offered her his hand. She clung to it, not letting go.
“How long before Max and Zeke get here?” he asked, trying to focus on their next steps. “We still need to scope out the area around the house, in case there are other dwellings here that they might be using as a hideout.”
“Good idea. Max and Zeke said they’d be here within fifteen minutes. Cheetah, Zeke’s Australian shepherd, is also good at tracking, so we can easily split up to cover the woods.”
“We should finish up our search of the house, then,” he said. “There may be other clues.”
She nodded, continuing to hold his hand as they went back inside. It was only once they returned to the bedroom that she let him go. “This room gives me the creeps,” she muttered, heading toward the closet.
“Would you rather I stay?” he asked from the doorway.
“No, go ahead and check out the other bedroom.”
The next bedroom looked exactly like the previous one, bare mattress on a metal-frame bed. Determined to find something—anything—that may give them more information, he meticulously examined the flooring and the dresser drawers, which were all surprisingly empty.
Weird. He expected the closet to be empty, too, but it wasn’t. The sight of rusty handcuffs and other bindings lying haphazardly on the floor made the nausea return in full force.
This was where they’d held the women, he deduced. Keeping them against their will, possibly injecting them with drugs. He swallowed past the large lump in his throat, and forced himself to turn away.
Otwell and Royce would pay for their crimes.
The sound of a vehicle approaching had him moving swiftly toward the front door, weapon ready as he peered through the window. Seeing the familiar SUV with the small K-9 logo on the back helped him relax.
Reinforcements had arrived.
Julianne and Thunder came out of the bedroom to meet him. “Find anything?” she asked.
“Cuffs and bindings in the closet.”
She grimaced. “Same thing I found. I didn’t disturb anything, though. We may be able to lift fingerprints or skin cells with DNA evidence from them.”
He nodded and opened the door, gesturing for her to go ahead of him. “Let’s hope we find something more when we search the grounds.”
“Julianne, Sheriff,” Max greeted them. “How did you figure out the gunman’s identity?”
Julianne glanced at him, as if unsure how to respond. He stepped forward. There was no point in hiding the truth about his past. “I found an old photograph from my time at the juvenile detention center. That’s where I met Nate Otwell, and thankfully, Julianne recognized one of the other kids, too. When I pulled up his mug shot, she identified him as the shooter.” Brody glanced at the ranch house. “Kurt Royce owns this place, and we have reason to believe he and Otwell have been working together for years. The judge presiding over Nate Otwell’s case agreed to grant a search warrant. We found bloody bandages inside, but now we’d like to spread out and search the grounds before we lose all the light.”
“Okay, I’ll go north. Zeke, you and Cheetah head east and Julianne should take the west,” Max directed. “I don’t know if we need to worry as much about the south, since that’s where the highway is.”
“Agreed,” Brody said. “Call me if you find anything.”
Zeke nodded, but didn’t say anything as he moved toward the east side of the woods. He and Cheetah quickly disappeared into the brush.
Brody waited until Max and Opal had gone off to the north, straight back from the house, before following Julianne and Thunder.
Neither of them spoke as they made their way through the woods. Brody concentrated on looking for signs of a trail, or a path that Otwell and Royce may have taken, but with darkness falling, he couldn’t see anything but shadows.
Just when he thought they’d have to come back to search again in the morning, Thunder let out a low bark.
“Do you see something?” he called to Julianne.
“Thunder has picked up something,” she replied. “I’m taking him off leash.”
Brody tightened his grip on his gun and moved closer to Julianne. The moment Thunder was loose, he took off running through the trees.
“What if it’s Nate?” Brody asked.
“I don’t think so... Thunder would have alerted on his scent.”
Brody still didn’t like it. Could be Royce was skulking around these parts somewhere, too. And either one of them wouldn’t hesitate to shoot the dog.
Thunder let out a musical howl, making the hairs on Brody’s arm stand up on end. “Is that a good sound or a bad one?”
“Good. Come on.” Julianne pushed through the brush in the general direction the K-9 officer had taken. Suddenly Thunder appeared at Julianne’s side, then spun around to go back through the woods.
“Thunder, heel!” Julianne commanded.
The animal came back to sit beside her. She clipped the leash in place. “Find, Thunder.”
The dog took the lead as both he and Julianne scrambled to keep up. After about thirty feet, Brody could make out the shadow of a person tied to the base of the tree.
His heart hammering in his chest, he cautiously approached. The man looked up, the whites of his eyes clearly visible through the darkness. There was a gag tied around his head, effectively preventing the prisoner from calling for help.
He flashed the light of his phone so he could see. The man shied away, ducking his head, as if the brightness was painful.
But Brody had seen enough to recognize him. “Clark!”
“You found him?” Julianne asked, going over to work on removing the gag.
“Yes.” Brody used his knife to slit through the bindings around Clark’s wrists and ankles. When the gag dropped free, Clark tried to speak, his voice little more than a rough croak.
“Thank you,” he managed.
Brody nodded, relieved they’d found Clark Davenport alive. At least one innocent life had been spared. Brody lifted his face to the sky, silently thanking God for showing them the way.
And in that moment, he promised himself he wouldn’t question the good Lord’s plan again.
* * *
Julianne pulled out her spare water bottle and offered it to Clark. “I’m FBI Agent Julianne Martinez,” she said. “Here, take a few sips of this, but don’t go overboard or you might get sick. How long have you been out here?”
Clark gratefully accepted the water bottle and took a long drink before answering. “Since early this morning.” He frowned. “At least I think so. It’s all a blur. What day is it? How long have I been gone?”
“More than twenty-four hours, I’m afraid,” Julianne said gently.
Clark rubbed at his face. “Guess it could have been a day and a half,” he admitted. “I need to get home. Banjo has been locked up for too long.”
“Dr. Grover is taking care of your dog,” Julianne assured him.
Clark let out a sigh of relief.
“Tell us what happened,” Brody encouraged in a low tone.
“Some guy with a gun ambushed me at the veterinary clinic and took me hostage. Brought me to a house, and another guy met us there. The second guy held a gun on me while I provided first aid to a bullet wound in the first guy’s forearm.”
Brody glanced at her, and she nodded. Clark’s story matched their theory of what had transpired. “Can you describe them?” Brody pressed.
Julianne rummaged in her pack for a protein bar. Poor Clark looked as if he was starving, and she doubted Otwell or Royce had offered him anything to eat.
“The guy with the wound in his arm was roughly five-ten with long dirty blond hair and a tiny scar at the corner of his mouth. The other guy was a little taller, maybe six feet tall, but really heavy, especially around the middle. He also had a shaved head and pale green eyes.”
She handed Clark the protein bar. “Here, this should help tide you over for now. Thanks for the great description.” She looked at Brody, her eyebrow raised questioningly.
Brody gave her a nod. “Do you remember anything else, Clark?”
The veterinary assistant looked thoughtful. “I think the shorter guy with the scar called the bigger, bald guy, Nate. But I can’t remember the other guy’s name.”
“It’s okay,” Brody assured him. “Do you think you can walk out of here, Clark? Or do you want me to carry you over my shoulder?”
“I can walk,” Clark said. He leaned heavily on the tree as he rose to his feet. He stumbled when he tried to take a few steps.
“Here, lean on me,” Brody offered, anchoring his arm around Clark’s slim waist.
Julianne and Thunder led the way back to the clearing in front of Royce’s ranch house. Clark’s progress was slow, but Brody showed infinite patience with their rescued victim. When Brody had lifted his face to the sky, she’d wondered if he was thanking God for sparing Clark’s life.
She hoped so. Brody deserved some good news after being faced with the brutal reality of Lilly’s necklace. His gut-wrenching anguish at being wrong six years ago had cut her to the bone.
Brody hadn’t deserved to be betrayed by Nate Otwell. And she was fiercely glad that Brody had been the one to finally arrest him.
Now they’d have Clark’s testimony, too. The veterinary assistant would be able to testify that the two men were working together after the prison break. Not to mention the evidence they’d found when they’d executed the search warrant.
The momentum was shifting in their favor. All they had to do was to find Otwell and Royce’s hideout.
Before they left town for good.
A loud crash behind her had Julianne spinning around in alarm. Clark had fallen, but Brody was already lifting the younger man up. “Come on, Clark. Hang in there, it’s just a little farther, see?”
Julianne crossed back to Brody. “Give me your keys, I’ll bring our vehicle up the driveway.”
“Fine.” Brody dug out the keys and handed them to her.
She and Thunder jogged back to where Brody had parked along the side of the road. When she drove back up to the ranch house, he was still half dragging, half carrying Clark the rest of the way out of the woods.
“Here.” She opened the backseat of their SUV. “Sit here, Clark.”
Brody lifted him into the seat and offered a weary smile. “Did you call Max and Zeke?”
“Doing that now,” she answered, pushing the call button on her phone. “Max? We found Clark Davenport, the veterinary assistant who was taken at gunpoint by Royce. Clark is dehydrated and hungry, but otherwise fine.”
“Opal and I haven’t found anything, so I’ll head back,” Max told her. “Have you heard from Zeke?”
“Negative. I’ll check in with him.” She disconnected the call and found Zeke’s number. The phone rang several times, then went to voice mail.
A shiver of apprehension snaked down her spine.
“What’s wrong?” Brody asked, sensing her distress.
“Zeke’s not answering.” She stared at her phone for a long moment, then tried again. This time, Zeke’s phone only rang twice before going straight to voice mail. She hit the end button, wondering what was going on. If Zeke was in trouble, wouldn’t they have heard something? At least Cheetah’s barking if nothing else.
“Let’s go after him,” Brody said.
She hesitated. “What about Clark?”
“He’ll be safe inside the car. I’ll have him stretch out on the backseat and lock the doors. He probably needs rest more than anything.”
Every cell in her body wanted to go after Zeke, but she didn’t like leaving Clark alone, either. She braced herself for an argument, and was about to ask Brody to stay behind when her phone rang.
She punched the button, relieved to see Zeke’s number. “Zeke? Are you okay?”
“Fine. Sorry I didn’t answer when you called. Cheetah seems to have found something, though. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but I’d like you and Thunder to get over here right away.”
She looked questioningly at Brody, who nodded. “Clark will be fine for a few minutes especially since Max and Opal will be here soon. Let’s go.”
“We’re on our way,” she told Zeke.
Julianne kept Thunder on leash as she headed toward the spot in the woods Zeke and Cheetah had taken.
“This looks like a path,” Brody said, shining the flashlight app on his phone toward the ground. “I wonder if they found another cabin.”
Julianne could see what Brody meant about a path. It wasn’t so much that the ground was worn with footprints, but there was definitely a gap between the trees and brush, as if someone traveled through the area on a regular basis.
The darkness surrounding them was complete now, the quarter moon in the sky not providing much assistance.
“Is that Zeke’s light?” she asked, spying a brightness off to the right side of the woods.
“Looks that way.” Brody didn’t move his light from the ground, for which she was grateful. There were far too many twigs and branches lying around.
Thunder whined, straining at the leash. Odd behavior for her partner.
“What is it, boy?” she asked.
Thunder’s nose twitched. It wasn’t as if the animal was alerting on Otwell’s scent, but he was clearly acting strange.
She nibbled her lip, wondering what Zeke and Cheetah had found.
Zeke’s light grew closer and soon they were within talking distance. “What is it?” she asked. “More evidence?”
“I’m not sure,” Zeke admitted. He turned to face them, watching as they approached. “Cheetah found a bone.”
She arched a brow. Bones in the woods weren’t necessarily unusual. “Probably from an animal,” she said, going over to stand beside him.
“No, it’s human for sure.” Zeke pointed out the bone partially imbedded in the dirt and she could see what he meant.
“It looks like a femur,” she said in a hushed tone.
“Yeah, and that’s not all.” Zeke gestured to the ground at his feet. “Cheetah was digging here. There’s another bone. It’s curved, so I think it might be either a tibia or fibula.”
She glanced at Brody. “We’d better call the medical examiner again,” she said.
Brody nodded grimly. “Could be Otwell and Royce’s dump site.”
She shrugged. “Seems strange to me that they’d use Royce’s property as a dump site. For all we know, this could be one of their former accomplices.”
“Maybe.” Brody didn’t look convinced.
Zeke was still hunkered down beside Cheetah, the second bone free of dirt now. He carefully pointed to the bone nestled in the soil. “Do you have any reason to believe that Otwell and Royce have accomplices that are women?” he asked.
“No, why?” Julianne couldn’t bear to look at the bone Zeke pointed to. At least this gravesite didn’t smell as badly as the last one they’d found.
“I’m no expert,” Zeke said slowly. “But from the size and shape of this, I’d say both of these look to be that of a young female.”
A woman? Julianne’s gaze clashed with Brody’s and she winced at the stark regret shimmering in his eyes.
Lilly.