A Heart's War (The Broken Men Chronicles Book 5) (16 page)

“Are you sure you’re doing what’s best?” Paxton asked as he helped me load up the back of his truck.  When I loaded the cooler with the rest of the provisions we would need for the next week, I lifted the tailgate and turned to my brother.

“We can’t stay here, P.  As if it’s not enough that we’re putting you and Alissa out, the longer we stay, I’m worried that something could happen to your family,” I explained to him.  “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to any of you.”

“Do you think this’ll work?”

I looked past my brother, seeing Alissa and Morgan hugging. 
I hope so.
  “Dalton thinks it will.  I trust him.  Promise me something, P.”  He nodded as I reached for him and crushed him in a hug.  “If anything happens to me, make sure that Morgan gets out of this and lives a life I would have been honored to have lived with her.”

“Don’t talk like that.”  Paxton was choked up.  Hell, so was I.  “You’ll get through this.  You’re the toughest sonofabitch I know.  Dude, you’re like a fucking cat.”  His chuckle lacked any humor, but it did lighten the mood a little.

“I’m not sure I’m supposed to have nine lives, brother, but I swear to you that I’m not staying gone for good.  It’s just in case.”

“I get it, T.  We’ll be here if you need us.”  Paxton backed up, slapped my shoulder, then reached into his pocket.  “By the way…here.”  He chucked the tiny parcel at me.

I shoved the item in my pocket and patted it.  “Thanks for looking after that.”

Morgan came to my side and I slid my arm around her shoulders.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Loaded.  Just waiting on you.”  I kissed her temple.

After she hugged Paxton, thanking him for their hospitality, I held the passenger side door open for her to get in, then closed it.  My feet were on the running board when Paxton shouted, “Don’t wait!”

You’re right, P.  Life’s too short.

“Do you think this’ll work?” Morgan asked after we brought in the last of our belongings.

“If it doesn’t, I don’t know what will.”  I dropped the box of canned goods on the rickety kitchenette table as Morgan shut the cabin’s door.  Turning to her, she walked right into my arms.

“So, what do you suppose we do as we wait for him to make his move?” Her palms skimmed upward on my chest.

Palming her jean-clad cheeks, I hitched her up in my arms, Morgan’s legs wrapping around my hips.  “I can think of a few things.”

“Smoke signals?”  She smirked.

“With the way you set me on fire, woman, we’d burn this place down.”

Two days later, three quarters of an hour away from Jacksonville, in a cabin deep in the woods, Morgan made us a dinner of sandwiches, while I started a fire in the hearth to ward off the chill of the evening.

The waiting game, the not knowing what would happen next, weighed heavily on me, but I can also say that the undisrupted one-on-one time with Morgan had been my own version of heaven.

“Any word from Shane?” Morgan handed me my plate before settling next to me on the floor, against the couch.

I nodded.  “Brycen managed to find the owner of the truck based on the partial plates.  Shane said he sent a cruiser to the address.  They found the owner dead of a shotgun wound, execution style.”  Morgan gasped and set her plate to the side, her appetite clearly lost.  “We don’t know what the link between them is yet.”  I dug my cell out of my pocket to make sure that the signal was still strong, impatient for more news.  As I was about to set it aside, it rang.  My brows furrowed.  “It’s Pax.”  Looking down at the device, I slid my finger against the screen to answer.  “P?”

“He took Jasper!  Motherfucker took my son, T!”

“Fuck!  We’re on our way.  Sit tight, brother, and dammit, don’t do anything stupid, and if you haven’t, call Shane.”  Disconnecting the call, my phone dropped to the carpet as a pain-filled cry escaped me.  The bastard had gone too far.

Cars, trucks, SUVs and two police cruisers were all parked half-hazardly in my brother’s driveway by the time Morgan and I got there.

Rushing the front steps, an officer I didn’t recognize halted me before I had the chance to get through the door.  Instead of having to deal with assault on an officer by clocking him out of sheer frustration, I hollered for my brother.

In his stead, Shane came out.  “Theo-”

“Let me in there, man.”

“I need you to calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, that bastard’s gone too far!  It’s time to end this right-the-fuck-now!”

Kayla came rushing out the front door, toward Morgan.  “I’m so sorry,” she kept repeating.  Her being there didn’t make sense.  Nothing did.

“Kayla?”  The woman turned to face me.  The fear in her eyes made me ask, “Am I missing something?  Why are you here?  What aren’t you all telling me?”

Paxton, myself, Dalton, Cade, Brycen, an assortment of my brother’s friends, Shane, and a few of his law enforcement buddies were all gathered around the kitchen table, trying to figure out a plan of action.

“He’s going to call,” Shane stated to the room, then met my eye.  “Jasper’s just the bargaining chip to get to you and Morgan, Theo.”  There was a shared grunt of agreement, one which I didn’t join, as I was too busy feeling guilty for what my return had caused for my brother.  Then again, I can’t imagine how little Savannah was dealing with her guilt when Jasper had been snatched right in front of her.

I knew that they were of the same age, that they attended the same school, even, but I had no idea that the two were close friends.  Savannah had explained how
Uncle Richie
had approached them after school.  He’d wanted to play a game of hide and seek.  It was plausible to a six-year-old, when you think about it.  The kids didn’t hesitate one bit, ignoring all those stranger danger lessons that their elders had taught them, since one of them knew the person.

“He said that the boys would hide and that I’d have to look for them.”  The little girl’s bottom lip quivered as she recounted the events, sitting on her mother’s lap.  “But them Mom came to pick me up, and when I called out to them to come out, because Mom was there, they didn’t.  Now I’m in trouble.”

Crouching down so we were face-to-face, I grabbed her hand.  “Shorty, you’re not in trouble,” I tried to reassure her.  “If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t know what happened.”

The little one sniffled, then threw herself into my arms.  Kayla’s tearful eyes met mine.

“You’ll find him, right, Theo?  You’ll find Jasper and bring him back?” the little girl begged.

“You know I will,” I swore.  “I promise.”

Handing Savannah back to her mother, I noticed that we were one person short.  “Where’s Morgan?”

Nicole came into the kitchen, heading for the fridge.  She’d been with the women in the living room.  “She got a call, took it outside because of the noise.”

My blood ran cold.  “What?  When?”

“Ten minutes or so ago?” she answered.

“Fuck!”  I made a run for the front door only to see a red Ford truck, fishtailing at the end of the driveway before it turned away from town.

Running for Paxton’s truck, since I still had his keys, I jump in around the same time Dalton opened the passenger door and did the same, slamming it behind him.  Shock at his presence had me staring at him.

“Go!” he hollered, whipping out what must have been his service weapon, and begins loading it.  “If you think that you’re going at it alone, think again.  I’ve got your back, brother.”

“Thanks, Kippers.”

Seconds onto the road, my cell rings and I throw it to Kippers to answer.  The man puts it on speaker.

“T?”  It’s Paxton.

“Yeah.”

“Shotgun’s in behind the backseat.  Shells are locked in the glove compartment.”

“Got it!”

“Shane’s on your tail with Cade, and Brycen is on his heels.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, T.”

“I can’t guarantee that, brother.  Love you.”

“Be safe.  Love you too.”

As soon as Paxton disconnects, my foot floors the gas.  The cavalry was behind me in the form of a former army ranger, a police detective, a search and rescue worker, and a programming specialist.

I was coming up on what were the charred remains of my home when I chose to call it quits.  There was no dust trail.  We hadn’t met up with any other vehicles on the way.  I was losing hope, and fast, and the fading daylight wasn’t helping as nighttime was setting in.

Pulling over into my driveway, the only thing left to greet me was the old dilapidated barn, even worse for the wear, most likely from the blast of the propane tank when it exploded.

I stopped the truck and got out, the rest of the guys catching up with me within a few minutes.  Shane was the first to approach me.

“You can’t just go off half-cocked, Theo!”

I got in the man’s face.  “What would you have done?  You’re not the one who saw him drive off with the only person that’s made you feel like you were worth a damn, Shane!”

“Guys!”  Dalton limped, weapon drawn, toward the barn.  His gaited walk grew to a full out sprint within seconds.  “We’ve got something!”  The man pried the door open, revealing the one vehicle we’d thought we’d lost, it’s chrome bumper shining due to the headlights aimed at it.

“We’ve got a visual on the Ford,” Shane said into his lapel radio, coming to a stop beside Dalton.  “Cancel the APB on…” I tuned him out as I knew he’d rattle off the license plate number, make, and every other detail to the vehicle.

“Hold up!” This was Cade, who looked as if he was sniffing the air around him, then mumbled something to Dalton who bent over to peer under the truck with the Maglite on his keychain.

I moved closer, circling the vehicle, but giving it a wide berth because I could now smell what Cade had, and I know I wasn’t storing any of that shit in here.  Gasoline.

“Shane?”  The man in question was still on his radio, his brows furrowed as he looked up. “If I didn’t know what to look for, I wouldn’t have noticed it, but let them know this truck is rigged to blow,” Dalton said, he and Cade slowly exiting the barn, but not before Dalton’s beam flashed on something in the far corner, by the dried up piles of wooden boards, and few bales of hay that hadn’t been arranged that way the last time I’d been in here.

“Give me that!”  I ripped Dalton’s Maglite out of his hands, aiming it into the corner to get a better look as Cade said, “We’ve got fresh tracks leading past the side of the barn.  He’s got another ride, and my guess is he took the access road behind your property to get away.”  That explained why we hadn’t seen anything for the last five miles or so.

“Has anyone thought to check Morgan’s garage?  Her brother’s car is stored in there,” I said as I moved toward the corner I’m observing.

“Listen.”  Shane turns to me as I continued my approach.  “I just got word that some anonymous source has picked up chatter online.  It seems that our guy’s been boasting.”

Brycen said, “Anything I can do to help?” as I held my index finger up to my lips, then pointed to the corner.

As I crouched down, I heard a whimper.

“Fuck!  There’s someone under this shit,” I announced and motioned for Dalton to give me a hand.  “I need for the rest of you to get back.  Who knows if he’s as sick as to rig this pile to go up too.”

Cade, Shane and Brycen stayed where they were, regardless of my warnings.

“Theo, he’s posted photos of what he’s done.  We know it’s him for sure.”  Shane seemed to be assessing how I was dealing with his latest information before telling me more, but at this point, I was only half-hearing him.  I needed to maintain my focus on the task at hand. For all I knew, there was a pressure censor beneath all this rubble and whoever was under-

“Jasper!”  It came out as a whisper when my nephew’s face was revealed.

“Dispatch, this is Detective Peters.”

“Go ahead, Detective.”

“I need an ambulance at…” I tuned him out as I took in the little boy before me.  Jasper was a teary mess, pale, gagged, and shaking.  Judging by his lack of movement, he was either bound or injured.  The thought of the latter being the case chilled my blood.

“Hold on, Jasper,” I choked out.  “We’ll get you out of there as quick as we can, okay?”  The nod was there, but only slight.  I reached for the folding knife I always kept in my pocket.  “I’m going to cut this gag first so we can talk.  Don’t move an inch, buddy.”

“The bad man’s got Morgan!” came out of Jasper’s mouth as soon as the gag left it.

“I know, buddy, I know.”  I turned to Dalton who’d been inspecting the pile of wooden rubble as I was handling Jasper.  “How’s it look?”

The man was relieved, but I could tell that he was worried that he’d missed something.  Pressure sure as hell was on when the victim was someone you knew.  “I don’t see anything.”

“I want out, Uncle Theo.”

“We’re working on it.”  And a thought occurred to me.  “Jasp, can you tell me if the bad man put anything in there with you?  Were you awake when he did this?”

“He just told me that we’d play another game of hide-and-seek.  He said that if I wasn’t found, then it would all be your fault if I died.”  The boy’s tears, which had calmed, started up again.  “He didn’t say that last part really loud, but I heard him.”

“Shh…” I reassured him.  Or tried to.  “Is there anything under there with you?”

His whimpered, “No,” had my breath cutting short.

With a nod, Dalton and I began to remove each board, one at a time.  “Buddy, you let me know if something is hurting and we’ll stop, okay?”

“I’m okay.”  He bit his lower lip.  “I knew you’d find me.  You really are a hero!”  Dalton snorted, which had Jasper turning his gaze to him.  “Are you one of them too?  You look like you could be one of them.  What happened to your leg?  Are you hurt?”

“Jasper-” I started to say but the static from Shane’s lapel radio interrupted me.

“Detective Peters, this is Connie at dispatch.”

“You got an ETA on that ambo, Connie?”

“They’re ten minutes out.  We just got another call from our anonymous source.  More photos were posted within the last fifteen minutes.  He’s got eyes on you, Detective.”

“I want those photos, Connie.”

“Ten-four.  I’ve sent them to your cruiser’s computer.  You should have them in a few minutes along with the site’s link.”

“Thanks.  I want to know the minute this person reaches out again.  I want to talk to them directly, you hear?  Over and out.”  Shane rushed to his car, sat sideways in his driver’s seat and unlocked his computer as Dalton released Jasper from the last of the boards.  The little boy jumped into my arms and tightened his arms around my neck like a vice, sobs finally surfacing.

“Sonofabitch!” Cade was the first to say as I followed the men’s lead.

“This was within the last half hour!” Dalton stated.

The sick fuck was playing a game that had my head spinning, my temper flaring, and my body aching to pound something.  “How the fuck is he here and we can’t see-?”

“He’s not,” Brycen leaned over Shane’s shoulder and pointed at the shot of all of us surrounding and facing the barn.  “The angle’s all wrong.  Unless this guy is up a tree, he’s not here.”

“And he would have been made by now.  This place is wide open until you get to the surrounding woods, there’s no way he could have left here after we’d arrived,” I thought aloud, then turned to Brycen and asked, “No one look, but I’ll just go on record by saying remote activated cameras?”

He nodded.  “Nighttime vision ones.”

I groaned.  “You think you can trace its signal on one of those supercomputers of yours?”

The man grinned.  “You know I can.  You’re lucky I never leave home without one.”