Nyght's Eve (23 page)

After, they had taken a hot shower, washing
each other thoroughly as they shared stories of their past with one another. Evie
had been shocked by the lengths he had gone through when he’d finally confessed
he had requisitioned background information on her.
 
Exasperated, she told him that all he had to
do was ask her anything he wanted to know about her. After he made her that
promise, he responded in kind, telling her she could ask him anything she
wanted of him, except for classified information that he could never disclose
to anyone.

Evie had seen the way he had braced himself,
ready for her questions, but she realized that she knew everything she needed
to know about him. The rest would come with time, but she had no intention of
delving into his confidential missions or other dark, painful things he had to
do when he was a soldier.

She knew his heart, and that was enough for
now.

In a way, it was freeing knowing that Dare
new about her childhood. It was something that haunted her and helped mold her
into the woman she was. When those men had broken into her home all those years
ago, she had been a scared teenager. She had tried to hide, terrified after she
saw the way those men had shot her parents in cold blood, but they had found
her. Thinking she would die next, it was even worse when the men dragged her
out of the house with them.

They had taken her into the woods with them,
tying her up while they waited and planned their escape. She would never forget
the absolute horror she felt as the three men had joked about what they were
going to do to her before they killed her, but she had been saved before they
had gotten a chance to really hurt her.

One of the men had been holding her down on
the ground when a feral growl had torn through the night. Her family dog, Roscoe,
had bounded out of the trees, tearing into the man attacking her. Shouts of men
had filled the air as the sheriff and his men had come to save her. She had
cried when she saw Roscoe’s lifeless body lying on the ground by the man he had
killed. Another one of the men had been shot by the sheriff, leaving the last
man to be taken into custody.

Once they were back in bed and she was held
safely in his arms, Evie had told Dare of the difficult time she had after she
had been rescued. She had been lost without her family. Even though there were
horrible memories in the Beaumont Manor house where she had grown up, she felt
closer to her parents there and hadn’t wanted to leave. When her uncle Tony and
her aunt Colleen had decided to move their kids to Breakers, Evie had felt
grateful, but she had also been torn apart by guilt for making them give up
their own home.
 

They had ended up building a home together,
forming a new family. Evie had always been close to her cousins, but with them
living together she had gotten the siblings she’d always wanted. A few years
later when Colleen had gotten sick it had shocked them all, and when she died,
it just made the rest of them band together. Hunter had followed in Tony’s
footsteps, becoming a Navy SEAL. They had missed him while he was away, but
they had also been so proud of him.

Evie knew her dream of founding the rescue
center was based on what she went through as a young girl, and also in memory
of her parents and her dog, Roscoe, who had saved her life. She worked hard to
be worthy of that life, using the money her parents had left her to do good
work. Dare had called it survivor’s guilt, and he’d made it clear that he
wouldn’t be allowing her to overwork herself anymore. When she had tried to
argue with him, he’d just kissed her until she forgot what they had been
talking about.

In the late hours of the night, he spoke of
his time in Spain. She knew there was a lot more to the story, but he told her
enough so she could imagine the horrors of what he had been through. She held
onto him, as if her love could keep him safe and far away from dangerous
situations like he used to be a part of. She worried that he would need that
rush, would need to be in the middle of those types of adventures again, but he
assured her he was done.

They had made love again when they woke, slowly,
tenderly. They stayed in bed so long they almost missed checking out of the
hotel on time. The drive back to Breakers was very different than the ride to
Houston had been. Evie had loved the way Dare held onto her hand as he drove,
as if he needed to keep the connection with her. Perhaps he could sense she
needed it, too. Their time in Houston had changed things for her. All traces of
doubt had been erased, and it felt wonderful to know that they were fully committed
to each other. The only shadow on her happiness that remained was if he would
be willing to stay in Breakers.

As they drove toward her house, Evie noticed
that there seemed to be more activity that normal at the rescue center. Also
noticing, Dare parked the Range Rover in front of her house instead of in the
garage.

“Hi! You’re back! What’s going on?” Evie
asked as Francesca and Madeline Savante rushed over before she was completely
out of the vehicle. Madeline might have been Hammer’s mother and Hunter,
Beckett and Francesca’s stepmother, but she was a sweet, caring woman that Evie
thought of like a second mother to herself as well.

“There’s my girl. Thank God you’re home.” Madeline
wrapped her arms around Evie. She pulled back to stare intently into Evie’s
eyes. “You and I are going to have a long talk later, young lady.”

Madeline released Evie and smiled at Dare,
holding her arms open. “Daryk.”

He moved to her, lifting her off her feet to
kiss her cheek. “Ma’am. Are you ready to run away with me yet?”

The older woman blushed as he set her back on
her feet. She slapped playfully at his arm. “You have your hands full with this
one. Daryk, Evie. I’m sorry to tell you this, but Shane is missing.”

Dare’s body went stiff. “What?”

Tears filled Madeline’s eyes. “After Shane
was done with school today, he went home to wait for Nate to pick him up to
bring him here. But when Nate got there, Shane was gone.”

“Nate found a note from their mother saying
Shane would be returned after the trial. She kidnapped him to make sure Nate
wouldn’t testify again that bastard, Bill Hollis,” Francesca added, her voice
filled with barely suppressed fury.

Evie gasped as she reached out to hold on to
Dare’s arm. “How could she do that to her own son? Anna, Tim and Nate must be frantic!”

“We’ve got to find him,” Dare gritted out
through clenched teeth.

Madeline’s hands worried together as she
clasped them in front of her. “Anna and Tim are waiting at their house, and
Jared and Kali are with Nate. Tony, Hunter and a few of the men are with
Sheriff Wyatt searching to see if anyone saw where they went.”

“Hey!” Hunter shouted as he roared up on his
bike. He turned the machine and got off, hurrying over to join them. “We just got
word. A car was found a few miles out of town. Looks like it drove off the road
and hit a tree. When Storm ran the plates, we saw it was registered to Mara
Diaz. That crazy bitch took Shane into the woods with her, but I think they’re
both injured from the crash, so they couldn’t have gotten far.”

“Then we’ll find them,” Evie said, her voice
filled with conviction. “How much time?”

“About three hours,” Francesca answered.

“I told Storm we’d get the rescue team
together. Kali is staying with Anna, but Hammer is headed here with Nate. I’ll
take them out with me. I’ll take Galahad on the search.”

“And I’ll take Lancelot,” Francesca added.
“I’ll see if Russ can come with me.”

“Tony is headed back here with Malcolm Fox.
He’ll take Percival since I know you want Gawain with you.”

“That’s fine.” Evie turned to Dare. “Are you
coming with me?”

“Damn right I am.”

They all turned as the sound of another
motorcycle approached. Nikita pulled off her helmet and got off her Ducati. She
had a backpack on her back and a wicked looking knife strapped to her thigh. “I
heard. What can I do?”

Francesca grinned at her. “Screw Russ. You’re
coming with me, combat Barbie.”

Nikita glared at her, then sighed with a nod.
“You’re really lucky I like you, short stuff.”

“I’ll go check on the radios, and I’ll run
control from here with Amelia,” Madeline said. “Evie, I had your dogs with me
at the center today. They’re in your office when you’re ready.”

Evie nodded. “Good. I’ll go get my pack.
Dare, I have extra pack for you to use. We’ll all meet back at the center in a
few.”

 
The
group split up. Hunter headed back to the boarding house to get his own pack,
while Francesca ran to her own apartment to grab her own. Dare followed Evie
into her house and watched as she pulled two large backpacks out of a cabinet
in the mudroom. “I always keep these ready to go. It’s everything we need for a
search, like first aid supplies, food and stuff if we have to stay out
overnight.”

Evie left the packs in the hallway, then ran
upstairs to change clothes. When she turned around, her mouth dropped open when
she saw the gun Dare had strapped to his hip. His face was hard and his eyes
were like dark-gray shards of ice. They were the eyes of a warrior.

“Ahh...”

“Don’t you give me any shit. She’s got the
kid out there, and she’s fucking crazy. I’m not taking any chances with his or
your safety.”

She could do more than nod to him, then he
turned and left the room, leaving her to follow him back downstairs. It wasn’t
as if she objected to him taking his gun with him. It was a stark reminder of
the darker side of his life, and she had just been surprised to see it. She
started to lift her pack, but he took it from her and lifted his own. They were
heavy, but he lifted both as if they weighed nothing.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “Okay,
let’s go.”

****

Dare was silent as he followed Evie and
Gawain through the forest.

They had been walking through the woods on
the edge of town for a few hours, and hadn’t found Shane yet. The search party had
started out from where they found Mara Diaz’s car. They kept in touch with the
other teams locations via Madeline and Amelia on their radios. Each search dog
had been given something of Shane’s to sniff before they started out. Nate had
brought the clothing with him when he showed up with Hammer, and the poor kid’s
face had been ravaged with grief.

Dare half listened to Evie as she explained
about scent cones and search grids, but his real focus had been on Shane. He
was worried, thinking about what that little boy was going through, and Dare
was determined that they find him before that crazy bitch of a mother did
anything to hurt the kid.

Evie held up her hand to stop them when her
radio signaled and Sheriff Wyatt’s voice sounded. “All teams. We’ve got Mara
Diaz in custody. Repeat, we have Mara Diaz in custody.”

“My brother,” Nate’s anxious voice said over
the radio. “Where is my brother?”

“Shane is still in the woods. She said she
left him behind. Both of them were injured when the car went off the road, and
she left him behind to try and get away. Listen, Nate. Shane fought back. He
fought back in the car and that’s why they crashed. You’re brother did good.”

“But he’s hurt! Oh God, we have to find him!”

“We’ve got a medivac team on standby,” the
sheriff said. “They are a few minutes out. We’ll find him, Nate.”

“Where are you?” Evie demanded. “Give me the
location where you found her.”

Sheriff Wyatt answered, and she and Dare
searched their map. “We’re close,” she murmured after she surveyed their
position.

“Not close enough,” Dare countered. “The kid
is hurt. We have to find him.”

Evie nodded. “We’re going to continue the
search,” she said into the radio. “We’ll cross over and start heading your way,
Sheriff.”

“Copy. We’ll head west to meet up with you,
Evie,” Hunter replied.

 
“All
teams head to the sheriff’s location. If we don’t find Shane by the time we
reach them, we’ll fan out from there and continue to search.”

All the teams gave their acknowledgement of
the new plan, and Madeline gave each team directions from their current
locations since she had been keeping track of all the search party members. Evie
turned the volume down the radio again, and they started walking again after
she gave Gawain another scent of Shane’s shirt she had brought with her in a Ziploc
bag. Both Evie and Dare felt a new level of anxiety.

If Shane was hurt, they needed to find him.

Fast.

She was bombarded by haunted memories of the
past as she followed her dog through the dense trees. She couldn’t help but
remember the terror she’d felt when she had been kidnapped all those years ago.
She knew exactly what Shane was going through, what he was feeling. Although
there was a measure of relief knowing that Shane’s mother had been caught, that
little boy was out there somewhere.

Lost, alone, and hurt.