Page 29 of Harry

She waited, and nothing happened. Time dragged, driving her crazy. She needed action, needed someone to come in and either end her life or set her free. Maybe they wouldn’t set her free. Maybe she would just be moved to another prison. She wanted to fight back, but how could she fight anything?

Metal clanked, freaking her out, and then whatever she was in moved suddenly. She might have let out a shriek, or maybe not. There was no way to know what was happening. If the room she was in was moving, the space she’d been held in was smaller than she’d first thought.

What would move like this? A container? Had she been on a container ship? How far had they shipped her?

The days had come and gone, and since she had birth control that stopped her periods, her body didn’t remind her how long it had been. There’d been nothing marking time the days or weeks. Good lord, had it been a month?

Time moved slowly again as she waited for the door to open. Whatever eventuality she was walking into, she wanted to know. There was no way she would be prepared, but she wanted to find out so she could mentally brace herself.

While she waited, her thoughts drifted to Harry. Sadness filled her. She wanted to go back and make the decision to stay at his place. She no longer cared about regulations and what the Marines wanted. Her life was over because she’d found evidence of crimes, and when she’d taken that evidence to her superiors, they told her it wasn’t worth them looking at. She got that people were busy with their jobs, and they had strict guidelines working for the military about what they could and couldn’t do, but it didn’t change the fact that no one cared. She’d shown evidence of wrongdoing, and her superiors hadn’t cared.

It was that attitude that had allowed multiple serial killers to destroy lives on other military bases. Too many questionable deaths had been attributed to suicide even when there was evidence the person hadn’t killed themselves.

Now she was sitting in a dark container, preparing for God only knew what, scared out of her wits. How many others had died because the information was ignored? She hated how her thoughts were turning, but she had no way to escape the pain that was surely coming for her.

Metal scraped metal, and then a loud screech echoed in the container. The light was dim at first, then a flashlight turned on, hitting the back of her eyes like a pickaxe. She gasped as her heart thundered. This was it. The end of her life as she’d known it. There was no escaping this terrible destiny.

Chapter 24

Harry curled up on his bed, tears streaming from his eyes. Almost a whole week had passed since he’d last seen Rory. There were no leads to go on. The police were at a loss as to what could have happened. They didn’t know where she’d gone or where to look.

Lucia had taken leave because she was absolutely destroyed. Harry had shown up at work and done what he could to keep his head above water, but he knew if he didn’t get his shit together, he would be moved to a non-operator position and have to work his ass off just to get back on a team.

His phone rang, and he glanced at the screen, praying it was Rory. It wasn’t. Bear was calling. He thought about not answering, but he finally swiped his finger over the screen before it bounced to voicemail.

“Hey, get out of bed. I’m almost at your place.”

“Fuck,” Harry said.

“The whole gang is on their way.”

“Goddammit. I’m sulking, and I want to be left alone.”

“Tough shit,” Bear said. “We’re going to spend the day looking for her.”

“Fuck. I’m not getting out of this, am I?”

“No. You’re stuck with us. So you’d better get used to it, buddy. We’re not going to let you sink. We’re lifting you up because we won’t let you down.”

“What if she’s never found?”

Bear’s car shut off, and he heard the door slam. Bear was heading up. “We’ve lost friends. And I know it hurts like a bitch, but you will recover. You will pick yourself up off the floor. You won’t move on, but you’ll move to find the person who did this and get revenge.”

The buzzer for the entry door sounded, and he let Bear in. He rolled out of bed and stumbled into the main room, waiting for Bear to say he was at the door.

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Dude, you passed BUDs and all the other crap we had to go through. You can do this. I have zero doubts that you will prevail. You are stronger than you think, and you have us backing you up. By the way, I’m outside your unit. Let me in.”

Harry opened the door, and Bear pointed to the bathroom. “Go shower. I’ll let everyone else in and make some breakfast.”

Harry nodded. “Sure.” He didn’t know if anything Bear had said would come to pass, but he couldn’t give up on Rory yet. They weren’t in an official relationship, but he cared deeply for her.

After he finished in the shower, he heard the guys talking. It sounded like they were all there and ready to start looking. The scent of bacon wafted in, and his stomach clenched. He hadn’t eaten dinner the night before. He’d been skipping meals since learning that Rory had gone missing. If he kept skipping meals, he wouldn’t even be close to fifty percent. He had to maintain his strength.

He dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. When he stepped out into the main room, the guys turned to face him. Their expressions were a mixture of steely determination and sympathy.

“The biscuits are almost done. I’ve got the eggs going. You need to eat,” Bear said.

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