Page 45 of What Lies Within

“Didn’t realize it was gone." She glances at Harvey. "Do you know?"

He shakes his head. “Why?” He pushes out of his seat and moves toward me. “What’s happening?”

“Seen Rae?”

“Not since she stormed out of the old man’s office, but that was, like, an hour ago.”

Motherfucker.I know they watch me as I spin, ripping my phone from my pocket while I walk. Know Harvey tails me as I head through the hallway, punching through the device until I reach the number I need. His keen gray gaze fixes on me as I set the phone down on the counter, connect the call to the speaker, and help myself to the arsenal.

Sure enough, there’s an empty hook where the truck keys should be.

“Y’ello.”The call connects, snapping me back to the task at hand.

“Ty. It’s Digger, man.”

“Oh, hey.”One of the notorious crew who run by the name of the Butcher Boys. He's our contact when it comes to anything digital.“I spoke to Turnip earlier this morning, man. He not fill you in? I've got no updates on her whereabouts. Whoever took Tyke's daughter knows where the cameras are in that town, and with it being so predominantly rural, there are fuck all private caches I can tap into. I've got no leads on their direction after leaving that farm."

"I ain't calling about Maddie," I say, eyeing Harvey as he settles against the doorframe, arms folded over his chest. "Got another issue, brother, and it's time-sensitive."

“Sure. But you know rush jobs don’t come for free, right?”

"I'll pay you whatever the fuck you want." Saving for a rainy day was always the plan and today? It's pouring. "I need you to track our truck. It left the yard within the last hour."

Tapping comes through the line, echoed by the clicks as I load the clip in my hand.

“Sure. So, I’ve got it passing the first intersection, but it doesn’t go any further than that.”More tapping."Gimme a second. There's a house down the road I came across in my search for Maddie…"

“Can you tell who’s inside?”

Harvey steps into the room, and Jamie slides in to take his vacated spot. I shouldn't do this in front of the kids, but then again, when's too soon for them to learn? If anything happens to their fathers or me on this ride next week, they’ll want to know who to call for help.

"So, there are two women. The driver is an older lady with blonde wavy hair and a blue shirt, and the other is younger, with dark hair and a printed T-shirt. They're both wearing leather over their shirts, so I'm guessing they're your girls."

“Sweetie,” Jamie whispers, brow pinched. “Maybe they shot out to do errands?”

“Rae won’t answer her phone.” Or can’t. I don’t want to entertain the second option.

“She was mad at you guys when she stormed off,” Harvey points out. “Maybe she ain’t answerin’ because she doesn’t want to talk to you yet?”

Maybe. But logic says that when somebody calls your phone repeatedly, one after the other, six times in a row, they need to get in touch. People generally don't ignore calls like that.

"I got something else,"Ty interjects from the open call."They turned on Ashfield Road. It's the last I can give you, though. They're off the radar after that, and I don't get them at the tail end of the road. They've stopped somewhere in between."

Only one property I know of out that way. “Yeah, that’s good. Thanks, Ty.”

“I’ll send you a link to pay. Hope you find who you’re after.”

He disconnects, and I punch the button to send the phone to sleep.

“What you gonna do?” Harvey breaks the silence, focusing on the weapons I have laid out, ready for use.

“Go find out why the fuck she won’t answer her phone.” He could be right. Maybe Sweetie did take her somewhere to get her head straight. The only place I’m familiar with off Ashfield Road is the house she once shared with Buzz.

As far as I know, she hasn’t been back there in years, but I never heard anything about her selling the property.

“You want company?”

I look over his shoulder and lift my chin at Jamie. “Wanna go for a ride?”

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