Page 113 of Love Me Fearless

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“We’re wasting time!”I bark at Everett, desperation clawing at my skin. “She’s not with her friends or anyone else. She’s not at work. Her purse and keys are still in the car. She wouldn’t just wander off.” My voice cracks. “Someone took her.”

From Everett’s SUV, his radio crackles, making him trot back to respond.

Every minute we spend standing around is another minute she gets farther away.

We have to find her.

A dark sedan tears into the parking lot, a single red light spinning from the top. Luke jumps out.

I hurry over, my mind racing. “Tell me you’ve found her.”

He grips my shoulders, his serious eyes locking with mine. “Does the name Jeremy Fisher mean anything to you?”

“Jeremy? Why?” I squeeze my eyes so tight my vision sparkles. “It’s him? But he’s—” My mind empties, sending another chill over my skin.

“Ava gave us permission to download her messages yesterday. He’s been texting her stuff that stood out.”

“Luke.” It comes out like a plea. “It’s my fault. Fuck! I asked Jeremy to look after her.” My throat clamps shut. “Please tell me it’s not too late.”

“Where does he live?” Luke asks.

“I don’t know!”

“Get me an address!” Luke calls to Everett.

Everett’s radio crackles a series of numbers. “Got it! Let’s roll.”

“Get in,” Luke says, jumping behind the wheel. I race for the passenger side and Luke takes off after Everett.

“What if we’re wrong?” I grip the handle above the window as Luke accelerates down the long straightaway.

“I cross-referenced the list of customers buying white roses on the date Ava found one on her car. His name popped.”

“What if he hurts her?” The green trees and blue sky outside the windows may as well be a tunnel of black.

Everett’s voice comes over the radio. “Four minutes out.” Behind Luke, another Finn River Sheriff’s Department SUV catches up, lights and sirens blaring.

“What if he’s taken her somewhere else?”

“We won’t know until we apprehend him. That’s the first step.”

We’re heading south toward the confluence of Finn River and the Clearwater. The tidy farms give way to vast tracks of forest, some with narrow driveways snaking out of sight, some with trailers or dilapidated houses surrounded by abandoned farm equipment or vehicles.

“He’s former law enforcement. Worked base security at Travis,” I say. What if he’s got an arsenal of weapons and is prepared to use them?

Luke relays my message into the radio, warning the others.

Sheriff Olson replies with a series of orders in code that I can’t decipher. Not that it matters. The second we get there I’m going in. I don’t have a weapon, but that won’t stop me.

“When we get there, you are to stay put,” he says, as if reading my mind.

I stare straight ahead.Please let her be okay.

What if we’re too late?

Ahead of us, Everett slows, then turns down a gravel drive. Luke follows, his unmarked sedan jostling over the potholes. Ahead is a house with pale pink siding and a narrow porch covered by an aluminum awning, the stripes on the sides faded to a pale green.

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