Page 7 of Guarded from Danger

No. I can’t think about that.

Nervous energy pulses through me, and I jump up from my computer again. It’s a miracle I haven’t worn down the carpet from my incessant pacing. As I circle the living room, I run through everything I know again, desperately searching for some missing clue.

That night five days ago, when she never answered my call, I reassured myself it was normal. That Lucy was just tired after an unexpectedly long day. By the time twelve hours had gone by and I still hadn’t heard back from her, I knew something was wrong. Missing a late night call was one thing, but there was no way she would have ignored my increasingly worried calls and texts the next morning. So I left Houston before noon and headed straight to Lucy’s house, spending the entire drive hoping for some rational explanation.

Maybe her phone died and she hadn’t realized it. She could have gotten sick; the flu or a twenty-four-hour virus or food poisoning, and she was too out of it to answer the phone. Or worse, she might have hurt herself, could have broken her leg falling down the basement stairs and couldn’t get up to call for help.

My worst fear as I sped down the highway to Seguin was that Lucy had been in an accident and was in the hospital, unconscious and unable to contact me.

I wouldn’t let my brain go further than that. I couldn’t.

But I never imagined Lucy would be missing.

When I first got to her house, I was relieved. Her garage door was still open, her car parked inside, not a scratch or ding on it.

Then a second later, I saw her purse on the ground beside it. Not set down carefully, but like she’d dropped it, her wallet and phone still inside.

I searched her house, running through the rooms with my heart in my throat, but in my gut, I already knew.

She was gone.

Had she been taken from inside her house, there might have been something on the security footage. But her garage just has one camera aimed at the driveway, and nothing by the door at the rear. So it would have been easy for an intruder to pick the lock and enter the garage undetected. To lurk in the darkness—the overhead light had the bulb removed—and wait for Lucy to come home.

I feel sick every time I think about it—Lucy getting home after a long day of work, her mind probably on her book, assuming she was safe. And then…

Did they pull a gun on her? Knock her out? Drug her?

She must have been so scared.

Fuck.

Days later, it’s impossible not to think about the worst.

Lucy’s so sweet and beautiful—with long chestnut hair, cornflower blue eyes, and hourglass curves—she’d be a prime target for a trafficker. If someone saw her at the bookstore, it would be easy enough to follow her home, figure out she lived alone, and just wait for the perfect moment to take her.

Fuck.

Is she being touched? Violated? Or was it not a trafficker at all?

Could it have been a customer upset at a perceived slight? Maybe he asked her out and she said no, and he decided to get even by?—

No. I refuse to put words to my fears.

She has to be out there.

And Lucy knows what I do. She has to know I’m searching for her.

Not just me, but my entire team. And Blade and Arrow Security isn’t just a run-of-the-mill security company. The six of us that make up the Bravo team—me, Dante, Niall, Matt, Rhiannon, and Erik—are all former Green Berets, part of the elite Operational Detachment A, or A-Team. Though we served on different teams—Rhiannon and Niall on mine, Dante, Erik, and Matt on another—we all trained together for years, and I’d trust any of them with my life.

And now I’m trusting them with Lucy’s.

Yes, I know the police are searching for her, too. And I don’t doubt they know what they’re doing. Some of the officers are good friends of mine, and they’re working tirelessly to try to bring Lucy home.

But at Blade and Arrow, we can do things they can’t. Like hacking into databases and security systems. Our tech guy, Matt, calls it gray hat hacking—not getting permission, but not doing anything malicious with the information, either.

And we’re not as concerned about following the rules. While the police have to wait for search warrants, we go in first and notify the police after.

Could we get in trouble for it? Possibly. But given the reputation of Blade and Arrow and all of our connections, plus our willingness to share information afterwards, the police are willing to look the other way.

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