Page 38 of Bryson's Treasure

Chapter 15

“Have you heard from Lynn?”Noah asked.

They had just gotten back to the house with Grayson and Kara. Bryson had wanted to go with Lynn and Azadeh into town, but Lynn had insisted he help pick up his brother. She said she planned to take Azadeh shopping for a Christmas dress after her therapy session.

“No.” He glanced down at his watch. They should have been on their way back by then, but he hadn’t heard a thing.

Bryson walked toward the office and fired up his computer. Grayson followed behind and plopped down in the leather chair as Bryson booted up the laptop. Lynn had given him access to track her phone. He promised not to use it unless he felt like something was wrong, and his gut told him something was off. She always answered his texts, and if she was driving, Azadeh would answer for her. He’d been trying to get ahold of her for the past two hours.

The computer turned on, and he entered his password and clicked open the browser to pull up her location. Within seconds, he had it on the screen. He waited for the dot to move, but it never did. His truck was pulled over on the side of the road, not too far away.

His girls were in danger. He quickly opened another window and logged into the NSA satellite system. Once he had it positioned over the location, he zoomed in. His truck was on its side. Not wanting to waste another second, he jumped up from the chair and ran toward the door, his oldest brother on his heels.

“What’s going on?” Noah called out. “Wait a second, and I’ll come with.”

“No, stay here in case they make it home, but they’re in danger.” Bryson grabbed Noah’s keys from the counter and raced for the door with Grayson by his side.

Bryson took off out of the driveway, heading toward his truck. He hoped for once that his gut was wrong and they were okay.

Grayson didn’t say a word next to him as he drove. The snow from the day before had been cleared from the roads, making it easy for him to speed and not worry about ice.

Waiting for a certain number of days to tell Lynn how he really felt seemed stupid. He wished she knew that he loved her more than anything. His heart squeezed in his chest thinking about what might’ve happened. Razor had promised him that Gabriel wouldn’t come for her. Did the man change his mind?

Bryson pressed his foot down farther on the gas, wanting to get to her as fast as possible. In the distance, he could see the white truck lying in the ditch on its side. It looked worse in person than it did on the satellite feed he had pulled up.

When they neared the truck, he slammed on the brakes and slid to a stop. He placed the truck in park and jumped out, heading to where his women were. When he was halfway across the road, Grayson wrapped an arm around him.

“What the fuck?” he screamed at his brother.

Grayson didn’t loosen his grip. “We can’t go running in. What if they were taken? You could destroy any evidence we might find.”

Bryson nodded. “I’ll be careful.” Grayson loosened his grip, and Bryson walked over to the edge to glance into the truck.

They weren’t there. What can I do now? Bryson let out a bloodcurdling scream. Lynn and Azadeh were in danger. He stepped forward and heard a faint sniffle. Grayson stilled next to him, hearing the same thing. They both searched the area but couldn’t see anyone.

“Azadeh, are you there?” Bryson shouted as loud as he could and waited for some sign, hoping the sound had come from her.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as the snow moved, revealing the young girl. Azadeh was okay. She had hidden under the snow. Not caring about anything other than getting to his girl, Bryson tore off after her and wrapped her in his arms, squeezing her so tight she tapped his back.

After a few seconds, he finally set her down and knelt in front of her. She looked from him to his brother. She hadn’t met Grayson yet. “That is my brother Grayson. Do you know where Lynn is?”

Azadeh reached up and wiped her tears away. “He took her.”

“Who?”

“The man who shot at us in Jalalabad.”

Ricky had somehow gotten back into the country without him knowing. The only reason he would go after Lynn was if he knew how much she meant to him. Time was ticking, and they needed to find her before Ricky took her out of the country, or worse, killed her.

“Do you remember anything else?”

“Lynn made me promise to go and hide. She said you would come for me, but I didn’t want the bad guy to get Lynn.”

“I’m happy she made you hide. Did you do exactly what Lynn told you do?”

Azadeh shook her head. “I waited until they were gone to hide.”

He should have been mad. She’d put herself in danger and hadn’t completely listened to Lynn. In the future, they would need to explain the importance of hiding the second they told her to.

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