Page 11 of Kidnapping of a Myth

“Oh my god!” She scrolled back to Sunday night and replayed the boy’s departure.

“What did you see?” Eamon asked.

“It’s not what I saw.” She jumped to her feet and pointed to the monitor with the estate’s entrance displayed across it. “It’s what I didn’t see. This is where we entered this morning, correct?”

He nodded.

“It’s the main entrance, and it leads to the front door of the mansion.” Bel rewound the footage and jabbed her finger at the screen playing the family’s goodbyes. “John and Michael get intothe car, then Peter drives off in this direction.” She traced her fingers along the road until she reached the edge of the monitor, and then she pressed her fingertip against the display with the estate’s entrance. “To reach the highway, Peter needed to travel down this lane and exit here… where we arrived this morning, but watch.” She restarted the videos at the timecode where Peter drove away from the house. She studied Eamon, waiting for him to notice, and his eyes widened the moment he registered the anomaly.

“The car never leaves the estate.” He surged to his feet.

“Pann picks up the boys, but he never drives through the exit to the highway,” Bel confirmed. “No vehicle passed through the entrance or traveled any of the other monitored lanes until we arrived, meaning they never left. I think they’re still on the Darling property.”

“Doany side roads or paths intersect the main lane?” Bel asked as she and Eamon rushed for his car.

“The entire estate is connected,” Wendy answered. “There are dozens of hiking trails that lead into the mountains, and there’s a beautiful lake we swim in during the summer. Small service roads connect the property, but I don’t think any run between the house and the main entrance. That’s all forest.”

“So, there’s nowhere a car could pull off and hide?” Bel asked.

“I don’t know… Why? Did you find something?”

“Maybe.” Bel slid into the passenger seat as the engine roared to life. With the boy’s lives on the line, she didn’t want to give Wendy false hope, but her detective’s intuition felt it. She’d found something significant… only she wasn’t sure if it was ananswer to prayer or a tragedy. “Eamon and I will investigate, and I’ll call you if we find anything. Keep your phone on.”

“Okay.” Wendy shifted her weight anxiously, but just as Bel pulled the car door shut, she darted forward and caught it. “I know you found something. Please tell me. I need you to tell me.”

Bel remained silent, unsure how much to reveal. This wasn’t a normal case. There weren’t rules for this kind of situation, and she glanced at Eamon as if he might have the answer.

“Please,” the younger woman begged, and her desperation shattered Bel’s resolve.

“Based on the security footage, Pann’s car never left the main exit,” she said.

“So, they’re still here?” Wendy jerked to attention, eyes scanning the surrounding trees with the exact hope Bel hadn’t wanted her to experience yet.

“We don’t know. Peter could’ve simply been avoiding the cameras.”

“Oh.” Wendy deflated.

“We won’t be gone long,” Bel said, hoping her voice sounded reassuring. “I just want to check the roads.”

“Okay.” Wendy peeled her fingers off the door as if she was afraid to let Bel out of her sight, as if she, too, might vanish into thin air like her brothers.

“We’ll be back,” Bel assured her. “Stay inside and keep your phone close.” She pulled the door shut as the car eased down the drive, and she held Wendy’s gaze until she disappeared from view. Her heart ached for the young woman. This was the second time in twenty-four hours she’d waved someone off, and by the fear in her eyes, she worried the outcome would be the same.

“What do you think?” Eamon asked as he maintained a steady pace so they could search for anomalies. “Are they still on the property, or was he avoiding the cameras?”

“Both?” Bel shrugged. “Neither?” She paused as she watched the carefully groomed trees pass by without so much as an irregularity. “I want them to be here because if they’re close, you stand a chance of finding them, but if they’re gone… If they left the estate, I doubt we’ll find them, even with your senses. The moment a victim is transferred to a second location, the chances of recovering them drop.” She fell silent, knowing just how dangerous that statistic was. She’d been moved to a second location, and the police hadn’t found her. If Abel had wanted her dead instead of living as his contained companion, not even Eamon could’ve saved her in time. She would’ve died alone in that basement. Yes, she understood how dangerous a statistic that was.

A broad palm slipped over her thigh, and she met Eamon’s sorrowful gaze. She could tell by his eyes that his thoughts mirrored hers, and she slid her hand comfortingly over his. For a moment, neither of them moved. They simply drove, staring at one another, his grip on her thigh, her palm on his knuckles. His senses ensured he could drive safely without watching the road, and he remained locked in the moment with her. They didn’t speak, but they didn’t need to. Fate had stitched them together, destiny slowly braiding them into one soul, and they didn’t need words to communicate because their hearts spoke volumes.

“We’ll find them,” Eamon finally broke the silence, returning his gaze to the lane, and Bel gasped, the departure of his eyes almost painful. The power he had over her was all-consuming, a drowning and undeniable longing that should terrify her but instead made her feel invincible.I love you. I love you. I love you.His words owned her, but by the intensity of his grip on her thigh, her feelings were nothing compared to the emotions surging through his chest.

“I’ve seen so much death and destruction this past year,” she whispered. “People built into furniture. Women poisoned andleft like offerings for me. I don’t want to witness children die. I can’t.”

“You won’t. We’ll find them alive.”

“They might already be dead.”

“Don’t think like that.” His grip tightened as his hand slipped between her legs, crossing a new line of intimacy they’d never breached before. When she didn’t pull away, Eamon tugged her to the edge of her seat. He held her as close as the car would allow, his powerful fingers burning her alive, and she gently closed her thighs, trapping his palm where he anchored her to himself. She let him touch parts of her—body and soul—that she’d been too afraid to let anyone come close to, and she believed him. They would find the boys. They would be alive because Eamon Stone kept his word, and she clung to his promise as fiercely as he gripped her thigh.

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