Page 108 of Unspoken Promises

“Nobody is ever a hundred percent sure, but I’m willing to betmy life on it.”

“None of this makes sense.” He narrows his eyes.

I make more sense of it. “Sánchez crossed the border to Miami years ago. His alias…” I drop the bombshell, “…isFather.

Rio stops breathing, eyes fixated on me. This is huge. I watch the information connect behind his eyes until the penny drops.

“So the man who kept Ava isn’t her actual father?”

Seems not.

“We need to find her.”

If he’s using Ava to take us down, I have to believe he’ll keep her alive… I have to get to her before he takes her back to Oregon.

Just then, Penelope breaks my stream of thought.

“Guys…”

My gaze lands on Penelope’s bloodless cheeks as she stares at the screen of one of her trackers in disbelief.

Callum looks over her shoulder. “What do you have?”

“For the past few weeks, there’s been a new very high-frequency signal in town.” She lifts one of her gadgets in her hand.

Penelope’s passion for aliens has made her the queen of radio signals, telescopes, and scanning the skies. She holds up one of the trackers she brought with her tonight.

“I keep it on most of the time, just in case, you know,” She shakes her head and trails hair behind her ears. “Anyway, I found the signal a few weeks ago and was stoked that it actually stayed in Echo Valley rather than coming and going like most of them do. I’ve been obsessively watching it. This thing picks up wildlife tags. I thought maybe a mountain lion or puma or something like that. I kept track of the signal. It moved around the Valley a bit, mostly being over at your ranch.”

Blood drains to my feet just sensing where this is going.

“That made sense where you guys have so much land more off the main streets, but then…” She talks so fast now. She clicks around on her trackpad and clacks her laptop keys as she speaks. “The night Ava and Callum came to watch a show at my house, the signal was super strong. We went all around my apartment complex looking for some endangered animal but…”

“Fuck,” Rio hisses. “You think the signal was coming from Ava?”

Penelope nods slowly. “The signal was still in Echo Valley tonight before I got knocked out. It was somewhere near the police station. And now, it’s just off San Antonio Valley Road.”

Callum stands so fast his chair scrapes the floor. “Can you get an exact location?”

“Pretty close. Yeah. You go ahead, start driving, and I’ll call you with updates. You need to hurry.”

Callum’s eyes blaze fiercely. “Like hell I’m leaving you here alone after what happened tonight.”

“You have to go,” Penelope says urgently. “Ava needs us, and I’m here. I’m fine.”

Callum pulls his radio off his belt. “This is Chief Grant, over.”

A voice comes through the radio. “Go ahead, Chief Grant, over.”

“I need protection for a witness at the station. Confirm there is an armed officer on duty, over.”

“Confirmed, Chief Grant. Over.”

Callum helps pack up Penelope’s things. “I’ll drop you at the station.”

With the signalsPenelope picked up, we’re able to pinpoint the location precisely enough. We are led to a field three hundred yards off the main road, the pitch-black makes it easy to spot even the smallest sign of light from an outbuilding. The law enforcement and SWAT Callum arranged so soon is impressive.

But we can’t just storm in.

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