Page 105 of The Way We Win

“Coach?” Austin frowns, looking up at me. “What’s wrong?”

Garrett jogs up to where we’re standing. “Did you find her?”

Austin’s eyes snap from him to me, and he drops Sadie’s hand, stepping closer to the hole in the maze wall. Reaching out, I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Ronnie Freeman saw a guy in a gorilla suit with your mom. We don’t know for sure, but we think it was?—”

“We didn’t have anybody in a gorilla costume,” Sadie’s pirate-wench friend tells us. “Coach Stef has the list of volunteers,but they were all the movie guys—Michael, Jigsaw, Freddy, Pennywise… no animals.”

“But we asked everyone who came to wear a costume.” Sadie’s voice is worried. “We thought it would be fun for Halloween.”

“It was my dad.” Austin’s eyes hold mine. “He took her.”

“We don’t know for sure…” I swallow the knot in my throat, but I’m sure he can tell by the look on my face it’s what I think as well.

“Let’s go.” Garrett puts his hand on Austin’s arm. “If he’s got your mom, we’re going to get her back. Trust me. He’s not getting away with this.”

Hesitating, I look down the row to where costumed attendees are drifting to the exit, confused expressions on their faces.

“Someone should double-check the maze and the area around it.” My muscles are tight. “Just to be sure she’s not…”

I stop short of saying she might be lying on the ground injured and alone in the dark. I can’t even think it for the rage it sparks in my body. I want to tear this maze to the ground to be sure she’s not huddled in a corner or worse.

“That right there tells us everything we need to know.” Garrett nods at the place where someone clearly forced his way out. “We can’t let him get away.”

Zane steps up beside me. “Logan and I will double-check every inch of this maze. We’ll walk the perimeter and report back. Go with Garrett. Austin needs you.”

Our eyes meet, and I give him a nod before we take off with my brother for his truck.

“I sentout an APB for highway patrol to be on the lookout for a car with Louisiana plates possibly headed south on I-10.” Garrett is behind his desk in his office in town. “I’ll include her driver’s license so they’ll have something to go on ifthey stop him.”

Austin and I are across from him, but I can’t sit down. I’m pacing the small office, needing to get in my truck and go after them. Anything besides sitting here wasting time.

“There’s so many different ways to get from here to New Orleans,” I muse, looking at the map of the state on his wall.

“If that’s even where he’s going,” Garrett says absently, his brow furrowing. “This is weird.”

“What?” I walk around his desk to see his computer screen.

Austin’s right beside me.

“Searching vehicle records, it says Allie rented a car yesterday.” Garrett points at the screen. “She picked it up this morning in Daphne.”

Shaking my head, I try to think. “She never said anything about renting a car. Did she say something to you, Austin?”

His arms are crossed, and he frowns as he shakes his head. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“A blue Chevy Malibu, license number…” Garrett is typing again. “I need to update my APB if there’s still time.”

“Why would she rent a car?” Austin blinks up at me.

“Was she putting yours in the shop?”

“If she was, she didn’t tell me.”

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Garrett frowns.

“Maybe he made her.” I start for the door, done standing around here waiting. “Or maybe it’s something else entirely. We’ll ask her when we find her. At least now we know what we’re looking for. Let’s go, Garrett.”

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