Page 78 of Her Silver Fox Firefighters
Wilkes lowers his gaze, lips pressed together in a thin, angry line. “Let me guess?—”
I cut him off. “She has proof of corruption, bribery, fraud, racketeering, and a slew of additional felonies committed by Marcus Bennett. Also, he was, or better said, still is, obsessedwith her. We can’t quite figure out why he started the fires, though.”
“He could be a psycho coming into his own,” Beck mutters. “Or he could be trying to keep all of us busy with the fires while he works out the perfect angle to come after Olivia.”
“No wonder Carlos was so reluctant about shipping her back to Devon,” Wilkes replies. “I gave him such a hard time over that. But he and I go way back, so I let him have his way there.”
“And we can’t thank you enough for that,” I tell him. “We don’t think Olivia would still be alive otherwise.”
Leo groans with frustration, running a hand through his short, curly hair. “This pisses me off. What was the whole point of the fires?”
He isn’t satisfied with Beck’s theories and, frankly, neither am I. Marcus has been playing the long game, and I have a feeling that he might’ve swooped in like the predator that he is to?—
“Got it,” the deputy says from behind the computer. “A cell tower ping. I’m sending you the coordinates now. The last signal was shortly after Carlos’s last text message to Dax’s phone. They were traveling along a stretch of the I-22.”
I give Wilkes a long look. “Let us come with you, Deputy. We’re invested.”
“Hell, I’m not gonna say no,” he replies. “You’re his close friends. And that’s your lady with him. Besides, I trust you three more than our ADA, for what it’s worth.”
“Do you think you can hold off on telling her about thelead?” Beck asks. “It isn’t as if she can do anything to help us at this point.”
Wilkes thinks about it for a moment. “I’ll call her when we find Carlos. It’s the best I can do. I don’t want to ruffle the prosecution’s feathers.”
“Fair enough, Deputy Wilkes,” I say. “It’s greatly appreciated.”
My pulse pounds as we follow him out of the building. By the time I’m back behind the wheel, trailing his cruiser through the south side of Ember Ridge, anxiety rises in my throat like a ball of liquid fire.
One quick glance at Beck sitting next to me, and Leo in the back seat, and I can tell they’re just as worried, just as nervous, as I am.
We are all aware that our worst-case scenario regarding Olivia might be coming true.
The woman we love, the mother of our unborn children, is missing.
And Marcus’s presence in town is no coincidence.
24
OLIVIA
I’m in a motel room.
The view outside the window is of a mostly empty parking lot and the motel’s large, generic, neon sign meant to draw drivers in for the night.
I can’t leave. The door and the window are locked. Marcus took my phone.
I’m stuck here, pacing the room like a wounded lioness, eager to get out. Despite the pain throbbing in my jaw, everything else feels fine. I can only hope it means my babies are okay after being jostled on the road.
“I could break the window, but then where do I go?” I wonder aloud, staring at a chair that I know I could use to smash through the glass. But then what? I have no idea where I am or how many miles it is back to town.
As far as I remember, there are at least a dozen motels scattered around Ember Ridge, each one farther away from town than the last. Without a clue of my position on the map, Iwouldn’t even know which way to go, and without my phone, I’m screwed.
A key turns in the lock.
The door opens and Marcus comes in.
He finds me frozen by the foot of the bed and smiles. “Good, you’re awake,” he says, then raises a takeout bag for me to see. “Brought you some snacks.”
“I wasn’t asleep, Marcus. I was passed out from terror and exhaustion,” I reply with a trembling voice, still trying to wrap my head around what’s happening. “How long have I been here?”
