Page 97 of Royal
I couldn’t even finish the thought.
“We’re going to find him, Riley,” Ruby said, grabbing my arm in a firm grip. I thought she was just comforting me, but then I realized she was keeping me from punching the wall again. “Each second you spend lashing out is another one wasted. So, stop. Take a breath, and pull yourself together for Royal. He needs you to be at your best, not acting like a child.”
Ruby always did have a way of laying things out bluntly. She was right.
“I’m sorry.” I looked at Luke and Phoenix before dropping my gaze to the stack of papers from the case. “Okay. So, the facts. Ameinias has no job. He probably steals money for food. He has to have a car, though, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to abduct and transport his victims. He’s not in any of the factories in town, none of the abandoned buildings we’ve searched. Hotels, motels, and rent houses have all come back with nothing. He can’t be staying in a homeless shelter because he has to have a private place to keep his victims.”
And kill them.
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a breath. “Where else does that leave us?”
“A farm?” Ruby suggested, walking over to the map. “Addersfield only has a few on the outskirts of town. He could be in a barn.”
“What about the cabins near the lake?” Phoenix asked. “He could’ve broken into one.”
“And being by the water is significant for him,” Luke added, looking at the map. “How far away are they from here?”
Ruby made a face as she mentally calculated. “About ten minutes? Maybe more, depending on traffic.”
I couldn’t believe we were just now thinking about the damn cabins.
“Let’s stop wasting time then,” I said, making sure I had my gun on my hip before walking toward the door and going out into the main area of the station. I was lead detective and needed to take charge. “Listen up.”
Officers stopped what they were doing, and the other detectives in my unit stepped toward me.
“We believe there’s a possibility that the killer could be in one of the cabins,” I said. “I need teams to search them. There are twelve cabins on the property.”
Phoenix backed me up and helped set the plan into motion. The available officers divided into groups of two and got into their squad cars. The agents rode in their SUVs, and Ruby and I got into my car. The ten minutes it took to drive across town were the longest of my life. Images of the past victims flashed in my head, all of the cuts on their skin. Ameinias tortured them before landing the final blow.
Each second we didn’t find Royal could’ve been another nick to his beautiful skin. Another slice that brought him one step closer to death.
I drove faster, blaring my sirens.
When we reached the camping ground just outside of where the cabins were located, I cut the sirens, as did the other officers, and we continued toward the lake. My hands shook on the steering wheel. I’d never been so fucking terrified in my life.
Royal was everything to me.
When I’d been a broken kid, having just escaped an abusive household and starting over in a new town with an aunt I’d barely known at the time, Royal had been there for me. He’d pulled me out of that dark place. He was patient and understood me when no one else did. Aunt Abby had tried, but even she had difficulty keeping me in check.
“I’m not afraid of you,”Royal had said that day in high school after asking me to sit with him at lunch. I’d snapped at him, but he hadn’t even flinched.“And I have friends. I just thought you could be one of them.”
More than a friend. He’d become my fucking heart.
After parking, I jumped out of the car and drew my gun, heading for the first cabin. Phoenix and Luke advanced toward the second one, and the other agents went for the third. I walked the perimeter of the house, checking for any signs of a break-in. The hope in my chest deflated as I looked in one of the windows.
Everything was bright inside the cabin. There was a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows, a bedroom, and a bathroom. That was it. Not too many places to hide.
“This one’s clear,” I said to Ruby before going toward another one.
“Clear,” Phoenix said after checking his.
All twelve cabins were checked.
All twelve were empty.
Not wanting to give up the search, Ruby and I decided to check out the farms. We asked the owners for permission to look inside their barns, and thankfully they permitted us to without a warrant. But the barns held no signs of Ameinias, either.
Back at the station, I walked into the back room, feeling numb. Royal had been gone for three hours. Jeffrey Holland had been reported missing at seven at night and his time of death had been placed around three in the morning. If Royal was treated the same, we had about five hours left.
