Page 151 of Enigma: The Complete Collection
I stray my eyes away when Brandon stops to stand next to me. “Boss…. umm… Isa…”
A grin spreads across my face. I shouldn’t relish in his nervous response, but I do. He has a gun and badge on his hip, yet he still fears me. My ego has never been stroked so well.
“You can call me Isaac. I'm not your boss.”
Brandon nods as a smile curls his lips. “I called in a favor with a girl I know. The owner of this property is Carlyle Shroud. He's fifty-eight years old, and has been receiving disability checks since a workplace injury nearly two decades ago.” He drops his eyes to the notepad in his hand. “His disability checks have been deposited each month, but none of his bank accounts have been utilized in months, which is surprising. Carlyle is what you might call the local drunk. More than eighty percent of his support payments are spent at the liquor store in town.”
The heaviness that's been weighing down my chest the past two weeks amplifies. “Does he have any vehicles registered in his name?”
Brandon flicks through his notepad. “Yes, one. A black Dodge truck, license plate number 44W—”
“2285?” I interrupt, reading the plate on the black truck Hugo has just entered.
When Brandon nods again, dread overwhelms me. Why would Carlyle’s only source of transportation be parked in the front of his barn when he lives in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest town?
He must still be here.
In urgency, I yank on the cracked window. It doesn’t budge. It’s locked, held in place by rusty nails hammered into the frame. My heart thrashes against my chest as my suit-covered elbow smashes through the thin glass. Shards of glass jab into my skin, but my brain doesn't register the pain. It's too panicked to register anything.
Hearing the shattering of glass, Hugo emerges from the black truck and glances up at me. “Where's Isabelle?” My voice rumbles in the crisp morning.
He cranks his head to the left before pointing to the far corner of the property. Isabelle is walking toward a white barn on the very edge of the horizon. Compared to the filthy paint-peeling barn Hugo is standing next to, the one she’s approaching is spotlessly clean, glimmering in the morning sunlight—just like Megan’s secret room.
Panic scorches through my veins. “Get Isabelle!”
Hugo freezes for all of two seconds before he takes off in her direction, the urgency in my tone undeniable.
When the seriousness of the situation dawns on Brandon, he shadows my rush down the rickety stairs. My body doesn't appreciate the cooling effects of the crisp morning on its overheated skin when I sprint out of the house. Nothing but reaching Isabelle is on my mind.
Due to the overgrown fields, only the roof of the barn is visible as I sprint to Isabelle. Terror thickens my veins as horrid thought after horrid thought filters through my brain. My lungs burn from a lack of oxygen, but I continue. I'll never breathe unaided again if Isabelle gets hurt on my watch.
“My name is Brandon James. I'm an FBI field agent. My number is 443567. I need an ambulance, and a police unit brought to 15634 Snow Mountain Road, Parkerville,” Brandon pants heavily into his phone.
My concern for Isabelle outweighs the fact he’s calling in the authorities. He can call anyone he wants as long as it means Isabelle is safe.
When I reach the clearing on which the barn is located, I spot a cracked open door at the side. I race for it, my legs pumping as fast as my heart. When I break through the partially opened barn door, my stomach launches into my throat. A horrific smell is lingering in the air. It smells like death and hell all rolled into one.
“Holy fuck,” Brandon mumbles when he too discovers the horrifying image in front of us.
I shoot my eyes sideways when a sob sounds through my ears. Huddled in the barn is Hugo. He's sitting on the hay-covered ground with Isabelle cradled in his lap. Her face is buried into his chest, and his hand is covering her eyes.
With my heart in my throat, I rush for her. She jumps out of her skin when I remove her from Hugo’s lap. “It’s okay, Isabelle.” My eyes rake her body to ensure she’s uninjured. The wild beat of my heart weakens when I discover she's unharmed. “I’ve got you.”
When she burrows her nose into my neck with the assistance of Hugo, I remove my jacket to place it over her shuddering shoulders. Once she’s secure in my lap, my eyes shift to the man hanging from the beam. The unnatural color of his skin reveals why the smell is so potent. He’s been deceased so long, his skin is no longer covering his body.
“We need to move quickly. The authorities have been called in.” Although I’d love nothing more to comfort Isabelle for a few more minutes, here is not the place to do it. I also don’t want it done in an interrogation room at the Parkerville Sheriff’s Office. “Go help Hunter pack up his equipment, then we’ll head to my cabin…”
I stop talking when Isabelle suddenly leaps out of my arms. She makes a beeline for the barn door, barging past Brandon a mere second before her heaving petite body breaks through the eerily quiet morning.
CHAPTER25
ISAAC
“Take her to the cabin as originally planned. We have every angle covered. Megan won’t get close to Nick or his family without us first knowing about it. You need to concentrate on Isabelle.”
Hunter’s eyes drift to Isabelle, who is sitting in the back passenger seat of my town car. She's far away in thought. Her beautiful tear-stained eyes are peering up at the brilliant blue sky. After she was sick, I carried her to the car in my arms. Her body felt warm, but shivers still racked through her during our short trip.
Hunter gathers a satellite phone and a charger from his van to hand them to me. “I’ll call you if anything comes up.”
