Bolting to the courthouse, Shane brought out his cell instead of the comprised ROC. Using the voice feature, he gave the command, “Call Belle.”
Corey ran beside him.
Her voice mail came on, chilling him to his bones. Where is she? Please, let Belle and Juan be safe.
He and Corey came around the corner and saw a disastrous scene. “Where’s Belle and Juan, Nicole?”
“Trollinger and Juan were gone when we got here. Belle got a text from Cindy and ran out the back.”
From Cindy? That didn’t make sense since Dylan still had Trollinger’s cell. Where had she gotten a phone?
As they rushed to the door with their guns drawn, Corey yelled back at her. “Call Doc for help.”
Before they got to the door, it opened and Juan ran inside into their arms.
Shaking, their boy blurted out. “She’s got Mom.”
Shane’s gut tightened. Trollinger.
“They’re gone.” Juan’s eyes welled up.
He shot out the door. Scanning the area, it was clear to him that Cindy must’ve gotten a cell from the bastard who had shot up the town and blown up his parents’ business.
Kip’s sister’s car was nowhere to be found. There was no sign of the bitch or of Belle. Rushing back into the building, he saw Corey kneel down in front of Juan.
“Okay, son. Tell us exactly what happened.”
“It was the lady in the room next to mine. When I heard the shooting in the hallway, I ducked down under my bed. Cindy came in, grabbed my legs, pulled me out, and put a gun to my head.”
Where had she gotten a gun? Likely from the dead man in black. I knew she couldn’t be trusted.
“She made me go outside to her car and kept telling me she was going to kill me if I didn’t do what she said. Mom showed up. Cindy told Mom if she got in the trunk, I would be let go unharmed.”
What do she and Kip want with Belle? It didn’t make any sense.
“I didn’t know what to do. I saw a rock and thought about throwing it at Cindy but she slammed down the lid on top of Mom before I had a chance to. Then she told me to close my eyes and count to one hundred or she was going to kill Mom.”
All Shane could feel inside was pure rage.
Juan’s eyes were wide. “As soon as I heard her drive off with Mom and thought she could no longer see me, I stopped counting and ran in.”
That likely meant Trollinger had only a few seconds lead on them. The boat and the explosion had been a diversion to spread the team thin. No one is guarding the bridge.
“Did I do the right thing?”
“You did great.” Corey pointed to Nicole. “Juan, stay here with Miss Nicole. We will go get Mom.”
Shane ran around the courthouse with Corey. He brought out his cell. “Call Black.”
As they sprinted, Corey pulled out the keys to his truck, which was parked out front.
“Shane, what’s your status?”
Jumping into the passenger’s seat of the truck, he filled Easton in on all that had gone down at the courthouse as Corey hit the gas. When they turned left on West Street, he saw Trollinger’s car. “We’ve got eyes on her vehicle now, sir.”
“We’re on our way.” By Black’s heavy breathing, Shane knew he was running. “I’ll get Jason on the horn with the state patrol. Keep the line open.”
Setting up roadblocks would take too much time.