I started on the next one.
From the corner of my eye, I saw something scurry across the floor. I jerked, scuttling away from the edge of the platform as far the chains would allow.
My stomach dropped, and a cold chill went through me.
Rats.
Then I screamed.
Vic
It had been seven hours. Seven fuckin’ hours she’d been gone. I knew what Aiden was capable of in one minute. Snapping a rat’s neck. Lighting fire to a cat’s tail. And that was when he was a kid.
I couldn’t think about the seven hours he’d been alone with Macayla.
Did he sell her? Was she already gone?
Fuckin’ Christ. I felt as if I was slowly sinking in quicksand. All I wanted to do was fight and lose my shit, but if I did, I’d drown in a raging fury, and I didn’t know if I’d come back from that.
Calm. I needed to stay fuckin’ calm. She needed me to be calm and find her. Bring her back to Jackson. To me.
“Chopper should be landing any minute. Ethan’s with him,” Jaeg informed me from where he sat at Callum’s desk with a laptop open in front of him. He was reviewing the storefront security footage Saint managed to get from the businesses surrounding Zero Crow. All we had so far was the van turning right out of the Zero Crow parking lot and heading south out of town. Saint had every cop in town searching for the van, but it had been too long.
I’d gone to the house and grabbed every fuckin’ weapon I had stashed under the floorboards in my bedroom. Saint had brought his own arsenal, and now all we needed was a location.
Where the fuck would he take her?
Jaeg nodded, looking up from the laptop. “So, what? He’s been staking out the bar?”
I shook my head. “Not in person. Not with Darius here every day, and Callum’s men watching the cameras. They’d notice the van or him lurking. He had to be watching another way. Fed into the cameras somehow. He knew Macayla was working here, and exactly what time she’d pull in. He knew she was important to us.”
Saint stood with his arms crossed over his police vest. “Don’t like to say this, but Aderyn and Hettie. They are important to us. He could’ve used them at any time. Why Macayla?”
“Yeah, but Vic’s been gone for years. It’s the first time we’ve all been back together,” Jaeg said. “Fuck, I’ve always hated that sicko. We should’ve ended him back then.”
But Callum had let the bastard escape.
My cell vibrated, and I glanced at the screen. UNKNOWN. Likely Callum letting us know he’d landed. I slid my finger across the screen and placed it to my ear. “Gate.”
Macayla’s screams vibrated through the phone.
No. Jesus, no. My blood curdled, and the terror and rage clashed like a hurricane of bullets hitting me from all directions.
Fuck, Macayla.
Breathe. Think. He wants you to freak out and make a mistake.
Take her out of the equation. What do you hear?
I blocked out her screams and focused on everything else. I lowered the phone, put it on speaker, and placed it on the desk so Jaeg and Saint could hear too. No one said anything as Macayla screamed and shouted.
Chains. She was chained to something. And her voice sounded hollow, echoing as if the place was empty. I lowered my head and closed my eyes, blocking out the chains. Her screams. What else? There. What the hell was that? A cold tremor shot down my spine.
I knew that sound. I waited, hoping to hear it again.
There was a loud bang like a heavy door shutting, and her screams cut off. I picked up the phone and placed it to my ear again. “Let her go, Aiden. She has done nothing to you. You want me? Then you can have me.”
“You figured out it’s me already?” He tsked. “Now, that’s no fun.”