Nothing Left to Lose (Guarded Hearts 1)

“Carter will be here tonight, Anna. Just chill out for a few hours, okay? You hungry? I could get you some food,” he offered from the other side of the door.

“I’m not hungry. Please let me go. You know what he’s going to do to me. Please?” I slumped down to the floor, crying hopelessly.

“I’m sorry, Anna, really I am. But I can’t let you go, he’ll kill me,” he replied.

I nodded. I knew he would. Jimmy was always one of the nice ones. Occasionally he would sneak me food and drink or some painkillers when Carter would starve or beat me. Carter didn’t know, of course, Jimmy would have been dead a long time ago for even talking to me.

“It’s okay, Jimmy.” I wiped my tears on the back of my hand. I wouldn’t cry anymore, crying was pointless, crying was weakness, and I refused to be weak. I wrapped my arms around myself and thought of Ashton. I could see his beautiful green eyes, and how angry his face would look if he was here right now. I closed my eyes and leant my head against the wall, praying that somehow I would get out of here before the inevitable happened. I would actually rather die than go back to living like a caged animal with Carter again.

Chapter Forty-Seven

~ Ashton ~

Exhaustion didn’t quite cover what I felt as I sat on the edge of my bed. I’d just been to work for sixteen hours straight, and my body was hurting like hell. I flopped onto my back and glanced over at the clock; it was only eight in the evening. Unable to resist, I picked up my cell phone and texted Anna, the same as I did every day.

‘I had a hard day at work today. I really would love to talk to you. Please call me. I love you, always x’

I sent it and closed my eyes, not even bothering to get undressed, and fell to sleep immediately.

I woke just after nine in the morning to my cell phone ringing on the bed next to me. I grabbed it quick and answered it, hoping it was Anna. “Agent Taylor,” I croaked, my voice thick with sleep.

“Ashton, it’s Officer Weston.”

I frowned. “Yes, sir?” I replied, sitting up quickly. He never called me; I wasn’t assigned to him anymore.

“Ashton, I’ve just heard something, and I thought you should know,” he sounded remarkably stressed and I felt my body tense up. “Miss Spencer’s been taken, her guards are dead. They think it’s Carter Thomas.”

My tired brain immediately registered what he’d said. Anna. Anna was in trouble. “WHAT? WHEN?” I cried, jumping out of the bed, stripping out of my uniform and grabbing the first clean clothes that I saw, throwing them on.

“Just a couple of hours ago. One of the agents managed to call through to the White House for backup, but by the time they got extra staff there, everyone was dead and she was gone,” he said sadly.

Anger made my teeth ache as I clenched my jaw. I was angry at Carter, angry at myself for not being there, and I was also angry at Anna for sending me away in the first place. I should have been there, I could have stopped this. Out of frustration, I kicked my chest of drawers, taking my anger out on that. When that didn’t help, I grabbed it and pulled it over, spilling everything over to the floor, making a loud crash as the mirror broke and my possessions scattered all over my floor.

“Do they know where she is?” I asked.

He sighed. “No, they have no idea. They don’t think she got on a plane, they’ve been monitoring the airports, but she could be anywhere by now,” he replied.

My heart was in my throat, my hands shaking with rage. If he touched one hair on her beautiful head, I would rip him to pieces! “I need to go, sir,” I stated, not even waiting for an answer.

I disconnected the call and dialled Anna’s number. It answered immediately. “Who’s this?” a man’s voice asked.

I felt the snarl try to rip itself out of my mouth. “Who the f**k is this and what are you doing with Anna’s phone?” I growled as I threw a change of clothes into a bag along with my guns, ammo, knives and my other tactical gear.

“This is Agent Richards,” the voice replied hesitantly.

“This is Agent Taylor. Why do you have Anna’s phone?” I asked, trying to control my breathing; all I wanted to do was smash everything, and that wouldn’t help at all.

“Miss Spencer didn’t take her cell phone; it’s here in the apartment.”

I closed my eyes and groaned. They couldn’t even track her through her cell signal. Why hadn’t I ever thought about getting a tracking device on her body or something? I could have suggested it to her dad, I’m sure he could have commissioned something small enough to attach to the back of an earring or necklace.

I ended the call, pressing the phone to my forehead, thinking. Officer Weston was right, they could be anywhere by now, with Carter’s money and contacts they could be on a boat, helicopter or private plane, on their way to goodness knows where. He even suggested in one of his letters that they go somewhere else for a fresh start when he got out of jail. How was I going to find her if I had no idea where to look?

I groaned and threw my bag onto the bed angrily. I felt useless; there was nothing I could do from here on my own. I would just have to fly to Arizona and wait in her apartment with the other agents; I would make her dad reinstate me as her guard so I could devote my time to finding her. I wouldn’t give up, not even if I had to look for a lifetime.

If only I could find someone who knew Carter’s whereabouts, or at the very least, someone who worked for him so that I could force them to tell me where she was. An idea suddenly hit me, I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was sure as hell worth a try. I held my breath as I dialled the one person who I knew would have a chance at finding her. He was a lying, cheating scumbag, and I hadn’t seen him for five years. I’d met him when I was going through a bad stage in my teens and had fallen in with the wrong crowd. He was a low level criminal, but he had a lot of contacts. He used to make it his business to know everything about everyone. I’d looked up to him for a time when I was a young and impressionable seventeen year old, until I realised that wasn’t the person that I wanted to be. That was when I decided to get my life on track and make something of myself, before it was too late. He was one of the reasons that I decided to train to be a police officer. If anyone would have an idea of how to get to Carter Thomas, it would be Julian Simms.