Sweetest Taboo (SIN 3)

"I'm sure. I'm logged in to her account. I can see the phone's location on the map. And we're looking at a circumference of about eight meters."

Dallas nodded, trusting his friend because he knew damn well that he couldn't rely on himself. He wasn't thinking straight at all. The last thing he remembered with any clarity was standing in the new apartment that he shared with Jane, a little shell-shocked after she'd laid into him about the secrets he'd been keeping. She'd stormed out, and he'd forced himself to hold back, knowing that she needed to get her anger out of her system. He'd expected her to take a walk, maybe visit her friend Brody.

He hadn't expected t

hat she would be attacked. Taken.

He hadn't expected a repeat of their goddamn childhood.

And he sure as hell hadn't anticipated that his phone would ping with a text message showing Jane splayed out on the street, her eyes closed and her face battered.

That image had been horrible enough. But what really gave him chills was the carnival-style mask on the ground next to her prone form. A mask just like the one the Woman had worn when she'd entered their cell all those years ago. Like she'd worn when she took him away from Jane. When she'd tortured him for hours--days--on end.

His stomach twisted as his mind filled with images of what she'd done to him. Only this time, it wasn't Dallas who was the victim of the Woman's cruel abuse, but Jane.

No. Please, God, no.

"No mask, no Jane. Christ, Liam, where the fuck is she?"

"The guys are on their way. They'll start going door to door. We'll find her," Liam said, but Dallas could hear the fear in his voice, too.

He turned in a circle as he examined the empty street in this quiet, residential area. Jane had to be somewhere, and maybe the Woman had dragged her into one of these brownstones. Maybe someone had seen something, heard something. But the street was empty now. Noah and Tony would go door to door looking for witnesses. But that would take time.

Time Jane might not have.

Her attacker could have taken her anywhere. But she could also be right there, just meters away. She could be watching from a window, her hands tied, her mouth gagged, hope fading as she saw him fumbling in the dark.

Fuck that.

Dallas took another hard look at the area he'd already scoured. No phone.

He stepped off the sidewalk and into the street. Same as it had been two minutes ago. Except...

"The gutter," he said to Liam even as he dropped to his hands and knees, then thrust his arm in up to the shoulder. Absurd, really. If the phone was down there, it would be well out of reach in the storm drain, ready to be washed away with the next rain. He couldn't get to it, not without--

"I have it." Then he spit out a curse. Because so the fuck what? The phone wasn't the woman, and he still didn't have Jane. And now he knew with absolute certainty that she wasn't with her phone.

Fuck.

"Open her photos," Liam ordered. "There wasn't any location information buried in the picture you received or the text. Maybe the photo was taken in another block. Maybe they attacked her somewhere else and ditched the phone here."

"Already on it," Dallas said, a spring of hope bubbling as he tapped and swiped the screen to get the photo to open. Sure enough, there was location information attached. He read the GPS coordinates off to Liam, his body tense as he waited for Liam to send him to a new location.

But all Liam did was whisper a soft "Goddammit."

Dallas didn't need to hear more. He knew what that meant. His last line to Jane had been severed.

He cocked his head, thinking.

Maybe not the last, after all.

"Colin awake?"

"Coming around," Liam said. "We loaded him up with a shit-ton of tranqs, but they're starting to wear off. I was about to dose him again. Keep him under until Quince can get here from London."

"No," Dallas said. "Let him wake up. I'm coming in."

Dallas had known Colin West since he was five years old. He'd grown up around the man. He'd comforted Jane when Colin's boneheaded decisions had put her in danger. He'd held her when Lisa, their mom, had filed suit to terminate Colin's parental rights so that Eli--Dallas's uncle and adoptive father--could adopt Jane, making Dallas and Jane full-blown brother and sister.