Page 5

I can tell I’ve flustered the woman who rapidly blinks a few times and then furiously types at the keyboard of her computer.
“There are five more departures with three different airlines. I don’t have the capability of printing them out so here.”
She jots down each flight and airline on a small piece of paper and hurriedly hands me the note.
“Thank you.”
The good news is that the departure times are spread out enough that we should be able to catch each one before they leave. The bad news is that LAX is a huge airport and the gates for these flights are spread out. We’ll have to split up.
“You take these two gates,” I tell Lars. “And I’ll check these three. The other team can keep an eye on the entrances and exitsjust in case he changes his plans. Keep your phone on. Leave no stone unturned. She may be in a restaurant or a bathroom or–”
“I’m on it, Hunter. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
I never took much notice of just how many people travel through the airport on any given day but now I see. Searching for Megan among the throngs of people sitting in departure areas and eateries is like looking for a needle in a haystack—especially when every woman I see suddenly looks like her.
“Excuse me, have you seen this woman?” I show every single person I come across one of my favorite pictures of Megan on my cell phone. It’s one taken in the morning light and she’s working on one of her paintings in the apartment. I called her name and she turned around, somewhat startled, but smiling…and I took the shot.
I check in with Lars and the second security team thirty minutes later and feel defeated when they tell me what I already know. They haven’t had any luck locating Megan and suddenly my rage morphs into a moment of sudden clarity.
I call Vaughn.
“We did exactly what he wanted us to do,” I tell him. “We’re spinning our wheels.”
“How so?”
“They’re not here Vaughn. I don’t feel her.”
“You don’tfeelher? What am I supposed to do with that kind of logic, Hunter?”
“Fabre knew we would come here looking for them. Think about it. Taking Megan was not in the plan. She just happened to be downstairs when they got Naomi.”
“Yeah, and?”
“And if it was us and we had to suddenly change the plan, what would we do?”
There’s a long pause and then Vaughn responds, “We’d drive.”
Exactly.
“I’ll get Lars. You pull the teams. We need to get on the road. We’ve wasted too much time in here.”
I check the time.
If Fabre stayed in that damn car with the girls and hit the highway, they have two hours on us.
“They’ll have to pee at some point, especially because Megan’s pregnant. They’ll stop and burn up valuable time. If we haul ass we can catch up to them. It’s a long fucking way to Louisiana from here.”
The thought that he’s dragging my pregnant fiancee across the country, pregnant, and probably scared is almost too much to bear. Trying to catch up when he has a two-hour head start is not productive.
But I know what is.
“No,” I say in a deadly calm voice. “We’re going to fly to Louisiana and meet that motherfucker with a welcome party of our own. Book us a private jet in Burbank.”
“On it.”
“And Vaughn?”
“Yeah, Hunt?”