Page 39 of Distress Signal

“Her phone is turned off, but the last place it pinged was right outside the Swallow. We also found her rental car in the lot. Whoever took her, took her from there.”

“That bar really needs to increase its exterior security,” I gritted out. “Hire a fucking guard or something.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.”

Last year, right around this same time, Aspen was abducted right outside the Swallow too and held captive for a full day at aremote cabin in the woods before her assailant left her to die in a fire.

Crew saved her life, and now they were getting married in a few months.

Theirs was the kind of love story people wrote books about, and I hoped like hell Lainey’s had a similarly happy ending.

“So what do you want us to do?”

“Well, Trey is going in to get security footage from the night she went missing, as well as anything he can get from seven years ago.”

I blinked in surprise. Now that Lane had gotten over himself and brought Trey on, but that he thought we’d be able to get our hands on anything like that after so much time had passed.

Raider slowed to a gentle trot as we neared my barn, and I slid off, leading him inside and into a stall. We’d taken it easy on the way back, so there was no need to cool him down. I’d untack him when I hung up with Lane.

“You think they’ve kept those kinds of records?” I asked as I absently ran a hand down Raider’s chestnut flank.

“Honestly? I doubt it, but if anyone can make something out of nothing where this shit is concerned, it’s Trey.”

True. Our second oldest brother was one of the best in the country, making a pretty penny in private and cyber security after he’d left the Secret Service and returned to Dusk Valley nearly a decade ago.

“I want you and West to ask around,” Lane continued. “The good ole boys will talk to you.”

Another truth. Small towns treated military vets like superheroes, and though a lot of what we’d done in the Rangers was classified, they all knew we’d been part of several important missions. To them, West and I were practically gods. If we bought them a few drinks and let them relive their own glory days in the service, they’d sing like canaries.

“You call West yet?”

“I was going to after I got off with you. And I’m going to send you a picture of Lainey that you can flash around, okay?”

“Sure,” I said. “Give me an hour to untack and groom Raider, shower, and we’ll head in.”

“Thanks brother,” Lane said, his relief evident. “I owe you one.”

“I’ll be taking you up on that,” I assured him before hanging up, my phone beeping a moment after with the promised photo.

Little did he know, I’d do it for free, no quid pro quo necessary.

If it meant giving Reagan her sister back, safe and whole and unharmed, I’d do whatever it took.

twelve

. . .

FINN

As promised,sixty minutes later, Raider was clean, fed, and bedded down in his stall. I was freshly showered and dressed in my standard uniform of Carhartt pocket tee, my nicest pair of jeans, and favorite boots. I’d finished brushing my teeth and was applying deodorant when my front door opened.

Though no one in my family ever knocked when they came in, I knew it was West before I saw him. I could sense him through that “woo-woo twin shit” Lane liked to thumb his nose at.

“Ari in the guest house again?” he asked as I came out of the bathroom, meeting him in the center of my great room, the kitchen and dining room to my left.

Moving to the front windows, I flicked the curtain to the side. Sure enough, the lights in the house across the field glowed.

“Must be.”