Page 17

Chapter

Sixteen

GABE

T he sound of deep barking right next to me has my eyes springing open.

The first thing I see is Reaper standing next to my bed.

All my instincts start firing instantly.

The only reason Reaper would be waking me up is because something has happened to Tara.

I turn the table lamp on because it’s still dark outside.

Of course, the side of the bed that Tara was sleeping on is now empty, just like I feared it would be.

Turning my attention back to Reaper, I see blood streaming down his face.

“What happened, boy?” Reaper lets out a low growl and crosses the room to nose Tara’s boots as if he understands what I’m asking.

I’m off the bed in seconds and throwing open the closet doors.

I pull down whatever shirt and pants my hands touch first.

“Come,” I say toward Reaper as I grab my phone and head downstairs.

He follows me instantly, meaning he knows English and Italian commands.

I pull up my contacts and call Reed.

He answers on the second ring.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly, jumping the last two steps.

My eyes zero in on the opened back door.

Reaper heads that way, and I follow him.

He stops outside the door, puts his nose to the deck, and barks.

“Was that Reaper? What the fuck is going on?” Reed’s voice holds a hint of fear, and I feel it in my bones.

I bend down and look closer.

“There’s blood on my deck, and Tara’s gone.”

“I’ll be there in five.”

I don’t pocket my phone nor let the memories of what happened last time Tara went missing take over like they are trying to do.

Instead, I hit Demon’s number and repeat the exact conversation with him that I just had with Reed.

He tells me that he and Elio are already on their way into town.

They were coming to help Carlos but will now head my way.

I might not have the gate surrounding my property like Reed or Nick’s high-tech system.

Still, I do have cameras covering every inch of my property.

Whoever fucking took my girl should be on there, and I will find them.

Then I will end them.

Reaper follows me inside, where I grab my laptop and get comfortable at the dining room table.

By the time the damn thing powers on and I open the software controlling the camera, the sound of my front door opening comes down through the living room.

Reaper lets out a low growl, but he stops when I drop my hand on his head.

“What do we have?” Reed asks, basically running to get to me.

“I’m checking the cameras now. Go grab my extra monitor out of the office.” I have a huge setup in there, but I don’t have time to move this in there.

Reed takes off without being told twice.

Within seconds, he is back, and the monitor is plugged in.

I move the software to the bigger screen and hit a couple of keys, going back an hour seeing nothing I go back another.

Just as I hit play, the front door opens for a second time, but this time, multiple voices can be heard.

Elio’s voice is the first one I can concentrate on.

“No, Vance and Ricco come to me. I want at least five men with Ava at all times. The others need to contact Carlos’s second in command and do what he says.”

“Rodrigo, I’m sending six of Elio’s men to you. Remember what I said, no harm is to come to his girlfriend or child. I want Ned alive, but if that can’t happen, do what you have to, but we need confirmation that he is dead,” Carlos barks.

“There,” Reed says, pointing at the screen and effectively refocusing my attention on what we are doing.

My cameras have night vision, making seeing the video and details easier.

We watch as a person moves out of the wooded area surrounding the back of my home.

“Demon, I need your?—”

“Right here,” Demon says from my right, setting his laptop down before lowering himself in a chair.

“What do you need?”

“Pull up the trial cameras on the north-east of my property. Start at the time stamp one-fifteen.” The figure stepped out of the woods at the timestamp of one-thirty on my camera.

“I want to see if there was anyone with this fucker. Reed, grab my spare laptop and load up the same camera feed to see if we can track which way they came in.”

Since there are no movements on the cameras facing the front of my house, I focus on the three facing the back of my house: one pointed straight at the back door and two pointing at the woods.

Five minutes after the figure emerged, I watch Tara as she opens the back door on the video feed.

The figure steps back into the woods when Reaper is seen on the camera.

“Can we get a close-up view of the face?” Elio asks.

He must have moved to stand behind me.

“Not from this far away, but since there is blood on the back deck, whoever it is has to come closer. I’ll get it,” I reply, not taking my eyes off the screen.

The figure steps back out and moves fast toward Reaper.

Suddenly, the dog yelps as something is thrown from the person.

Reaper goes down and never gets back up.

The sound of fingers flying over keyboards is the only sound mixing with our breathing.

It’s starting to grate on my nerves, but I know this is the only way to figure out who took my girl.

I click on the camera that is focused on the back door right as Tara walks out onto the deck.

The words ‘don’t, stop, run’ claw at my throat, but it will do me no good to yell them now.

I remind myself that this happened two hours ago, and nothing I say now can help past Tara.

When the figure rushes Tara and punches her hard, my breath stalls in my chest. My hands ball tightly into fists, itching to feel the man’s skin splitting under my knuckles.

“Pause it there,” Carlos says, his hand shooting into my vision as he points at the screen.

I hit the spacebar to freeze the video feed.

“Do you mind?” I look over my shoulder and nod.

I’m not a computer person, so if he has the knowledge to give us a clearer image, who am I to stop him?

I stand and move so Carlos can take my place.

He plugs a small flash drive into my laptop and starts typing away at the keys.

“From the cameras we have in the woods, it looks like he was alone,” Demon says.

“He came in from the east access road, but we don’t have any cameras facing the road, so I can’t get a look at whatever vehicle he was driving,” Reed says, sitting back and running a hand through his hair.

Elio’s phone chimes, and he pulls it out and then curses.

“Gabe, was Tara wearing the gold bracelet when she was taken?”

“Yeah, she was. Why?” I answer quickly because I remember the feeling of it under my palm and pressed against me while I took her body over and over last night.

Elio doesn’t answer.

Instead, his fingers fly over his phone.

“This is the best we are going to get. Does anyone know this man?” Carlos asks, motioning for us to come closer.

Everyone moves in around him to get a look at the enhanced photo.

I study the man as quickly as possible, trying to place him, but come up empty.

“No,” I sigh, hating that I don’t know him.

“I’ve never seen him,” Reed says next.

“Same, but I’ll run the image through my software and see what I can find,” Demon says, returning to his seat.

“Send me that picture.”

Elio is last to look at the screen, shaking his head before going back to paying attention to his phone.

“Yes,” he exclaims a second later.

“We have a location. Let’s move.”

“Where is she?” I ask while falling in step with Elio.

Carlos, Reed, Demon, and Reaper follow us through the house.

“From the looks of it, she is about an hour away. Vance is working on getting us everything we need about the location. They will meet us there with all the weapons we need to get her back,” Elio says, heading toward an SUV.

We all get in and buckle as he reverses and heads down the driveway.

“I’ll keep trying to get any information about the asshole that took her,” Demon says from the backseat.

“I’ll have Travis and Vinny meet us as well,” Carlos says.

I turn around to look at Reed.

“You don’t have to?—”

“Fuck you. I failed her once. I’m not going to do it again,” he growls, shooting me a look that tells me to shut up or he might hit me.

“But you have Ali and the boys to worry about,” I say, pointing out that if this goes south, he has a family now.

“Ali would have my balls in a vice if she knew I didn’t go after Tara.” I know better than to push him with how cold his tone is coupled with the fire in his eyes, so I turn back toward Elio.

“How did you find her?” I ask because I need something to keep my mind from going over what might be happening to my girl right now.

The sun is rising, and that bastard has had her all alone for at least three hours.

“I had a special bracelet made. Tara doesn’t know it has a tracking chip because I knew she would refuse to wear it. Ava lied and told her that it was her mother’s. She told Tara that she always pictured giving it to our first child, and since we see Tara as our daughter, we wanted her to have it. With everything going on, I forgot about it. But Ava didn’t,” Elio says as he goes out around a tractor driving down the road.

“Thank fuck for that,” I say, sitting back.

I pull out my phone and stare at the picture on my lock screen.

I run my fingers over Tara’s beautiful face and promise her that I’m coming and that I will end whoever has her before he can cause my girl any more damage or pain.