Page 49 of Guarded Knight (Echo Valley #3)

I’m pacing in a tight circle around the hotel manager’s office, hands fisted, pulse refusing to settle. Anton’s here, calm only on the outside. Inside, I know he’s one wrong look away from throwing someone through a wall, just like me.

My heart’s a block of lead, every beat grinding through rusted gears.

We had it wrong. I was wrong about Freya. Wrong about Cameron. We were wrong about Kevin. Who the hell took my girl?

She trusted me. And I let her vanish.

The clicking of the keyboard and the manager’s voice pull me from my spiral. SEALs don’t spiral.

They deliver.

Thankfully, the manager is not only dutiful but focused as well. He doesn’t want this shit going down on his soil. Bad press.

“I’m pulling up the camera feed from the service tunnels now,” the manager says, fingers pulling at the mouse as he hovers over the timeline. “You said the janitor’s closet, ladies’ room, that leads out into a corridor. Twenty minutes ago…” He squints. “Oh… dear God…”

I peer over the back of his chair, and fuck… It’s her. Slung over the back of some giant, like she weighs nothing, hair falls across her face. One of her heels is missing. She wails down on his huge back with bound wrists. And then he throws her in a laundry cart.

Every muscle in my body screams to tear through that screen, but all I can do is watch the proof that I failed her.

The thought is a punch to the chest; she trusted me to keep her safe. And I didn’t.

My jaw clenches so tight it aches, but I don’t move. Not yet. Not while there’s still more to see.

The man’s face is turned just enough to blur, but something about him catches me. The way he moves, the way his shoulders roll. There’s a familiarity to it. It’s impossible to make out his features, but just the shape of him teases the edge of my memory.

The video rolls on, and he secures a lid over her.

“Cut to the van,” I say, voice steady even though everything inside me is screaming. “We need the plate.”

While the manager sets to work, I pull out my cell. We need Ava, Enzo… anybody who can pull up details faster than the police will.

I toss a glance at Anton. “I’m calling Enzo.”

He’s already scrolling through contacts. “I’ll get to Rio.”

No question. No hesitation.

My gut twists hard. Instinct begs me to break something. Roar her name until the world shatters.

But there’s no time for this. I need to go cold. I’ve done it before. In worse places. With worse odds.

Only this isn’t war. I’m not fighting some other man’s battle of wills. This is Lara.

My future.

And I was supposed to be hers.

What the hell are we even going to do when we do find her? We can’t just call the cops and storm a building. Not with premeditation. That’s how people die.

We need a play. We need precision.

Normally, I’d call Callum and Luke, they’re cops with a taste for vigilante shit, but they’re an hour away from here. I have to trust Anton and I can do this alone. That whoever did this is operating a one-man band. One man is no match for us. I have to believe that.

The phone rings once… twice… three times…

Nothing.

I clench my jaw until it aches. The manager’s still clicking.

Come on, Zo…

Anton speaks into his cell. “Rio. If we get a plate can you run it? And get someone on pulling any other details? Lara was taken.”

Just hearing those words from Anton’s mouth has my chest screaming with tight pain.

I never told her I loved her.

The manager clicks his mouse. “Here!”

The phone is still ringing in my ear when I glance down at the screen and see the van. “Can you zoom in?”

The plate. I read the number aloud. “Ant, tell Rio it’s ATH 758.”

Anton repeats the information.

I don’t even realize my phone was still ringing until Enzo’s voice answers.

“It’s almost time to lather sunscreen on my redheaded goddess, but if you’re calling, something’s wrong.”

“Lara was abducted.”

Enzo must take the phone from his mouth because his call is distant. “Scottie!” he calls urgently for his fiancée. “We got a nine-one-one.” His voice becomes more urgent. “We’re heading back to the hotel and we’ll fire up the laptops.”

I have my family on speaker phone, all of us connected now from California to Tahiti, and my family chimes in whenever they find something as we wait for a location in Anton’s truck.

I stare at the printouts of the hotel CCTV and have an eerie feeling about the monster who took my girl. The shape of him is familiar. The jawline of his profile…

Rio finally reports. “The van is registered to a Trent Halverston.” He types in the background. “San Jose CCTV tracking the van to Pristine Pressing. Off Fulton in San Jose. I’ll send coordinates on a text. Last satellite update shows one van parked outside.”

Anton fires up the truck, and I type the destination into the Sat Nav. We speed off.

Questions race through my mind as we barrel fast down the streets of San Jose. Who is Trent? I’ve seen that name before. Somewhere. I stare again at the printouts. The broad back, the buzz cut… I fucking know him from somewhere…

Enzo’s voice comes over the speaker. “Halverston held a pharmacy license in New Mexico.”

Pharmacy…?

The pharmacy.

Ice flows through my veins. The flirty goddamn pharmacist? The son of a bitch I wanted to smash up in the bar for looking at Lara the way he did?

He wanted her. I knew he did.

I search for Trent Halverston on my cell and find an image that coils every muscle in my body.

There he is. Huge. In the photo, he has long hair but his soulless blue eyes are the same.

And now he has her.

A silent scream rips through my core, and I have to grip the dashboard not to smash the window. He was right under our noses.

I have to focus on the mission. I can’t focus on mistakes, just what’s left to be done. I have to get to Lara.

I speak into my cell. “Team, I’ve seen the man before. Confirm he worked at the Echo Valley Pharmacy.”

For a while, all that comes through the group call is clicking and clacking that stabs at my heart.

Finally, Ava chimes in. “Cross-checked work records. Currently employed on an intern contract at Echo Valley Pharmacy.”

Enzo adds, “Halverston also worked at Santa Fe General.”

My breath stalls in my throat. Every muscle in my body goes taut.

Trent stalked her all the way from New Mexico. This man is dangerous. He hasn’t wanted her for a week. He’s wanted her for at least a month. Possibly a lot longer… he’s had time. Time to obsess. Time to plan.

“How did we miss this?” I grind out.

Anton’s hands clench tighter on the wheel.

“This guy, Trent, followed her here. All the way to Echo Valley.” I spiral with guilt and shame. “How the fuck did I miss this?”

Anton doesn’t flinch, doesn’t curse. Just stares out at the road, jaw like stone. But when he speaks, his words cut through the chaos.

“Brother, look ahead, not behind. We know who the target is. Doesn’t matter where he came from. Only matters where he’s headed.”

I nod once and push away the sick thoughts in my mind.

I speak into my cell. “Keep digging. I want everything on him. Any special skills. Anything at all that can help us understand what we’re getting into.”

I sit in the passenger seat, jaw locked, phone clutched so tight I could crush it. But Anton is right. I can’t think about what we missed, but rather aim for what’s still out there.

Anton turns the wheel hard, veering onto the next street without missing a beat. “Fulton’s ten out. We’ll make it in five.” Anton’s jaw flexes. “We going in quiet?”

“No other way. He’s premeditated. If we spook him…” I can’t finish the sentence.

He might do the unthinkable. If he hasn’t already… He was watching. Waiting. Perving on his sick little fantasy until he had the perfect chance. A pain like no other throbs in my chest.

I can’t lose her. Not when we were so close.

Not when I never told her I loved her.

God, what must she be thinking? Terrified. Alone. Betrayed by every instinct.

I rub a hand over my mouth. The air in the truck feels too hot. My heart’s a goddamn war drum.

“She’s strong,” Anton says, knowing I need calming.

But I don’t want her strong right now. I want her safe. She can fight through anything, but I never want her fighting alone.

Anton tries to reassure me. “We’re going to get her back. We’ve got gear in the trunk.”

We fall into silence. Not a peaceful silence. The kind where you count heartbeats between the seconds and prepare for the worst.

Get her back doesn’t begin to cover what I’m going to do.

I’m going to find her.

I’m going to end him.

And then I’m going to tell her everything—how I never stopped loving her, how every goddamn second without her was the loneliest of my life, how she’s it for me. Always has been.

And how I’m never leaving her side again.

It feels like an eternity until we round a bend and the warehouse comes into view. It’s rust-eaten, dead and alive at the same time like a haunted house.

The truck slows. Anton kills the engine.

He touched Lara. That was the wrong move.

This isn’t a rescue. This is an execution.