Page 68 of Hidden Resolution

“Maybe she didn’t think that far ahead. Maybe she just wanted to torment me so badly, she didn’t consider it,” he suggested.

Damn it all if Dane didn’t have a valid point. The entire setup felt off.

“I’m not buying that,” Mason said. “She’s been extremely careful not to get caught until now.”

“Fuck! You’re right.” Zack dragged his hands down his face and steepled his palms in front of his mouth.

His obvious torment shredded Mason’s soul.

“What do we do?” Zack’s question was hoarse and hurting.

“Youdo nothing. Let us handle it.” To stop his protest, Bucky held up a hand. “I’m serious about this, man. We’re trained for situations of this nature. You’re not. I’ll call it in that Christie might be holed up there. But if you go charging over, half-cocked, you could get Erica killed.”

“Dammit, Buck! I’m dying over here,” Zack protested.

Mason understood in a way no one could. If he were in Zack’s predicament, he’d react exactly the same way. To be unable to protect the person you loved the most had to be devastating. His gaze zeroed in on Shonda, who was wide awake and watchful. One arm was wrapped across her stomach as if she were hugging herself, and with her opposite hand, she covered her mouth as if preventing an involuntary scream.

“I could always arrest you for obstruction and throw you in a cell to cool off, I suppose,” Bucky said.

“Are you trying to get me back for suspecting you earlier?” Zack asked, half serious.

“Partly.” His half smile flashed before his expression turned solemn again.

Zack pivoted toward the hallway. “I’m going to check on Jacob.”

The next moments were pure madness as he tore through the house, screaming Jacob’s name. Mason and Dane rushed to follow suit while Bucky checked the exterior of the house.

“What the fuck?”Zack shouted. “How the hell does an eight-year-old boy just disappear from a house with a half-dozen cops surrounding the outside and five adults on the inside?”

“Stay calm,” Dane ordered.

With ice-cold blood running through his veins, Mason had to force himself to stop and think. Where the hell would Jacob go? To see his grandfather? Props to the kid for stealth, but when he found him, hopefully unharmed, Jacob would soon learn his life was too fucking precious to be risking his neck on boneheaded moves. To say nothing of aging his dad as he had.

“Do you think he might have gone to Charlie’s?” he suggested.

Wasting no time, Zack grabbed his cell and pulled up Charlie’s number. After a long series of rings, he shook his head. “No answer.”

Dane and Zack ran for the door, and Mason stopped Shonda with an arm around her waist as she moved to follow.

“They’ve got it.” At her understanding nod, he sat down beside her and gathered her close. How bizarre that he was the one needing comfort.

“I have a sinking feeling,” she told him.

He did, too, but overcome by the rising tide of anger, worry, and pure fear, he couldn’t speak. It went against his nature to do nothing, but Bucky was correct. Their interference could get Erica killed.

Approaching footsteps echoed through the house, and Mason rose to greet his brothers. Their expressions were identical: two individuals who had been sucker-punched by fate.

Mason hugged him, and sobs wracked Zack’s body as the adrenaline caught up to him.

“We think she has Jacob, too. We found Charlie in a pool of blood, unconscious,” Zack rasped.

“Apparently, Christie hit him over the head and texted Jacob, pretending to be Charlie,” Dane clarified.

From somewhere behind him, Mason heard Shonda gasp. “Oh my god.”

Yeah, his morbid thoughts exactly.

“Since our hands are tied, I feel like we should be there for Charlie,” Dane suggested flatly, eyes haunted.