Page 29

Emma

W hen we pull onto Jessica’s road, there’s no sign of the car she described. Mason and Ty ride ahead in search of it, while Jax and I pull up to check the house. Worryingly though, her house is in complete darkness despite the fact it’s nighttime and her car is still in the driveway. The house stands eerily abandoned next to its brightly lit neighbors and before we even approach, I know that the house is empty. Max isn’t here.

We’re too late.

Which surely means only one thing, Kane’s men must have taken Jessica and her children too.

Despite my sickening certainty of what I will find, I race out of the car, barely waiting for Jax to come to a complete standstill, and head for the front door. The door’s the kind that self-locks when you close it. I ring the doorbell, knowing that no one will answer, so I don’t wait before I pull out my spare key and open it with shaking hands.

“Max!” I frantically call, my voice echoing down the empty hallway. “Jess!” I add, running around the house, checking every room.

“I’ll search upstairs,” I hear Jax call out behind me.

I don’t respond, I’m too eager to find some evidence that this is all some terrible mistake. Hoping that I’ll find them shut in the seldom-used dining room at the back, pretending for the watcher’s benefit that they’ve left.

When I reach the kitchen and my eyes land on the dirty dishes left on the table, I know for sure that something went terribly wrong. Jess is a fastidious housekeeper and would never leave the tidying up before going out. She can’t have left of her own accord.

I sink down onto the cold tiled floor, my legs buckling from under me as a strange, guttural moan escapes my lips.

“There’s no one up here,” I hear Jax call out, confirming that the worst has indeed happened.

That we’ve stepped right into a nightmare.

“Emma?” Jax calls out, searching for me now, but I don’t have the strength to reply.

I wrap my arms tightly around my knees, curling up into a ball as I slowly rock.

“I’m never going to see my baby again…” I mutter in disbelief.

“Emma!” Jax calls again, his voice closer this time, his footsteps quickening. “There you are,” I hear him sigh with relief a few moments later.

“They’re gone,” I say numbly.

“I know,” he replies softly, sitting down beside me and pulling me into his warm, tender arms. “But we’ll find them,” he adds with a conviction I don’t share.

“How?”

“Have you tried calling Jessica? Maybe she took the kids somewhere else because they didn’t feel safe with the car outside?” he reasonably suggests.

I shake my head, “Jess wouldn’t have left this mess,” I say, pointing at the dishes. “Besides, her car is here.”

Jax looks at me disbelievingly. “I hardly think that’s evidence enough to say that Kane took them. There’s no sign of a struggle or forced entry, the front door was locked, and you told her not to let anyone in. Maybe a friend came to get them? If anything, it’s more likely that Jessica took them someplace else. Call her. It’s worth a shot,” he urges.

Reluctantly, I pull out my phone and call Jess. There’s the sound of a phone ringing inside the house and Jax gets up and follows the noise in search of it. When he comes back into the room he’s holding Jessica’s cell phone in his hand with a grim expression.

“See? If they left of their own accord, she wouldn’t leave her phone behind, would she?” I say despairingly.

Jax seems a little less confident now but not wholly undeterred. “Perhaps she forgot it in the rush to leave.”

I don’t even bother to tell him how unlikely I think that is.

“Do you have the numbers for any of her kids?” he asks hopefully.

“She doesn’t let them have cell phones,” I respond shaking my head.

“Fuck,” he mutters, his eyes roaming around the room as he thinks. “Is there anything missing? Her purse and keys for example?”

“I… I don’t know…” I reply, feeling myself slipping over the edge as my mind keeps drifting to where my little boy might be and the monsters who have him.

“Where does she keep them?” Jax urges, trying to keep me focused.

“Umm… by the front door, there are hooks for her keys and she keeps her bag on the shelf next to it,” I reply vacantly, almost on autopilot.

Jax leaves the room and a moment later I hear him call out, “They’re not here.” I hear him walking back to me. “See, then maybe they did leave by themselves, Kane’s men are hardly going to take her keys and purse with them. Could CPS have called her in for any reason?”

“I don’t think so,” I reply dubiously. “I think they’d notify me if there was any change that warranted Jess having to rush to see them. Besides, I can’t risk calling and making them aware of the situation, even if we find Max, they’d never let me have him back if they knew the danger he’s in.”

“Fuck!” Jax hisses in frustration as he realizes I’m right.

“He’s really gone… I failed him. I’ll never see my little boy again…” I say helplessly as the thoughts dawn on me.

“Shh, don’t talk like that,” Jax soothes, “We’ll get him back. Mason and Ty have been searching for a while, maybe they found them,” he adds optimistically.

But as he says that, there’s the rumble of motorcycle engines approaching and our last shred of hope evaporates into thin air.

If the guys are returning that means they didn’t find Kane and his men.

We’ve failed.

Max is gone.

There’s an animalistic wailing sound, deep and guttural, and as three pairs of warm arms embrace me, I realize that the sound is coming from me.