Page 48 of Silver Sanctuary (The Silver Springs #3)

Thirty

“ H ow’s Lacy doing?” Hawk asked as he poured coffee into Gunner’s cup, and then his own. It might have only been early evening, but the team was gearing up for a long night. Nash already knew he wouldn’t be sleeping until Embrie was back in Lacy’s arms.

So, he shrugged in response to his friend’s question, because even though Lacy had come out of whatever fit her body had sent her into, she wasn’t okay. Not even fucking close.

“Doc said it was a panic attack. The girls are sitting with her.” He blew out all his breath. “How the fuck do we not have anything to go on, Phoenix? She’s just gone. And there’s not a single fucking lead for us to follow?”

“We’ll get something. Someone will have seen her riding in a car, or there will be a neighborhood tip that comes in. We won’t stop until we have her back,” Gunner promised.

“I need to go see Track. Maybe he’s found something—anything.”

The guys nodded, and Nash turned to walk from the kitchen. But something in the reception area caught his eye. It wasn’t a person in uniform, but he recognized them right away.

“Rudy? What are you doing here?”

“Nash.” Rudy’s eyes bounced over Nash’s shoulder, and he nodded. “Hey, guys, I heard what happened. I think the whole town has by now. I’m sorry.”

“I appreciate that.” Nash looked the owner of Davney’s up and down. “I appreciate you stopping in. But if that’s all, I need to get back?—”

“I just… I think you need to have someone go to Ike Hawthorne’s house.”

Nash’s eyes bounced around the room until they landed on Lacy, who was walking down the hallway holding onto Mae’s hand. “Why does that name sound so familiar, Lace?”

His wife’s face drained of what little color had returned. “He’s the school janitor. Mr. Ike. The one who sat with Embrie at lunch when no one else would.”

“The one who came to watch her soccer games?” Nash asked, the familiar pounding of his own heartbeat now rising at an alarming rate.

Lacy nodded, and the knot in his stomach tightened.

“That’s right, he does work at the elementary school. His wife, Clarissa, works part time in my kitchen.”

Fuck. “Clarissa… wasn’t that the name of the administrative assistant that was filling in when Embrie was taken?”

“Yes.” Lacy made her way across the space to stand with him.

“What about them?” Gunner snapped. The picture was starting to become crystal clear, and Nash didn’t like what they all were about to see.

“I wanted y’all to know that one of my guys was making a delivery to their house tonight.

Something seemed off, according to him. They always order the same thing, but this time, they added chicken tenders and fries.

And when he was walking away from the house, he noticed the upstairs curtain moved.

He didn’t see anyone, but he said both Ike and Clarissa were downstairs.

They ain’t got any kids or grandkids. Did at one point, but their son overdosed on some bad stuff fifteen, twenty years back. ”

“Fuck,” Hawk mumbled.

“What else?” Nash needed to know what Rudy wasn’t saying, because it was written all over his face. “Tell us whatever else it is we need to know.”

“Clarissa was working the night you guys had your wedding dinner. She would have heard the waiter come in to tell the kitchen staff about Lacy’s allergy.”

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.” Nash tightened his hold on Lacy.

“I don’t remember her—from the kitchen. Wouldn’t I have seen her when I was working?” Lacy whispered.

“You were covering her shifts. She had those nights off,” Rudy admitted.

“That’s it, then. They have her?”

He looked down at his wife, and for the first time since she’d stood in his doorway that afternoon, he saw hope. Bodies moved all around them, but Nash couldn’t tear his gaze away from her.

“We have to go get her,” she whispered, but it was enough to pull him back into the moment.

It took Nash barely half a second to march Lacy down to where his team was gathered around Gage’s laptop in the conference room, their heads put together as the sheriff’s deputies who had set up command in the space were at the opposite end of the room, coming up with their own plan.

“Lacy.” Rudy stepped closer, his fingers curled tight around his hat.

“What?” she snapped.

Rudy at least had the decency to not look surprised at her reaction. Nash didn’t blame her. What Rudy had let those boys do to her all those years ago…

“I’m sorry I didn’t step in that night. I’m sorry I let a few people in town stop me from doing what was right. I hope she’s there. I hope you find her.”

“I hope so, too.”

Lacy turned, pulling Nash toward the end of the room where the guys were sharing nods and looks of agreement.

Gunner looked up from the computer screen.

“Are you ready?” Nash asked his teammates.

“We have an address,” Gage said. “Let’s go.”

Nash was already turning toward the door when Hank stopped him.

“This isn’t a job for you guys. You can’t just go rushing up to their house. We’ll handle this. Alone.”

“Like fucking hell you will. That’s my daughter in there!

” His shoulders fell the second Hank crossed his arms over his chest. He knew the sheriff had a daughter of his own.

He needed to reach out to him, father to father.

“Hank. She’ll be scared. We know how to rescue a hostage.

Please. This is what my team did. For years.

We still train for situations like this.

You don’t have to let me enter with a weapon—I’ll go in unarmed.

The rest of the team will stay outside. Or they’ll stay here and wait for an update if that’s what absolutely has to happen.

But if there’s even the smallest chance that my daughter’s there, I have to be the one that goes to get her. ”

Hank nodded, his jaw grinding back and forth.

“I’ve got to call in the search warrant request. Colt, I want two teams ready to arrive on scene in twenty minutes.

We’ll wait on the warrant there if we need to.

And Nash can come with us, unarmed, and only there to comfort Embrie if she is in fact there.

The rest of you need to stay here. I’m sorry, that means you too, Lacy. ”

They stood still, silence suffocating every inch of the room, until the sheriff’s department cleared out.

“All right, if they’re planning on getting there in twenty, we need to be ready to get there in five.” Hawk smiled as he started shuffling radios out of the small cabinet in the corner of the room.

“What?” Lacy asked. “I thought Hank just said you need to let them handle it?”

“Better to ask for forgiveness, baby.” Nash pressed a kiss into her hair. “There’s no way the team and I aren’t going to be there. I was testing the waters. Hank folded on letting me go. He’ll be lenient with us after we get her back.”

Her eyes went wide. “You have to take me, too.”

“Lace, no.”

“You are not going into a situation you know nothing about, where my daughter is being held by these people, without me there.”

His hands slipped over her shoulders. “I can’t be worried about you getting hurt too.”

Stone walked back into the room. “The van’s all set. Go bags are in the back. We’ll park a few houses down the road from their place and walk in on foot.”

“I can stay in the van. I won’t be in danger. I just need to be there. Please don’t ask me to stay here. Please,” Lacy begged.

Nash looked around at the team, and when no one argued, he resigned.

“Okay, baby, okay. You can sit in the van.”

Gunner started the briefing. “Gage?”

“This is the quickest I could find looking in the database I had no business being in.” He cringed. “Ike and Clarissa Hawthorne. 1390 Valor Drive. One son, Steven, had a long arrest report. In and out of rehabs. Lacy, could your mom have… ”

“Could she have run in the same circles as him? Of course. But what would that have to do with this?”

“Oh, fuck…” Gage’s eyes went wide as Nash tried to zero in on the documents he was jumping between on his screen.

“What, Track?”

“Amber was picked up for selling a controlled substance on the same night Steven Hawthorne was pronounced dead from an overdose.”

Lacy gasped. “She sold it to him? That’s why his family came after me? Why they took Embrie? Are they going to hurt her to get back at my mom?”

“We aren’t waiting another goddamn minute,” Nash ordered. “Grab what you need, and get out to the van in the next sixty seconds. Let’s fucking go.”

“What the fuck am I seeing right now?” Hawk asked over the comms. He was stationed at the front of the house, with Stone and Gunner as his backup. Nash and Gage had gone to the back of the house, where they planned to make the primary entry from.

“Embrie is at the table, two o’clock, eating. She looks unharmed, Wings. Smiling. The husband and wife are at the table with her. No visible weapons. I’m locked on Ike.”

Nash blew out his breath. Gunner was an expert sniper, he’d had to take a shot to save his wife not all that long ago. Nash had every confidence he would keep Embrie safe, from whatever vantage point he found.

“Fuck it. We're going in. Breech on my count.”

“Ten-four. We’ve got the front door covered if they try to run,” Stone’s steady voice replied.

Nash’s hand slid over the doorknob and twisted. Within a second, he felt resistance. Fuck .

“Door’s locked. Switching breaching methods,” he communicated over the line.

“Let me know if you need someone with more muscle to kick it in for you, Wings.”

Fucking Hawk.

“Appreciate that, Phoenix. Now shut the fuck up and let me get to my daughter. On three. One. Two. Three?—”

The sound of wood splintering was the last thing he registered before his feet had him rushing into the house on auto pilot.

His head swept back and forth, watching for additional threats they hadn’t accounted for, but there were none.

And then, he made it to the dining room, where Hawk and Stone were standing, guns trained on two people while Embrie looked around the room in shock.

“Dad?”

Her whispered word, filled with so much relief, smacked Nash right in the heart. Embrie’s eyes filled with tears as she jumped up from the chair, her legs working overtime to get to him. Nash holstered his weapon, and took three steps forward before her little body slammed into his open arms.

“Dad! You’re here!”

“Shh, I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.” Nash lifted Embrie up, cradling her as he turned and rushed out of the house.

“We weren’t going to hurt her…”

“Don’t move! I said put your fucking hands on the table and DON’T. FUCKING. MOVE.”

“We just wanted Amber to pay…”

His team could deal with securing the Hawthorne’s before the sheriff’s department showed up.

As soon as he stepped outside, he could hear sirens in the distance.

Colt and Hank were going to be furious with him, but he didn’t fucking care.

He’d gotten her back. That was all that mattered. She was safe.

Nash walked out onto the front porch just in time to see the passenger door of the surveillance van fly open. Lacy jumped out and ran towards them, an exact copy of what happened with Embrie.

He tightened his hold on Embrie, but he didn’t stop walking.

There, in a stranger’s front lawn, he reunited his family.

Lacy tried to pull Embrie into her arms, but she kept a tight hold around Nash’s neck while still reaching out for her mom.

They ended up in a heap on the grass, all tangled in varying degrees of hugs.

“Ladybug! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?” Lacy held Embrie’s face as she looked her over from head to toe.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry, Mama. I wasn’t going to go with him.

I know better—I know I was only supposed to leave with you and Dad.

But Mr. Ike said our password. He told me that you gave him the phrase so he could come get me from school because Dad had something big come up and he couldn’t leave work to get me for the trip. I’m so sorry.”

“He shouldn’t have known that password, honey. His wife worked in the office and she must have seen it. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault, baby. I’m just so happy you’re safe.”

Embrie pressed her face harder into his chest.

“Dad came for me. I was so scared you wouldn’t find me before they got Amber. But Dad did, just like he promised.”

Dad. Fuck. The title had slammed so hard into his heart the first time she said it but he was afraid that it might just be a response to all that was going on.

Sitting there, on the grass as officers swarmed the house, and a pissed off Colt headed in their direction, he held onto the hope that Embrie would continue to call him dad after all the dust settled.

Nash looked down at Embrie, his tears gently dropping onto the top of her head .

“That’s right, sweetheart. I’ll always find you. I’ll always come, even if you can’t call for help. I’ll find you.”

“Why did they have to do this?” Lacy cried.

“Mom, they wanted Amber. T-they kept talking about how she was in town. How they n-needed to get her now. Mr. Ike said they only took me to get her to come out of hiding. I didn’t know…”

“Shh… We don’t need to talk about all of that right now. The important thing is that we’ve got you back.”

Embrie buried her face in his neck, just as Lacy’s face turned towards his. “You did it. You brought her back to me. You kept your promise. Thank you.”

His wife collapsed into his arms, his whole world narrowing to the two most precious things in his life finally being back together.