Page 237 of Soul So Dark

Aiden’s tone turns serious. “Send me the location.”

I don’t have time to question him before he hangs up and I send him the coordinates. I hope she’s there. She has to be there.Alive.

The city lights fade in my rearview mirror and the highway descends into the vast open landscape. The moonless sky feels just as foreboding as each mile I leave behind with no more answers than when I started. I follow the map to a desolate road hidden in the inky shadows of the night. It seems like it wants to hide from everyone, tucked between sporadic clusters of forest.

I slam on my brakes at a stop sign to avoid hitting a speeding vehicle, only to realize that it’s Aiden’s Lexus tearing across my path. Two motorcycles scream after him, engines roaring as they race toward Dallas’s location. I follow them the rest of the way, coming to a halt along an access road that leads into the forest.

Dallas’s Mazda sits at the edge of the path, tucked behind the brush enough not to be seen from the road. But when I jump out of the truck and throw open her door, she’s nowhere to be found.

I start combing the area, searching for her, and it doesn’t take long to find what I’m looking for. My heart sinks when I realize thatshe’snot here, but her amethyst pendant is laying haphazardly in the dirt with the micro-tracker still attached. I pick it up, the delicate chain dangling from my fingers as I examine it.

Heavy footsteps crunch behind me as Aiden approaches. And when I look over my shoulder, I see he’s brought Brantley and Wesley Rhoden with him. They flip up their visors as they approach, dressed all in black with matching armor vests.

“I don’t know where she is,” I murmur in despair, glancing around the black abyss.

“More importantly, where ishe?” Aiden asks.

Aiden doesn’t even have to say his name, I know who he’s talking about. And when I check his GPS tracker, I’m even more surprised to find that Bowen is 100 miles away in the opposite direction, somewhere near Salt Fork State Park. And that can only mean one thing.

The second man. I never found the second man.

“Not here,” I reply, looking down at the purple gem stone in my palm. “It’s not him. And if he didn’t take her, then who the fuck is it?Where is she?” I reel back and slam my heel into the bumper of my truck.

“Wait,” Brantley interjects, “let me see that.”

He motions for my phone and I hand it over, eager for any shred of insight, even from one of the Rhodens. Brantley studies the map and then starts dragging his finger back and forth over the screen like he’s looking for something.

“And Bo Garrison is after your girl?” he asks, not taking his eyes off the glass.

“Yeah,” I reply with exasperation, “maybe.” Because now I don’t even know who I’m looking for anymore.

An airy chuckle drifts across the space between us.

My jaw tightens and I’m about two seconds from breaking his skull when he finally says, “I know where she is.”

Wesley grabs the phone from him and peers down at the screen. Then he jerks his head up.

“Hell yeah!” he growls with excitement.

Brantley swipes the phone from his brother and holds it out in front of me. “Judging by the tire treads around here, someone might’ve switched vehicles and headed further north.”

The map is zoomed in on a random green block with a non-descript square structure set closer to the unmarked road. Again, this tells me nothing.

“That’s where she is?” I ask dubiously.

“Not there,” Brantley points to the blank space further away from the structure, “somewhere around here.”

“How do you know?”

Brantley lifts his chin, dropping the phone in my hand with a smirk.

“Because we run these towns.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Dallas

“Garbage juice is right…” a voice drifts in and out of a cacophony of giggles, muffled by an old Skrillex song. “Drink a cup and it’ll burn your tastebuds off anyway.”