Page 52 of Stay With Me (Griffin’s Den #2)
FIFTY-ONE
Noah
The conference room has been set up as a task force headquarters. Hunt and his team, along with some local FBI agents, arrived and are talking to other deputies from the tri-county area.
I look down at my watch and walk down the hall to my office, where the girls are hanging out with Jess. I peek around the partially open door and see that she’s coloring. Am meets my eyes and shakes her head, confirming that she hasn’t talked since they all came in here.
It’ll take time, but she’ll see that no one is mad at her.
Do I wish she would have told someone? Yes, but I would never blame her.
I walk back to the conference room, the map I made displayed on one wall. The other deputies are adding dots where they received reports that The Family, we’re pretty sure, stayed for a day or two, then left before they got caught.
Hunt walks up to me with Luke and Sam flanking him.
“How’s Jess?” Sam asks, a deep crease between his eyebrows.
“Still not talking, I’m thinking about calling her therapist to see if she can have an emergency session. I hate that she thinks we’re all going to hate her.”
“Calling the therapist might not be a bad idea. I can’t imagine the toll keeping all that in took on her.
Her whole world was flipped upside down twice, and while you both did everything you could, breaking the cult mentality when she still had access to them is one of the hardest things to do,” Hunt says.
“I’ve never wanted to kill a whole group of people more than when she was talking about how they treated her. Like Luna leaving was her fault! She was an infant!” Sam says with so much venom in his voice.
I’ve never seen this side of him. He’s normally calm and collected.
I start to pace the hallway, fists clenched. “We need something. Anything. These assholes have been around three counties with barely a footprint other than leaving weird-ass clues as they tore the places apart. Time is ticking. They could be long gone with her by now.”
Luke steps into my line of sight and grabs my shoulders.
“You need to take a breath. Luna needs you, and this is what you’re trained for.
We can beat ourselves up all day. You know I did for what happened to Am.
But she needs you to not lose your shit right now.
Jess needs you to not lose your shit right now.
Do you hear me?” he says, his voice soft but firm.
“How did you do it?” I whisper. Guilt settles in my chest. I should have never let her go out there alone.
He shakes his head. “My love for her and the need for her safety outweighed the anger and fear I felt, but I also knew when to step aside and not take point when it was needed.” He looks over at Sam.
“We’re with you, brother. We might not be law enforcement, but we’ll be feet on the ground when the time comes to do any sort of searching for her, because she’s smart, just like my Amelia. If she can get away, she will.”
I nod, but before I can say anything, an agent walks up to us. “Deputy Andrews, we have the video footage from the store along with some of the CCTV videos of the route they took until they reached the rural part of town, where there aren’t cameras.”
I walk over to the laptop set up in the corner and connected to a TV I had brought in so the screen could be shared. We wait as it loads. The grainy video loads, and everyone stops talking.
I see us pulling in and getting out of the truck.
Everyone can’t see the smile on my face when I walk around the truck to meet the girls, but I know it’s there.
I rub my chest as the scene plays out. I see Jess look back at the truck before closing the door all the way.
I’m guessing debating if she should follow through or not.
We exit the view of that camera as we walk toward the store. Hunt fast-forwards the footage, and a few minutes later, a white van comes in and out of view as they drive around the parking lot before parking next to my truck.
“I wish there were more angles of the parking lot besides just the one,” I mumble.
“We have to be thankful for what we have. A lot of the stores here wouldn’t have even the one angle,” Luke says.
My jaw locks in frustration. He’s right, but seeing everything would make it so much easier.
I focus back on the video. No movement comes from the van for several minutes before a man opens the back door and walks just out of view of the camera.
Hunt pauses the video, backs it up, and freezes it on the man getting out of the van.
“I see at least two other people in the van, but the one getting out matches the description of Chris Smith.” He turns to one of his agents.
“I’m going to send this to one of our techs.
Can you pull some strings to see if they can clean the video up?
A license plate would be nice, as well as a clear picture to get a positive ID. ”
“On it,” the agent says and walks out of the room with his phone to his ear.
Hunt fast-forwards again to where we left off.
Luna walks into the frame. She pauses when she sees the van parked too close and looks around the parking lot.
“Smart girl to look around like that. She might not have known something was wrong, but at least she paused,” Luke says softly.
I nod. “After the incident at Farmer Joe’s, I talked to both girls about being more aware of their surroundings. I planned on teaching them more this weekend.”
As soon as she walks around to the passenger side of the truck, she opens the door and leans in. We see Chris walk around the front of the van.
I hold my breath, knowing she’s going to get taken, but nothing prepares me for watching as it happens.
Within seconds, Chris has his arms wrapped around her and a cover over her head. He drags her around the van. The?sliding door opens, and at least two more people pull her in the back before shutting the door. Chris looks around the empty parking lot and walks to the passenger seat.
The whole thing lasts maybe two minutes.
“They’ve done this before,” Luke says.
Hunt pauses the video right before they peel out and shoot at Jess and me.
“Yes. As we talked about when we met with everyone for the first time, we do believe they take women and children to keep the gene pool fresh. From what we know, the women who are taken are kept separate until they can be trusted with the rest of the group. The kids are always taken young enough that it’s easy to manipulate them. ”
No one says anything for a long minute, letting that sink in.
I knew these people were horrible.
The stories Luna and Jess have told us proved that, but this is a new level of low.
“I’ll be glad to take this group of people down,” I growl.
Hunt grunts his agreement as he presses play, skipping the shooting to see which direction they turn on the main road.
“They turn left and travel for at least five miles before the CCTV cameras lose them. It appears while the main city center is equipped, they haven’t been able to install them everywhere. ”
“Yeah, it’s a slow project out here.” I look over to some of the other deputies. “Have we been able to piece together anything as to where they might have been going?”
“Can you back that up a little? I know I won’t be able to see the street sign clearly, but there aren’t a lot of houses on that road since it backs up to the protected section of the forest. Stop right there.
” A deputy stands to get a closer look. “I think that’s the road right before Old Man John’s house.
” He looks around to the other deputies from his department, who lean forward and nod.
“Yeah, which makes sense because he passed away, and his house has sat vacant for several years. His kids don’t want to sell it, but they don’t want to leave their big city lives,” another adds.
Hunt pulls out his phone and calls someone. I hear him ask about satellite pictures before he hangs up. “That’s the best lead we have so far.” His phone dings, and he pulls up photos on his screen. “These are the most recent photos we have of the property.” He clicks and zooms in.
“There are what, four buildings?” I ask.
“Plus a main house. The property is private and secluded. If you don’t want anyone to see you come and go, you could make it happen. We break up a lot of parties out there,” the deputy says, tapping on the screen to show the different entrances.
“If this is where they are, the men will live in the building that’s in the best shape.
If Luna is there, she’ll most likely be close to Matthew since he won’t want her to be too far.
I believe they moved the whole family here to accomplish whatever Matthew has in mind, so we guess there are roughly thirty people, plus or minus a few,” Thorne says.
I fight to keep my breathing steady. “I think we should start our search there. She’s either there or long gone.” I take a deep breath to calm my nerves.
I look to Hunt for his thoughts. He’s more experienced than I am with stuff like this, and I’m big enough to admit it.
“I agree. The house is perfect for them. If the decedent’s family doesn’t check on it, they can stay there for months under our noses.” He turns to the deputy. “Can we get in touch with the family and get permission to search the property?”
“Yeah, I went to school with the oldest son. I’ll give him a call and let him know what’s going on. He’s who I call when we notify them of the parties we have to break up,” the local deputy answers.
“Okay, you do that. I want everyone suited up and ready to roll as soon as we have that permission. If they don’t give it, I’ll call a judge and get a warrant,” Hunt says.
Chairs scrape across the floor as everyone gets ready to head out. I just stare at the aerial view of the property.
A hand lands on my shoulder, and I look over to see Sam and Luke beside me.
“Whatever happens, we got your back. We’re going to get the ambulance and be there to search the woods if we have to, but we’ll have the medical equipment just in case.
She’s tough. Everything will be okay, but you should tell Jess that we’re going to head out soon so she isn’t panicked by seeing us all scramble,” Sam says.
I swallow against the emotions clogging my throat. “Thank you. Thank you for being there for us.”
“Nowhere else we’d rather be, brother. Now let’s go get your girl,” Luke says.
“We don’t know that she’s there,” I add as I turn to go talk to Jess.
“She is. I have a gut feeling. These people think they’re smart, and in a way, they are, but they’re on our turf. They’re too cocky to go too far away,” Luke says, and I watch them walk out the door to get ready to head out.
I walk back to my office and push the door open, and Jess looks up from her coloring. Her red-rimmed eyes break my heart a little more as I walk over to her.
Once I get next to my chair, I kneel down and tuck a strand of hair behind her ears. “We’re going to go look for your sister. The girls will stay here with you, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You found them already?” she asks.
“We think so, so we’re going to go and check it out.”
“Okay, but you’ll come back, right?” Her eyes turn glassy.
“I’ll always do my best to come back to you. I love you, you know that, right?” I tell her, and her eyes widen. Behind me, I hear the girls leave the office.
“You do? B-but I lied,” she says as tears stream down her face again.
“I know, but you’re a kid who had far too much put on you, and none of this is your fault. We all make mistakes sometimes.”
She throws her arms around my neck, and I rock back on my heels to keep us steady. “I love you too, and I want to stay if I’m allowed once we catch Father Matthew and the rest of them.”
“Of course you’re going to stay. I’ll fight for you until my last breath. Do you want to know a secret?”
She nods into the crook of my neck.
“I love your sister too, and I’m going to ask her to marry me soon.”
“She’ll say yes,” she tells me matter-of-factly.
I laugh. “You think so?”
“Yeah, she loves you too. She just thinks it’s too soon to tell you,” she says just as someone knocks on the door.
I look over and see Mike in the doorway. “We’re heading out in less than five. You need to get ready.”
I nod and look back at Jess. “Listen to the girls. I messaged your therapist and asked her to give Am a call so you can use her phone to talk to her. If we’re gone long and you get tired, tell the girls. They’ll make sure you have a place to sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
She sniffles and wipes her eyes. “Father Matthew and Brother Chris are not nice people. Be careful.”
“I will.” I set her back on her feet and stand.
Before walking out of the office, I kiss the top of her head.
In the hallway, the girls have tears in their eyes.
“Don’t let her stay up too late if we’re gone for a while.
Eden volunteered to bring her camping cot for her to sleep on.
I need you guys to stay here because it’s the safest option for everyone right now. ”
“We have pizza being delivered for dinner, and we have enough stuff to keep her occupied for a while. Go get Luna,” Abby says.
“I will,” I say and turn to Am. “I texted her therapist your number and a quick message about what’s happening, and she said she’ll call in a few to have a quick session with her.”
Pulling her phone out, Am nods and turns the ringer on.
I grab my vest and the extra service belt Mike brought. After pulling my vest over my head, I add my extra Glock to my thigh holster, and I realize I’ll do anything to get Luna back.
I just hope she’s safe until I can get to her.