Chapter Thirty-Three
Jackson
“You found anything yet?” Morris asks as he comes up the stairs, Amriel, Nash, Creed, Enzo, and Nick are all following behind him, giving me pitying looks.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I say as they enter the room. “I don’t need your pity. We’re going to find her.”
I have to believe that we’re going to find her.
Now that I’ve had her in my life, I can’t imagine her not being in it.
Having my children, she and I, raising them together.
“I’ve got her going down the little footpath from my apartment that leads towards the park, but I can’t find a good angle of that side of the park,” I respond, ignoring the looks my team is *still* giving me, and instead turn my attention back to the screen in front of me. “I’m checking the cameras around all the exits. To see if I can see her leaving.”
“I’ll go check the park,” Nash says, clapping my on the shoulder. “I’ll start at where that path leads and go from there. See if I can find anything.”
Trying not to let fear consume me, I nod in appreciation, unable to look at him as I say, “Thanks, man.”
“Nick, Enzo,” Morris says, gaining their attention. “Two go with him, fan out. You’ll cover more ground that way.”
“On it, Boss,” Enzo replies as I hear them grabbing the jackets they’d just removed, then listen to the sound of the three men’s footsteps as they head back down the stairs.
“We’re gonna find her,” Morris promises, even though we both know that we’re never supposed to make promises like that, not when we can’t be certain that we can keep them.
I go back to checking surveillance and Morris goes into his office, a second later, I hear him talking to someone on the phone.
A few minutes later, Amriel stops next to my desk, but doesn’t say anything.
I look at her, fixing to ask what she needs, but the look on her face stops me, “I really hate to ask this, but do you know of anywhere else that she would go? Family? A friend? Anyone?”
I thought about the same thing but other than Chastity’s, I don’t know of anywhere she would go. “She’s not on good terms with her dad, so she wouldn’t go there and her mom’s passed. I don’t know of anywhere else,” I finish, my frustration growing with every minute that passes.
“Why the fuck would she do this?” I growl, my chest aching as the boulder that’s been taking up residence in my stomach, suddenly growing even bigger when I see a man carrying someone out of one of the park entrances before putting whatever or whomever it is, in the passenger seat of a familiar car. “Mother fucker!” I shout, gaining Morris' attention.
“What? What is it?” Amriel asks, looking at the screen, apparently not having seen what I just saw.
“Find something?” Morris asks, pocketing his cell as he steps out of his office.
“He’s got her,” I say, panicking. “He fucking took her!”
“Are you positive it’s him? And that it’s her?” He asks as he grabs hold of the mouse and rewatches the footage.
I can barely bear to watch it again, but I also can’t bring myself to look away, as I watch a man carrying something covered in a blanket, or maybe even a long coat, a trench coat, perhaps, out of the park and towards a silver Honda.
“While I agree that he has obviously taken someone, we don’t know that it’s her,” Morris states, trying to placate me.
“Besides, he seems to have a certain type of girl that he goes after,” Amriel adds, motioning with her hand towards the screen.
“Yeah, that’s part of the problem,” I mumble, running a hand through my hair. “Brooklyn, I wouldn’t say she was a prostitute, exactly but she would sleep with men for a place to stay each night.”
The entire room goes silent at my statement, while Amriel and Morris turn wide eyes on me before glancing at one another, shocked.
“But, Brooklyn, her name starts with a B. All of the victims have had the initials C. R.” Amriel tries, sounding as though she herself isn’t even totally convinced of what she’s saying.
“While that may be true, we can’t take any chances. “Creed, call Enzo. Amriel, call Nick. I’ve got Nash. Jackson, is there anyone you need me to call for you?”
“No,” I say with a shake of my head. “I just need to find her, hopefully before it’s too late,” I say, the last part coming out as more of a whisper.
“You know that you can’t work this, right? You’re definitely way too close to it now.”
“Boss, please,” I plead, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest with the thought of being put on the sidelines, especially now. “Please, don’t bench me. I have to be out there. To keep busy.”
“Call your family. Let them be there for you,” Morris orders, looking regretful of the words even as he says them. “You’re going to need them.”
“Fuck!” I growl as I shove back from my desk, the chair falling to the floor as I stand up.
Yanking my coat out from under it, I storm past the two of them and then Creed, not bothering with being quiet as I stomp down the stairs.
I throw myself into the driver’s seat of my jeep, slamming the door shut, before then slamming my hands down on the steering wheel, “Mother fucker!”
Tears build behind my eyes as anger and sorrow course through me in equal measure.
The sound of my phone ringing draws my attention and without looking at the screen, I answer, “Please, tell me you have *something*?” I growl.
“Jackson, we’re on our way. Where are you?” It’s Bos and just hearing my brother on the other end of the line as I nearly break down.
“He fucking took her,” I barely manage to utter, my voice is thick with pent-up emotion clogging my throat.
“I know. And I’m sorry,” I hear Linc in the background asking, “What do you need from us, bro?”
“I—I need to find her. I need them to both be okay.”
“Where are you?” Bos asks again.
“Parking lot outside the precinct. I’m in my car,”
“We’ll come get you,” Linc says again and I assume I’m on speaker.
“I can’t go back home, Not—not until—not without her.”
“Then we’ll go somewhere else. Back to my place.” He pauses a moment and then he adds, “The girls are there, waiting to hear back from us. It’s the closest place, other than yours.”
“You know where I live?” I ask, taken aback.
The tone of his voice changes as Bos says, “Of course we do. Just because we were pissed, doesn’t mean we didn’t care. Didn’t check up on you.”
And then I feel like even more of an ass because, here I was the one who fucked up and yet they still cared enough to keep tabs on me.
To make sure I was okay.
And suddenly, I realize who Morris was on the phone with.
“Is Dad with you guys?”
“No,” Linc says and the lump in my throat grows bigger, feeling like a little kid again who wants his Dad to comfort him, to make it hurt less. A sob leaves me, the first tear falling when Linc continues, “But he’s in his way.”
“You’re not in this alone, Jax.”
And with those words, I completely lose it.
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