Claiming Sarah (Ace Security #5)(63)

Cole was done sitting around and waiting for her to respond. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He knew it deep in his gut.

Sarah was in trouble, and she needed him.

He remembered the promise he’d made to her, that if something happened and she disappeared, he’d never stop looking for her. He felt sick to his stomach. When he’d made the promise, he hadn’t thought they’d ever actually end up in that kind of situation.

But they were there now.

He knew it. Felt it.

It didn’t matter if the cops told him Sarah was an adult and allowed to go somewhere without telling him.

She was in trouble—and he wouldn’t stop until he found her.

Felicity hadn’t gotten into work yet—she’d been picking up the slack for him the last couple of days while he’d spent time with Sarah. He knew Logan and Blake were scheduled to be in Colorado Springs this morning, protecting an older man from his greedy daughter who was taking him to court, trying to prove he was incompetent and couldn’t care for himself.

But Nathan and Ryder should be arriving at work around now. He knew because Felicity had told him her schedule the night before. And if Felicity was coming to the gym, Ryder was going to the Ace Security offices.

He left without telling the college student manning the desk where he was going. He didn’t care if he missed a meeting or if he was supposed to teach a class, Sarah was more important.

He burst into the Ace Security offices as if the hounds of hell were after him. Nathan and Ryder were sitting in the large open space behind the front desk. Cole blurted out the only thing he’d been thinking for the last few hours.

“Sarah’s missing—and that asshole Owen took her.”



Three hours later, Cole paced back and forth while the Anderson brothers did what they did best—try to figure out what the hell was going on. Ryder had called one of his Mountain Mercenary friends, and he’d taken over at the courthouse for Logan and Blake so they could race back up to Castle Rock to help find Sarah. Cole had never been so grateful for his friends in all his life. They hadn’t blown him off or told him he was being paranoid. They’d sprung into action and done what they could to figure out what had happened to Sarah.

“Her car isn’t at the hospital or at her house,” Ryder said. “The cops in Parker did a drive-by and welfare check. No one answered the door, and they didn’t see her car in the garage. There was no sign of a break-in, and the house was locked up tight. They looked in the windows but didn’t see any sign of her.”

“She didn’t clock in this morning either,” Nathan mumbled.

“I talked to her boss, and she didn’t call in sick or send an email saying that she wouldn’t be there today,” Logan added.

The more they talked, the faster Cole paced.

“We need to get to her house and see what we can see,” Blake said impatiently. “It’s likely that whatever happened, happened there.”

“Why?” Nathan asked. “She could’ve been ambushed on her way to the hospital. It’s over twenty miles from her house to Castle Rock. Something could’ve happened between there and here.”

Blake shook his head. “No. Cole said that she’s been texting him before she leaves her house and when she gets to the hospital. If something happened on the way to work, he still would’ve gotten that first text.”

“She could’ve forgotten,” Logan said.

“She wouldn’t forget,” Ryder said firmly. “She knows better. Look, she was the one who came to us with this case. She was uneasy with Owen even when she didn’t know why. Even when the cops didn’t believe there was any threat, she still felt it. And after spending the last two days with Cole, I honestly don’t think she would’ve just ‘forgotten’ to text him before she left for work this morning.”

Cole agreed. But he kept his mouth shut and let his friends talk things out.

“Fine. I agree. Cole, when did you drop her off yesterday?” Logan asked.

“Three o’clock or so,” he told him.

“So sometime between, say, three thirty yesterday and five thirty this morning, something happened,” the oldest Anderson brother concluded.

He wasn’t saying anything Cole hadn’t already thought, but hearing it put so succinctly made him want to puke.

Fourteen hours. She could’ve been missing for fourteen hours before he’d realized something was wrong. And now it had been almost twenty-four. There was no telling what Owen was doing with her. Developmentally disabled or not, the man thought he was in love with Sarah and could be doing anything to her right now.

Yup, he was going to puke.

Striding quickly to the bathroom, Cole leaned over the trash can and dry heaved. He hadn’t eaten anything that morning, too worried when he hadn’t heard from Sarah.

He felt a hand on his back and turned his head to see Felicity standing there. She’d heard what was going on when she arrived at the gym and had immediately come to the Ace Security offices. She hadn’t said much and was doing her best to deal with the phones while the rest of the group figured out what their next steps should be.

“This is the men’s room,” he said, not really knowing what he was saying. “Last I checked, you don’t have the right equipment to be here.”