The Protector (Game of Chance, #1)(82)

There were also papers on the table and a pen that hadn’t been there before. Something he normally wouldn’t question, if not for the fact that Carlise was fastidious about packing all her things when she was done working. She was kind of anal when it came to her notes.

As he looked around carefully, he realized quite a few things seemed out of sorts. The blanket on the couch wasn’t folded, which Carlise habitually did when she got up. A towel she used to wipe Baxter’s feet after potty breaks was lying on the floor instead of hanging on the coatrack.

He had to check the cameras, see what had happened before he’d arrived home.

He ran outside, forcing an unhappy Baxter to stay in the house, his heart thumping frantically as he started up the generator. Looking down at his cell phone, he swore. The Wi-Fi wasn’t working. Again. And he didn’t have time to fiddle with the antenna to try to fix it.

He needed help and he needed to find Carlise. She clearly wasn’t anywhere nearby. Whoever owned that SUV wasn’t here, either, but the vehicle itself told him they were both still in the area, somewhere on his mountain.

Chappy shut off the generator, then hit a preprogrammed number on the satellite phone he’d grabbed on his way out of the house, waiting impatiently for JJ to answer. Baxter barked once more from inside the house as he returned to the porch. “Hang on, Bax. I need to get help on the way before we let you outside.”

“Hey, you just left here. What’d you forget?” JJ asked, chuckling over the line.

“I need help,” he said without beating around the bush.

“What’s wrong?” JJ asked, all humor gone from his tone.

“When I got to the cabin, there was a car I didn’t recognize in front of the cabin, Baxter was locked in the bathroom, and there’s no sign of Carlise or whoever owns that car.”

“Shit. You think her stalker found her?” JJ asked.

“I have no idea, as I can’t get the damn Wi-Fi to work so I can’t check my cameras, but I’m guessing yes.”

“Shit! How?”

A horrible thought struck Chappy then. “The only people she’s talked to are her mom and her best friend.”

“Could Carlise have emailed anyone? Been tracked through her phone when you checked her messages?”

“Possibly. But Carlise wouldn’t have opened the door to someone she didn’t know or her ex-boyfriend or her dad.”

“You’re thinking . . . it’s the friend?” JJ asked, catching on to what Chappy wasn’t saying.

“I highly doubt her own mother was stalking her. They seem close. While I don’t know what she talked to Susie about, I’m guessing she probably told her enough for her friend to have a pretty good idea where she was.”

“I don’t know, Chappy,” JJ said skeptically. “Your cabin is in the middle of nowhere.”

“I realize that, but it’s still findable. There’s something else,” Chappy told his friend.

“What?”

“I heard a slide as I was walking toward my cabin. To the east.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. And both front doors on the car in my driveway are wide open.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’ll check the cameras when I can access them later to confirm, but I think the friend came here, and Carlise let her in without a second thought. Something happened while they were talking and . . . maybe the cat was let out of the bag? Maybe she found out Susie’s her stalker. The woman must’ve tried to force her to leave with her, considering both car doors are open. But if the vehicle’s still here, that has to mean Carlise ran.”

“Possibly straight into an avalanche,” JJ said grimly. “It’s the most likely direction she would’ve gone, since your place is surrounded by so much scrub brush in every other direction.”

“I need you and the other guys,” Chappy said, his voice hitching. “She could be buried! I need help.”

“Already on my way. I’ll call the others. We’re coming, Chappy. But if this woman was stalking Carlise, she’s probably dangerous. Don’t let your guard down.”

Chappy had assumed the same. “I won’t. When you get here, I’ll already be out looking.”

“We’ll find you. She’s going to be all right,” JJ stated.

“You don’t know that,” Chappy said weakly, the words burning like acid on his tongue.

“I know that you’ve been through hell along with the rest of us. There’s no way you found the woman who was meant to be yours, only to lose her now. She’s smart, Chappy. She knew enough not to let anyone get her into that car. She knew her best bet was running. Those are your woods up there. She knew you’d find her.”

Chappy took a deep breath. Damn straight, he’d find her.

Baxter barked loudly.

“Wow. Was that Baxter?”

“Yeah, he wants me to get off the phone and let him outside—bad.”

“He can track her,” JJ said.

Chappy blinked. He hadn’t even thought of that. Baxter adored Carlise. His gaze followed her everywhere, both inside and out of the cabin. And he clearly hadn’t been happy to be locked in the bathroom.

His friend was right, Baxter probably could track Carlise. Hell, he’d found her in the middle of that snowstorm, then led Chappy straight to her. He could do the same now.