Whispers of You (Lost & Found #1)(84)

Because if Jude wanted me dropped off here without a car, they were within walking distance. My gut tightened as Wren’s face flashed in my mind, and I imagined her scared and alone with a monster.

Dad relayed the plan to Lawson and Roan as I slid my weapon back into its holster. Jude would know I’d come armed, and he’d be prepared. But he hadn’t spent years working on his marksmanship and reaction time. I’d had nothing but time to hone the skills that would help me keep the people in my care safe.

Roan strode toward me, his expression stony. “This was all Jude?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.” There were too many pieces unassembled in my mind. “I’d say it’s likely.”

Barely restrained fury swept over Roan’s expression. There had been a time when the cops had looked for Wren’s third shooter. It hadn’t lasted long, but they’d circled around one person in particular. Roan.

Maybe because he’d always been a loner and happier with the company of nature than the chatter of people. Maybe because the town was desperate to believe that someone older had been pulling the strings, even if Wren had told them there was no way in hell.

They had questioned Roan twice. And with no alibi other than the fact that he’d been backpacking in the mountains, people looked at him differently—with doubt and suspicion. With fear.

It had broken something in my brother. And now he was the one suspicious of everyone. And his loner tendencies had been intensified to the extreme.

If Jude had been a part of this—all of it—Roan would want him to pay.

Roan’s hands clenched and then flexed at his sides. “We’ll get him.”

Lawson surveyed us both, pressing Dad’s phone into my hand. “We’ll get him together.”

I looked at Roan. “Where are the most likely places Jude could be keeping her within walking distance of here?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “There are the caves down by the lake. A couple of vacation homes that might be vacant. An old barn on the property to the west. And if he’s not looking for shelter? Just about anywhere.”

I replayed the phone call in my mind. I hadn’t heard anything that would give away a location. “All right. I need to call him.”

Lawson held up a hand. “We need to consider the fact that he could have an accomplice. That you could be walking into an ambush. You talk to Chris lately?”

Nausea swept through me, but I scrolled through the contacts on my phone and hit Chris’s name.

It rang twice before he answered. “This is Chris.”

A saw sounded in the background, and I heard a few guys yelling.

“It’s Holt. You seen Jude lately?”

“No, he went on a supply run. Why?”

“I thought we were supposed to meet up for a beer, but I must’ve had the wrong day.”

“I’m not his damn secretary,” Chris muttered.

“Sorry, man.”

“Whatever,” he clipped and then hung up.

I looked at my brothers and dad. “I don’t think he’s in on it. He’s at a construction site. I could hear that and guys in the background.”

Lawson scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “I don’t know—”

“It’s too late. I’m not leaving her with that monster. If he has help, I’ll deal with it.” I lifted my phone to call the person I’d once counted among my closest friends.

Roan motioned to Nash. “Conference me in on your call so I can hear an updated location. I’m heading north to swing around. There are a few areas I want to check.”

“I said together,” Lawson argued.

Roan’s eyes flashed. “I know what I’m doing.”

“I know you do.”

Nash dialed another number on his phone, and a second later, Roan’s phone rang. It was a miracle we were getting service at all, but we were up a little higher here, giving us better reception.

“Mute yourselves,” I ordered, not giving Lawson a chance to further argue with Roan. “I’m calling Jude.”

Roan took that as his signal and took off at a jog into the woods.

I pressed the speakerphone button, and Jude picked up on the first ring. “Just in time. My fingers were getting a little twitchy.”

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. “Tell me where you want me to go.”

“Are you alone, Holt? Don’t forget, I know how your voice sounds when you lie.”

But he didn’t. Jude hadn’t spent any real time with me in a decade. He didn’t know how my demons had changed me.

“I’m alone. Now tell me where the hell you want me to go.”

“Don’t, Holt!”

Everything in me seized at the fear in Wren’s voice.

“Shut up!” Jude snapped.

A smack sounded, and then a muffled cry.

My fingers tightened around the phone so hard I thought for sure it would splinter. “Touch a hair on her head and I’ll end you,” I growled.

Jude’s dark laugh was back. “A little too late for that, my friend. Start walking west.”

I took one last look at Nash, Lawson, and my dad as I strode in the direction Jude had instructed. I cemented their image in my mind. I didn’t want to lose it. Needed to remember how much they cared for me. How they always had my back, even when I hadn’t had theirs nearly enough lately.