I know what I say doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I’m all hyped up. Panicked. “Follow them! We can’t lose them!”
“Tell me what happened!” Aiden yells as he’s gunning the engine and slamming through the gears.
I plug my phone into Aiden’s car, so we can both hear Dawson.
“Dawson, you’re on speaker. Tell us what happened.”
“All I know is I heard gunfire, ran toward it, saw Cooper hit the ground. Dallas was already down. The guy was talking to Keatyn. He held a gun on her as he put Dallas in the van and then hit her on the back of the head with the gun, threw her in the back, and took off. Brooke called 911 and the school is on lockdown.”
“He got a head start on us, but we’ll catch him if we go the right way,” I say to Aiden.
“We have to go the right way,” Aiden replies. “Think. Where would he take them?”
“Keatyn was going back to Malibu tonight to find Brooklyn.”
“What do you mean? They wouldn’t let her leave.”
“She found a secret way out of school through Stockton’s.”
“Was she going to tell me?” He stops staring at the road and turns to me, fire in his eyes. “Were you going to tell me? Were you going to let her go?”
I hang my head a little. “I was going with her.”
Aiden shakes his head. “She said he wanted to film a movie with her. The script she got was set in California. She didn’t think he’d hurt Brooklyn until after they filmed the movie. So, if she was right, he’d take her back to California. So the airport?”
“I think so, but the highway’s right there!” I point to the turn off, which we are closing in on way too fast. “Slow down!”
Aiden handles his car perfectly, tapping the brakes, and then veering us onto the highway.
He barely even slowed down.
Fuck if I’m not impressed with his driving skills.
“We have a problem,” Aiden says. “I’m almost out of gas.”
“Then we have an even bigger problem,” I tell him. “Keatyn may not have on her tracking necklace. She didn’t want anyone to know when she’d left. God, why did I go along with her plans?”
“Because you’re a good friend,” Aiden says. “But we can’t worry about that now. We’ve got to find that van or they’ll both be dead. They’ve been searching for Brooklyn for three days with no luck.”
“We can’t call Cooper. He got shot. I don’t have Garrett’s number. Do you?”
I watch as Aiden takes one hand off the wheel and runs his finger over the clover keychain Keatyn gave him. When I look back at the road, I see it in the distance, up ahead.
“The van!” we both yell at the same time.
“Get close to it so we can get the license plate. I’m calling Senator McMahon.”
“You know he didn’t come for Dallas.”
“It doesn’t matter who he wanted. Kidnapping Dallas was the wrong move.”
The senator answers his private line after a few rings.
“Riley,” he barks. “This is the number you are supposed to call only in an emergency.”
“It is an emergency, sir. Dallas and Keatyn have been kidnapped from Eastbrooke and are in the back of a white van. A teacher was shot.”
“I need to make a call on the other line. Hold on.”
“Grab my phone,” Aiden says. “Take a picture of the back of the van and the license plate.”
“Are you sure it’s the same van?”
“Yep. It says Charlie’s Produce on it. But, look, there’s no plate.”
“Riley,” Mr. McMahon’s voice booms through Aiden’s speakers. “I have the Service on the line. Did the van leave school? Do you know what direction it was headed? License plate? Description of the assailant?”
“We’re following the van right now. Keatyn usually wears a tracking device, but we don’t know if she has it on. We need to reach Garrett Smith, but don’t have his phone number. We believe the kidnapper is Vincent Sharpe, Keatyn’s stalker; the guy from the club in Miami. But we’re not sure.”
“Doesn’t matter who or why, son. We need to get them. Where are you?”
I give him the mile marker of the highway we’re traveling on. “If it is Vincent, we think he will be headed to an airport, but we don’t know which one.”
“Help is on the way, boys. Don’t lose the van. What are you driving?”
“White Maserati,” I say. “California plates: Golf, Oscar, Alpha, Lima, India, Echo, One.”
“We can’t keep up this speed,” Aiden says frantically. “I’m burning through fuel. We’re going to have to do something else.”
“Like what?”
“Hit them,” he says.
“Hit them? This car against a full-sized van? It will crumple.”
“I sat in on a stunt planning meeting while Keatyn was filming. They talked about what would happen in real life as opposed to what would happen in the movie. I’m going to do the stunt. I’ll speed past him. Double back. T-bone the driver’s door.”
“You’ll kill us. Them too, probably.”
“Not if I do it right. And we don’t have another option. The cops aren’t here. The feds aren’t here. It’s just him and us. Besides, we have airbags, right?”