He sprinted up her steps hearing men taking them behind him. He yanked out his keys, opened the door and surged through. He ran straight to her desk, turned on the lamp there and hit the button for her computer.
“Brother, you gotta let us in on what’s goin’ on in your head so we can move out and find your girl,” Deck told him as Chace searched through the shit on Faye’s desk, yanking at it, his hands hitting shit he didn’t need, it falling to the floor unheeded then he found it. Her address book.
He stepped away from the computer and looked at Deck. “That boots up, call up her chat and see if you can engage a guy named Benji or someone that calls herself SerenityWash.”
He saw the other men all standing in Faye’s apartment, all of them on their phones then he bent his head and flipped through the address book.
Nothing on anyone named Benji. No entry with “SerenityWash”.
Fuck.
“Chace,” Tate called and Chace looked to him. “I’m goin’ to Newcomb’s sister.”
“Frank questioned her. She says she doesn’t know shit,” Chace told him.
“She says it but she might change her mind knowin’ someone’s buried alive so she might cough it up or she may know Newcomb enough to know where he hid it or who he gave it to then the boys can make the rounds,” Tate returned.
“Go,” Chace grunted and Tate went.
“Got Benji,” Deck told him, shifting away from the keyboard and Chace moved in.
Bending over it, he typed,
You got Chace. The Elite have got Faye. They want the shit out there or she runs out of air. You got an idea of who they would contract this shit to?
He got back, OMG! Runs out of air? What the frak does that mean?
He typed, Hold it together and think. I asked you a question. Answer it.
Benji replied, They communicate regularly with a man named Clinton Bonar.
Fuck.
Right.
Bonar.
Chace straightened, threw his phone to Deck and growled, “Bonar. Call him,” his eyes sliced to the men, “Find him.”
Bubba and Deke took off. Deck put the phone to his ear.
Chace went back to the keyboard.
What else? He asked.
I’m trying to engage Serenity. She was the one who found most of the stuff. But it looks like she’s off-line. Benji typed back.
You got contact info on her? Chace pushed.
No. Benji answered.
A real name? Chace went on.
Sorry, Chace, no. OMG.OMG. Benji was losing it.
Hold it together. You got anything? Chace returned.
Faye told us to forget it all, delete it. I did. I don’t know if Serenity did. But I’ll see if I can restore anything from backups. I’ll send it to her email and I’ll keep trying Serenity. Benji replied.
Do that now. Chace ordered, got back an, Okay, and he turned from the keyboard.
“Bonar isn’t answering,” Deck muttered, his head bent to Chace’s phone, thumbs moving over it.
Chace prowled to Faye’s house phone by the couch, snatched it out, engaged it, hit buttons and put it to his ear.
“Carnal Police Department, can I help you?” Terry answered.
“Terry, Chace,” Chace replied. “Got a text, the men Arnold Fuller was blackmailing have arranged to have Faye Goodknight kidnapped and their text indicates she’s been buried alive. I have four hours to get what’s being held over them or she runs out of air. You talk to Frank to ascertain who they are, you, Frank and anyone else on-duty gets the word out. Every one of those men are rounded up and brought in for questioning. Now. Tonight.”
“Jesus, Chace,” Terry muttered.
“That’s a second of air Faye just lost,” Chace bit out.
“Fuck, okay, but, my understanding, those men are all over four counties and all the way to Aspen,” Terry told him.
“Then you better get on the goddamned phone,” Chace growled then disconnected.
“Chace, bud, Dewey’s meetin’ me back of Bubba’s,” Wood called and Chace got the chance to get a chin lift in before Wood walked out the door and the second he disappeared, Jim-Billy, Lauren and Krys were rushing through it.
“What’s going on?” Krys asked.
“Ass at that computer. Faye’s been taken,” Lauren and Krystal gasped, Jim-Billy grunted but Chace just kept talking. “She has some friends who might be in contact through a chat. There might be emails coming through. Sit on that computer and call me if they give you anything.”
Krystal ran to the computer, Lauren at her heels.
Jim-Billy called softly to Lauren, “Laurie, darlin’, toss me your phone.”
Lauren pulled her phone out of her pocket as Chace looked to Deck.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?” Deck asked.
“Bonar,” Chace replied then he prowled out of Faye’s apartment, his chest tight, his throat closing, his palms itching, fear and fury battling for supremacy and it was a crapshoot which would win.
And when.
Deck followed him out.
*
Faye
I turned the valve on the oxygen tank they left me, the flashlight they left me lighting my movements, my hands covered in blood from pounding against the wood surrounding me.
The air was getting thin.
I used up too much panicking.
I needed more.
I moved the plastic thingie so it covered my mouth and nose and breathed in.
Chace’s words came to me.