But how long would it be before we found her, and what condition would she be in when we did? The possible answers to those questions were too much for me to think about. I could barely breathe and was on the verge of completely breaking down. She couldn’t be gone. She just couldn’t.
“Is there anything you can think of that might be useful? Anything she might have told you about her mother?” Dash asked.
“Aspen hates her mother. She hasn’t spoken to her in years. What makes you think Pamela is behind this?”
“Luke’s team used footage from traffic cameras to try and track Aspen’s car. Before you get your hopes up, they lost her on the highway once she was out of city limits. But, in one of the images they did get, you can see someone in the passenger seat, and Luke said that person matched Pamela’s description.”
I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, trying to put the pieces together. “None of this makes any sense. There’s no way Pamela could have taken me, dumped me in a basement in the middle of nowhere, and been back in Devil Springs by the time Aspen got off of work.”
“We think someone’s helping her,” Dad suggested.
That made more sense. “Any idea who that could be?”
“No, not yet, but with the amount of people working on this, we should know sooner rather than later.”
“I’d really rather they focus their efforts on locating Aspen and worry about who was behind it later.”
“I know, son. If anyone understands how you feel, it’s me. But we need to know who’s behind this so we know where to look. Otherwise, we’re searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I admitted and turned my head to stare out the window until we made it to Devil Springs.
12
COAL
When the clubhouse came into view, I could see a small crowd of people in the field where Shaker was going to land.
As soon as we touched down, Tatum and Luke were at the door, jerking it open and climbing inside. Tatum grabbed the microphone attached to my dad’s headset and pulled it toward her as she leaned down to speak. “There’s a Jane Doe at a hospital in Pinebrook matching Aspen’s description. I’ve already filed a flight plan and made arrangements for you to land at the closest airport.”
“Why would she be listed as a Jane Doe?” I asked and suddenly wished I hadn’t. There were only a few possible answers, and none of them were good.
“Because they haven’t been able to make a positive identification,” Tatum said cryptically.
“Why?” I demanded. “What’s wrong with her?”
Tatum grimaced. “The woman was picked up by an ambulance with a head injury and a gunshot wound. She lost consciousness en route and is currently in a medically induced coma.”
“She was shot?” I shouted. “Where? Do they think she’s going to live? What else do you know?”
Tatum held her hands up and gave me a sympathetic look. “We don’t know for sure that it’s Aspen. Until we can confirm that it is, the information they were willing to share was limited. They would only tell me that she had a gunshot wound and two skull fractures, but they assured me she was stable.”
The rest of the group continued to talk, but I completely zoned out. I couldn’t stop the images of Aspen lying in a hospital bed, bloodied and bruised, from flooding my mind. What had she been through? What if she never woke up? What if she didn’t make it? What if she did and didn’t remember me or was a completely different person? None of those possibilities were acceptable.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see my uncle watching me with worry-filled eyes. “I’m pretty sure I know what’s going through your mind right now. Because the same things are going through mine. And the truth is, we won’t know the answers to those questions for a while. But one thing we do know is that Aspen is strong and resilient. If this is her, she’ll fight like hell to survive.”
He was right. If anyone could pull through, it was Aspen. I felt so torn. I wanted it to be her, because that would mean we found her, but at the same time, I didn’t want it to be her, because I didn’t want her to have such severe injuries.
“Do you think it’s her?” I asked. Deep down, I felt like it was, and I wondered if he felt the same. Not knowing was killing me.
“Yeah, I do,” he admitted. “But we’ll know for sure soon enough.”
I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headrest for the remainder of the flight. Thankfully, no one disturbed me. I needed whatever time we had left to pull myself together. Aspen needed me, and I wanted to be the best I could for her.
The ride from the airport to the hospital was a blur. It could have been fifteen minutes, or it could have been an hour. I had no clue. Exhaustion from my own ordeal was trying to take over, but I refused to let myself rest until I knew where Aspen was.
I jolted when Dad nudged me with his elbow. “We’re here.”
We filed out of the car and into the hospital as a unit. When the woman at the front desk looked up, her eyes widened at the sight of us.