Chapter24
Garrison
“What do you have for me?”I ask when I answer Tucker’s call on Bluetooth.
“Nothing good,” he replies.“Are you in a place where you can see something?”
I guide my truck off to the shoulder of the highway and put it in park.“I am now.”After retrieving my phone from the cupholder, I open up a message from Tucker Hunt and turn it so Weston can see as well.
“What am I looking at?”
“The security camera from outside the hardware store.I was able to remotely access it, but it’s the last camera before the dead zone where she was grabbed.”
As he says it, Katelyn comes into view.The picture is grainy and dark, but she’s unmistakable.Her purse hangs up on her shoulder, her hair pulled back in a ponytail.Just seeing her is a knife to my chest, knowing that it may be the last time I do.
“Did you see who grabbed her?”
“No.But she wasn’t alone.”Tucker’s voice is strained, his tone serious.
Katelyn pauses and glances off to the right as a man jogs toward her in running shorts and a tank top.Sawyer.Dread fills me, saturating every part of me from my head to my toes, because I now know without a doubt that the blood wasn’t Katelyn’s.
It’s Sawyer’s.If he were with her, then he likely fought back.
Anger and grief permeate the cab of my truck as Weston watches Katelyn and Sawyer start walking again, disappearing off-screen.
The video ends.
“Sawyer was with her,” Weston snarls.He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have anything else.I’m still combing security cameras out of town, but so far, nothing.”
“Thanks, Tucker.Please let me know if you find anything.”I end the call.
“You heard from Sawyer yet?”Weston asks into his phone.“Thanks.”He ends the call.“Anastasia hasn’t gotten hold of him.She went by the shop, and he’s not there.His phone is on the counter.”He slams his fist into the dash and mutters something under his breath.“They took him, too.”
The realization twists into my gut, giving me a new level of appreciation for my friend, even as my fear just doubled.“He tried to save her.”
“The blood is his,” Weston says.
“It has to be.That’s the only way they would have gotten her.He wouldn’t have gone down without a fight.”Oh, God, please don’t let me lose either of them.
“Garrison, if they didn’t come for him—” Weston starts.
I already know where he’s going, and it makes my stomach churn.“Then they have no reason to keep him alive.”
It’s just past two in the morning when I make it to the camp.I pull up in front of the main cabin and put my truck in park, my heart heavier than it’s ever been.How am I supposed to deliver this news?
How do I tell a young boy that his mom is missing and I’m not sure she’ll ever come home?
There has been no news from Elijah or Tucker since Tucker’s call an hour ago, and I can’t help but worry the next call I get will be from Leopold, telling me they found Sawyer’s discarded body.
The woman I love and my best friend.Both ripped from me on the same night.
How is this fair?
Because I’m not sure what else I can do, I close my eyes and bow my head, reaching for the only One who can stop this storm from leveling my entire life.
God, I can’t do this.Please help me.Please guide me so I can bring them both home safely.Please, Lord.In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.