“The same thing I’ve wanted from the beginning.” Their abductor reached for the mask covering his head and pulled the fabric free, and shock coursed through her as recognition flared. He closed the door behind him, closing off their only chance of escape. “To finish what I started.”
THE FOOTPRINTS VANISHED once Benning reached the road. The SOB who’d taken his son could’ve gone anywhere, could’ve had a car waiting, or been working with Claire Winston this entire time. One person to recover the skull, one to keep watch on Owen. Hell. He clutched the camera he’d taken from the tractor shed and spun around to search for a sign of where the bastard might’ve gone. The signal on a device like this couldn’t have reached far. It wasn’t powerful enough. The kidnapper would’ve had to remain within a few blocks, maybe a mile, in order to access the surveillance feed. Damn it. That still left a lot of options. Too many. “Come on.”
There had to be something he could use, but the spatters of blood had ended at the edge of the pavement. Right along with the trail. Agent Duran had said the body in the hole in Claire Winston’s basement had belonged to Samantha Perry’s killer. Could she have been involved from the start? In an effort to find Samantha some semblance of justice, had it been Claire’s plan to leverage Benning’s son, in return for the evidence she’d committed murder? He searched every loose piece of gravel under his boots, every tire tread imprinted in slush along the side of the road. Nothing. Ana and Owen were gone.
Branches swayed behind him on a strong gust of wind. He was a building inspector. Tracking killers and missing persons? This wasn’t his world. He hadn’t been trained for this, and that inexperience would keep him from finding two of the most important people in his life, but he couldn’t give up. Not when Ana had finally come back into his life, when everything had started falling into place and they were so close to finding his son.
His stomach soured. He’d asked her to give up the only chance she had of forgiving herself for the sake of the twins, but faced with the possibility of losing her, of losing Owen, he knew he hadn’t been thinking of anyone but himself. He’d asked her to sacrifice a significant part of her life in order to protect himself from getting hurt again. Damn it. He’d been an idiot. Ana wasn’t just an agent. Helping those who couldn’t help themselves made her into the woman he’d fallen in love with. Now she was gone. They had a real chance to make this work between them and the twins, but that wasn’t going to happen if he couldn’t get to her to tell her the truth. Guns, blood, fear... This was her world, but he’d become part of it the second he’d removed Harold Wood’s skull from that construction site. He’d fallen in love with a dangerous woman determined to go to the ends of the earth to ensure he and his kids made it out alive, and he couldn’t leave her out there alone. Benning curled his fingers around the camera in his palm. He was the one who’d put Owen and Olivia in danger in the first place and brought Ana into the investigation. He’d started this. He was sure as hell going to finish it. “Think, damn it.”
All of this tied back to that case from seven years ago, and while he hadn’t been involved, there’d been enough in the news and from conversations between him and Ana for him to fill in a timeline. Harold Wood had been a model employee at Sevier County High School where both Samantha Perry and Claire Winston attended. Samantha had been well liked, a favorite of her teachers, a fast learner and dedicated to achieving valedictorian during her senior year. The perfect target. According to her best friend, Samantha could become friends with anyone, made sure to smile at the kids who sat alone at lunch, as well as the janitor who kept to himself most of the time. Harold Wood. Claire’s statement after Samantha had gone missing had gone public after the girl’s body had been found in that alley in Knoxville. Benning studied the spot where the footprints ended. What had she said? He closed his eyes. The girls had been halfway home in Claire’s car when Samantha realized she’d forgotten a textbook she needed in order to study for a test the next day. Claire had driven them back and waited in the parking lot, but after more than thirty minutes, she went in to look for her friend. And never found her.
Goose bumps rose along his arms as another gust shuddered through the trees. He opened his eyes. The school. That was where all of this started that day seven years ago, and that was where it would end. He was sure of it. This entire investigation had linked back to Samantha Perry’s disappearance, and the school would be within signal range to stream the footage from the camera in his hand. Whoever was behind this—whoever’d taken his son—would be there.
He jogged east down the long, winding road in the direction of the high school despite the pain arcing through his shoulder. He wouldn’t give up on Ana. Not a chance in hell. Because when it came right down to it, she wouldn’t give up on him or his family. She hadn’t shared her secrets with anyone. Not her team. Not her boss. Only him. She’d punished herself for failing to bring down a killer—had walked out on him because of it—but he would spend the rest of his life trying to help her work through that pain to lighten her burden. As long as it took. She’d dedicated her life to taking care of so many others, always putting everyone else’s needs ahead of her
