Licking her lips, she glanced at Nash, silent and thoughtful behind the wheel and behind his disguise of beard and baseball cap. Was he regretting his decision to go rogue already? She’d been impressed by his thoroughness. When the man went rogue, he went all out.
In addition to his disguise, he’d swapped his truck for a rental in case Lanier’s people knew his vehicle. He’d insisted she cover her red hair, so she found a dark wig and did him one better and added a pair of clear glasses.
Sensing her regard, he twisted his head to the side. “You printed out those enlargements of the room where you live chatted with Wyatt, right?”
She jerked her thumb toward the back seat. “I have them in a folder.”
He asked, “How close are we now?”
Glancing at her phone, she said, “About twenty minutes straight through the city to the west. It’s in the desert, not Phoenix proper. Where are we going to hole up before we make our move?”
“Depends on how close we can get to this location without raising suspicions. If it’s in some small town on the outskirts of Phoenix, we’ll be strangers. Strangers stick out in small towns. Trust me.”
After another ten minutes of driving, Emily got her bearings. “The location isn’t in a residential community, but it has to be some kind of house and not a warehouse because it definitely has a window.”
“Unless—” Nash grabbed her hand “—we’re just tracking an empty car seat.”
She threaded her fingers through his. “You don’t think that notion has been gnawing at me?”
“We need to drive by the GPS location now, before the sun goes down, and make some kind of assessment. We can’t go in blindly at night if we’re not even sure Wyatt is with the car seat.”
“I agree.” She tapped the phone. “We’re there in two more exits.”
They left the center of Phoenix to where the buildings grew sparser and the desert began to take control again. Emily instructed Nash to turn off where a few fast-food restaurants and chain stores hugged the freeway.
She cleared her throat. “So, not completely isolated. We’re not going to cause a commotion with our presence.”
Nobody who had seen her or Nash before would recognize them in these disguises, and they’d stashed Wyatt’s car seat in the trunk to distance themselves from anything baby related. This could work.
She continued to give Nash directions that took them past a few scattered houses, a trailer park and a rodeo rink. She glanced at Nash from the corner of her eye. “Don’t get any ideas.”
He snorted, but his mouth stayed firm. He was as worried as she was, and her little joke couldn’t snap the tension that held them in its grip.
Emily rapped her knuckle on the window. “Up ahead, the next turn.”
Hunching over the steering wheel, Nash said, “Looks like some warehouses, but there could be offices in the front with windows.”
“Should we look now, even though it’s not as dark as you’d like?”
He nodded. “There are a few cars driving around, probably coming and going from work. One more car isn’t going to make a difference. Just keep me going in the right direction.”
They turned right into a large lot dotted with warehouses, and Emily’s stomach knotted. People worked here. How could they keep a baby tucked away in a warehouse without drawing attention to themselves?
She swallowed. “It has to be this warehouse on the right, Nash, but it looks nothing like what I saw out that window during the video chat.”
Nash drove slowly past the warehouse and around the corner. When they reached the back of a gray metal structure, Nash pointed to a sliding door raised a few feet, leaving a gap.
Emily hugged herself. “There’s no way they would leave that open if they had a kidnapped baby.”
As Nash slowed the car, she grabbed the door handle. “I have to see. I have to see now.”
“If he’s in there, Emily, you’ll give us away.” But he’d slowed down the car anyway, and she didn’t wait for him to stop.
She jumped out and did a little jog to keep from falling. She crept up to the warehouse door and dropped to her knees, tilting her head to listen. Nash’s idling car was the only sound she heard.
She crawled toward the opening and ducked her head into the space. The high windows cast a gray light over the concrete floor of the warehouse, which contained a desk, a few chairs, a filing cabinet...and an empty car seat.
Chapter Twenty
Nash had kept the engine of the car running in case someone came after Emily, but she hadn’t moved since she’d crouched in front of that opening to peer into the warehouse.
As he watched her, his heart hammering in his chest, she dropped to the ground, flattening her body against the greasy asphalt.
An animal wailed somewhere, its plaintive cry echoing in the night. It took Nash a few seconds to realize that sound was emanating from Emily.
With the car still idling, he jumped out and launched himself at Emily, who was screaming and kicking her legs against the ground. He scooped her up from behind and cradled her against his chest as he collapsed against the side of the building.
He tried to soothe her by stroking her back. “It’s all right. We’ll find him. We’ll get him back. We’ll bring him home. We’ll make him ours.”
He didn’t even know what he was saying. The words tumbled from his lips—all his hopes and dreams stripped bare.
She peeled away from him and pointed at the opening with tears streaming down her face. “It’s there, Nash. The car seat—the empty car seat with the GPS we’ve been following. The GPS we’ve been pinning all our hopes on.”
“Shh, shh.” He rocked her back and forth in his arms as if she were Wyatt. “As long as we’re here, let’s take a look around. Crawl inside and I’ll turn off the car.”
She followed
