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Sweet relief rolled through me when I saw the dot indicating her location, pinging slow movement. I zoomed in and frowned in confusion. Why was she back on campus? She did say she was feeling useless. Maybe she just wanted to double-check Sofia’s room for clues. But then why the secrecy? My sixth sense was doing more than whispering and I knew I needed to get to her.
“Go,” Kade urged. “I’ll hold down the fort here.”
I nodded and ran to my room to grab my weapon before rushing out the door, leaving Kade to handle the cops and the family’s questions.
I had my girls to find.
I kept the app open as I drove, obsessively watching that locator dot. She’d stopped moving a few yards behind the dorms, making my stomach crawl. What the hell was going on?
I tried her phone again, and of course it rolled straight to voicemail.
I blew through every light, swerving around traffic like a madman, making it to campus in record time, slowing only as I approached the dorms, not wanting to give myself away. A small amount of relief hit me at seeing her car, but as I made my way around it with my pistol at the ready, it was empty, and there was no real movement in the lot other than a few students at the far end heading to class.
A part of me wanted to head to Sofia’s dorm room, but I checked my phone again. The locator dot was clearly not there, so I turned and headed around to the rear of the building, following where it led.
I found a trailhead and glanced around. Nobody.
Gravel crunched under my boots as I crept along, gun in one hand, phone in the other. When I reached a fork, I checked the app, but I didn’t really need to. My gut told me which way to go.
I tucked my phone away and wound through the weedy trail slowly until I heard the faint sound of voices. On instinct, I ducked off the path and into the brush, circling around the voices, using the top of a grouping of trees as my guide, until I was on the south side.
I fell to my belly and crawled to the edge of the grass and peered through, assessing the situation in stealth, holding everything back inside of me that wanted to rush in, guns blazing, until I knew what I was up against.
What I saw was quite literally the last thing I expected.
The hiking trail I’d been on ended near a large pond. The area had obviously once been well tended but was now in disrepair. Weeds, overgrown trees, and a chipped stone bench crowded the shore.
And there on the littered sand was Olivia, on her knees, begging for Elizabeth’s life... next to a crying Sofia.
My gaze swung to the man in the murky water, holding a whining Elizabeth clutched to him so tightly, it looked like she couldn’t breathe.
Tall, thin, dark-skinned, mop of curly hair... young.
I frowned.
It was clearly not Christoph.
What. The. Fuck.
“Alonzo, please,” Sofia pleaded. “She’s just a baby!”
“Do you think I give a fuck?” he spat, shaking her around like a ragdoll and stepping back farther into the water so it lapped at her chin, making her cry louder. “She’s the reason we don’t have a family anymore. Don’t you even care?”
“Of course I care! But it’s not her fault! She’s innocent!”
“But she’s not!” He pointed his other hand at Olivia, which held a Bowie knife that glinted angrily in the sun.
I heard Olivia’s gasp from across the pond. “Please don’t do this!” she begged. “I didn’t know he was married! You have to believe me!”
“You’re a damn liar!” he screamed. “And a homewrecker!”
Homewrecker? Wait. So, this was Sofia’s brother?
“Al, please!” Sofia tried again. “Please think this through. Mommy and Daddy were having troubles before Olivia came along. It won’t do any good to—” She screamed when he fell backward into the water, taking Elizabeth with him.
I moved to rush in and grab them both, but he broke the surface with a gasping and crying Elizabeth.
“Shut up!” he screamed. “Mommy and Daddy were perfect!”
