Breathe (71 page)

Faye staring at him the first time she did it with that wonder in her eyes, on the sidewalk outside La-La Land when he apologized for being a dick. He didn’t know it then but she did it because she had a crush on him and he was, also for the first time, close.

It affected her so much, just him being close, she stopped breathing.

So he’d whispered,
Breathe, Faye.

And right before he wrapped her hand around his cock the first time they’d made love, she’d been holding her breath.

So he’d murmured,
Breathe, baby.

And that very night when he’d put his ring on her finger.

Baby
, he’d whispered,
Breathe.

She’ll run out of breath.

Breathe.

“Chace?” Tate’s voice came at him from close, his head jerked up and when Tate saw him, his face went from questioning to alert. “Christ, man, what’s goin’ on?”

“They’ve got Faye,” he growled.

“Who?” Tate asked.

“The Elite,” Chace answered tersely, those two words raw and he didn’t see Tate’s chin jerk back. He was moving toward the door, pushing through the crowd, vaguely hearing Tate shout men’s names but his mind was scrambling.

Darren Newcomb was not a bud. Chace detested the man. He avoided him as best he could. He had no idea who he’d trust. He had no idea where he’d hide that shit. He had no idea who he might give it to.

“
Fuck,
” Chace hissed, pushing open the door and hitting buttons on his phone.

He stopped outside, hit reply then typed in,
I’ll find it, you’ll get it but I’ll need more time
and then he hit send.

“Chace, talk,” Tate ordered and Chace looked up to see Tate there with Bubba, Deke, Wood, Jim-Billy and Deck.

“There’s shit out there,” he told them.

“We know,” Tate replied. Always sharp, Tatum Jackson. He knew exactly what was going on.

“They want it. From their message it sounds like they’ve buried Faye somewhere. She’s got four hours for me to find that shit and get it to them or she runs out of air.”

“
Buried her?
” Deck growled, his big body tense, his mood drifting dangerously through the air and Chace shoved his phone to his friend who took it but suddenly it all came clear and his eyes sliced to Tate.

“Tate, call Max. Get him to get to George Nielson, find him, drag his ass out of bed if he has to and find out what he knows or if he can find out anything. Max isn’t up for that, I need a man to go to Gnaw Bone who is,” Chace ordered, Tate lifted up his chin and stepped away.

His phone chimed and Deck hit buttons, then his eyes came to Chace. “They said you got four hours, no more,” he told him, jaw hard, eyes glittering.

Chace looked at his friend. “That number, from the text, use your superpowers. Get a lock on it.” Deck nodded, stepped back and pulled out his own phone. Chace looked to Wood. “You call Ty. I know it’s shit on a night as good as tonight for him but we need to pull him in. He needs to connect with Dewey. Dewey knows everything about everyone. Get Ty to get Dewey on the move collecting intel. Dewey can find out or even has ideas, we need to know who may be in play and how they’ll play it.”

“Right, bud,” Wood muttered and stepped away.

Chace reached out and yanked his phone out of Deck’s hand then he took off running towards Faye’s apartment.

“Fuck! Where you goin’?” Bubba shouted at his back as he ran and hit buttons on his phone.

He put it to his ear and listened to it ring. It rang four times and he was about to disconnect in order to reconnect and wake that jackass up when he heard his father’s voice.

“Chace?”

“Dad –” he started, his breath heavy but Trane cut him off.

“It’s nearly two in the morning.”

“Shut the fuck up and listen. Your buddies lost patience. They’ve buried Faye alive. I got four hours to get the shit out there back to them or she runs out of air. Get your ass out of bed on the phone or in your car or fuckin’ both and find out where Faye is.”

“Buried alive?” Trane whispered as Chace took the turn into the alley toward Faye’s apartment hearing footfalls behind him.

“Every second you waste is a second of air she does not have,” Chace growled into the phone as he made the next turn into the back alley then he disconnected.

He sprinted up her steps hearing men taking them behind him. He yanked out his keys, opened the door and surged through. He ran straight to her desk, turned on the lamp there and hit the button for her computer.

“Brother, you gotta let us in on what’s goin’ on in your head so we can move out and find your girl,” Deck told him as Chace searched through the shit on Faye’s desk, yanking at it, his hands hitting shit he didn’t need, it falling to the floor unheeded then he found it. Her address book.

He stepped away from the computer and looked at Deck. “That boots up, call up her chat and see if you can engage a guy named Benji or someone that calls herself SerenityWash.”

He saw the other men all standing in Faye’s apartment, all of them on their phones then he bent his head and flipped through the address book.

Nothing on anyone named Benji. No entry with “SerenityWash”.

Fuck.

“Chace,” Tate called and Chace looked to him. “I’m goin’ to Newcomb’s sister.”

“Frank questioned her. She says she doesn’t know shit,” Chace told him.

“She says it but she might change her mind knowin’ someone’s buried alive so she might cough it up or she may know Newcomb enough to know where he hid it or who he gave it to then the boys can make the rounds,” Tate returned.

“Go,” Chace grunted and Tate went.

“Got Benji,” Deck told him, shifting away from the keyboard and Chace moved in.

Bending over it, he typed,

You got Chace. The Elite have got Faye. They want the shit out there or she runs out of air. You got an idea of who they would contract this shit to?

He got back,
OMG! Runs out of air? What the frak does that mean?

He typed,
Hold it together and think. I asked you a question. Answer it.

Benji replied,
They communicate regularly with a man named Clinton Bonar.

Fuck.

Right.

Bonar.

Chace straightened, threw his phone to Deck and growled, “Bonar. Call him,” his eyes sliced to the men, “Find him.”

Bubba and Deke took off. Deck put the phone to his ear.

Chace went back to the keyboard.

What else?
He asked.

I’m trying to engage Serenity. She was the one who found most of the stuff. But it looks like she’s off-line.
Benji typed back.

You got contact info on her?
Chace pushed.

No.
Benji answered.

A real name?
Chace went on.

Sorry, Chace, no. OMG.OMG.
Benji was losing it.

Hold it together. You got anything?
Chace returned.

Faye told us to forget it all, delete it. I did. I don’t know if Serenity did. But I’ll see if I can restore anything from backups. I’ll send it to her email and I’ll keep trying Serenity.
Benji replied.

Do that now.
Chace ordered, got back an,
Okay,
and he turned from the keyboard.

“Bonar isn’t answering,” Deck muttered, his head bent to Chace’s phone, thumbs moving over it.

Chace prowled to Faye’s house phone by the couch, snatched it out, engaged it, hit buttons and put it to his ear.

“Carnal Police Department, can I help you?” Terry answered.

“Terry, Chace,” Chace replied. “Got a text, the men Arnold Fuller was blackmailing have arranged to have Faye Goodknight kidnapped and their text indicates she’s been buried alive. I have four hours to get what’s being held over them or she runs out of air. You talk to Frank to ascertain who they are, you, Frank and anyone else on-duty gets the word out. Every one of those men are rounded up and brought in for questioning. Now. Tonight.”

“Jesus, Chace,” Terry muttered.

“That’s a second of air Faye just lost,” Chace bit out.

“Fuck, okay, but, my understanding, those men are all over four counties and all the way to Aspen,” Terry told him.

“Then you better get on the goddamned phone,” Chace growled then disconnected.

“Chace, bud, Dewey’s meetin’ me back of Bubba’s,” Wood called and Chace got the chance to get a chin lift in before Wood walked out the door and the second he disappeared, Jim-Billy, Lauren and Krys were rushing through it.

“What’s going on?” Krys asked.

“Ass at that computer. Faye’s been taken,” Lauren and Krystal gasped, Jim-Billy grunted but Chace just kept talking. “She has some friends who might be in contact through a chat. There might be emails coming through. Sit on that computer and call me if they give you anything.”

Krystal ran to the computer, Lauren at her heels.

Jim-Billy called softly to Lauren, “Laurie, darlin’, toss me your phone.”

Lauren pulled her phone out of her pocket as Chace looked to Deck.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?” Deck asked.

“Bonar,” Chace replied then he prowled out of Faye’s apartment, his chest tight, his throat closing, his palms itching, fear and fury battling for supremacy and it was a crapshoot which would win.

And when.

Deck followed him out.

* * * * *

Faye

I turned the valve on the oxygen tank they left me, the flashlight they left me lighting my movements, my hands covered in blood from pounding against the wood surrounding me.

The air was getting thin.

I used up too much panicking.

I needed more.

I moved the plastic thingie so it covered my mouth and nose and breathed in.

Chace’s words came to me.

Baby, breathe.

My eyes shifted to the note I’d found when I’d stopped panicking, pulled it together, surveyed my close confines, found the flashlight and the tank. It was resting against the wood at my side.

You have four hours. So does he. The phone has minimal charge. No GPS. You’ll have enough time for one call. Use it if you need to say good-bye.

My eyes shifted to the phone they left with me.

Then they closed.

Ella Mae sang in my ear.

I kept my eyes closed.

I felt Chace’s arms around me, his body pressed to mine, our hips swaying.

We were getting married. We were going to build a family.

I held out for twenty-nine years. I held out for Chace. I held out for a hero.

He would find me.

Chace would find me.

* * * * *

Chace

“I don’t know
shit,
” Bonar spat, eyes to Chace even though Deck had his limp body held up by his neck.

Chace sucked in breath, looked to his watch and remembered the time the text came through because it was burned in his brain.

Faye had less than three hours.

His eyes moved to Deck. “She has less than three hours.”

Deck pulled back an arm and let fly. When he connected, the blood splattered against the wall behind them.

Chace’s phone rang. He pulled it out and took the call.

“What?” he clipped into it as Deck leaned into Bonar, jerking Bonar to him with his fingers wrapped around his throat and growled something low that Chace couldn’t hear.

“Brother, we’re pullin’ them in and they’re all lawyerin’ up,” Frank said in his ear.

Chace opened his mouth to speak but he heard in the background, “Charge them all with three counts of conspiracy to commit murder and book ‘em.”

Cap was there.

“We don’t have evidence to support that.” Chace heard Frank tell the Cap.

Then he heard Cap mutter from close, “We’ll worry about that later. Charge ‘em, book ‘em and give that to me.” Then Chace had Cap direct. “Son, whatever mess you’re out there makin’, have a mind to me bein’ able to clean it up.”

Disconnect.

If Faye wasn’t running out of air, he would have smiled.

Instead he tipped his eyes to Bonar who was bleeding profusely from his nose, several cuts in his lips and the entire left side of his face was swelling.

Deck was localizing the damage and it looked like it hurt like a bitch.