Bittersweet (Redemption #3) - Jessica Prince Page 0,102
of the couch, her eyes still swimming with tears but brimming with hope. “Did you find anything?”
I moved to her, crouching down so we were eye level, and took her hands in mine. “We just got the video in from the security cameras in the area. Laeth is working right now to clean it up.” I leaned in close and brought her hands to my lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “I’m gonna find him, baby. I swear that to you. I’ll find him, and I’ll bring him home.”
“I know you will.” It came out in a whisper, but the truth of those four words rang out through the room like a church bell. She didn’t have a single doubt that I’d do exactly what I promised. “I just hate that it’s taking so long. He must be so scared. I can’t—”
“Don’t,” I said when her voice broke and she started crying again. “Our boy’s tough. He’s gonna be fine.” Christ, please let that be true.
“You don’t know that.”
I somehow managed to smile even though I felt like everything inside of me was breaking the longer he was gone. “Of course I do. You raised him. He’s the smartest, strongest, bravest kid there is. He’s gonna be fine because he’s got you as a mom, and that’s how you taught him to be.”
Her tears started to fall slower. I leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips, pulling back just as Laeth shouted across the offices. “I got somethin’!”
I was on my feet and running back down the hall. “What do you have?”
“Well, I got the image cleared up and was able to pull a partial on the license plate. Only problem is, it’s a rental car. It’ll take me a little time to track down who rented it.”
I looked from the car to the woman on the screen. “Get Gage to start on that, but in the meantime, zoom in on her. We need to try and see if there’s anything discerning; tattoos, birthmarks, scars, anything.”
He zoomed in on a still image of the woman. In the cap and the huge sunglasses, it was impossible to make out any of her features. There was nothing I could see that could help in identifying her, and I was just about to throw the goddamn computer when I heard a soft voice speak from behind me.
“The necklace.”
I spun around and saw Shane standing inside the doorway. Her face had leached of all color, and her wide eyes didn’t move from the huge monitor. “The necklace. I recognize it. I-I’ve seen it before.”
“Where, Shane? Where’d you see it?”
She finally turned her eyes to me, and what I saw inside them chilled me to the bone. “Your mother was wearing it the day she cornered me in the parking lot of the grocery store.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Jensen
“Fuck that shit,” Stone growled when he spotted the lockpick kit I’d just pulled from my back pocket. Don’t got time for that.” Lifting his booted foot, he slammed it into the middle of the solid wood door. He had to be the only man on the planet I knew who was big enough to kick in a door like that one. Goddamn man was a beast. The door flew open so hard it smashed into the wall, sending the expensive art crashing to the ground.
Whitman came rushing into the entryway with a spooked expression on his fucking face. “What the hell? Get out of my house! You have no right—”
His sentence was cut off when I slammed my fist into his face, sending him flying backward into one of the expensive pieces of ugly-ass antique furniture the house was full of.
Blood poured from his nose as he looked up at me in shock. “That’s it! I’m calling the police!”
Grabbing him by the collar, I jerked him off the ground and slammed him into the wall, wrapping a hand around his throat as I bellowed, “Where the fuck is she?”
He sputtered as his face started to turn purple.
“Calm, brother,” Laeth said from behind me.
I felt Scooter close in, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Fucker can’t talk if you’re chokin’ the life out of him.”
I loosened my grip enough for him to talk, but not enough that he could breathe comfortably. “I asked you a goddamn question,” I snarled. “You make me repeat it and I’m gonna start breaking your fingers one at a time.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he rasped.