Turn Back Time Page 8

  “Most assuredly. I can make that happen this morning if I leave early enough.”

  “This is good news, indeed.” Jonah turned to Asher. “Get an update on Elijah. We need to know where he stands—how close he is to arriving.”

  “I’ll have news when I return tonight.”

  “Do we have any more information on the rest of the rebels?”

  Abraham frowned. “We’ve got a few more in the area to snatch, but it’s harder to find the ones who moved away.”

  “Find them!” Jonah slammed his fists on the table, making everyone else jump. “We can’t pick up where we left off until every single rebel has been properly charged and punished.”

  “Of course,” Asher said. “We’re getting closer every day.”

  “Not close enough.” Jonah glared at each man individually. “You will all feel the pains personally if this drags on too long. Do you understand?”

  They exchanged worried glances, but nodded to Jonah.

  “Good. I’m glad we’re at an understanding. This time next week, the trials need to begin.”

  Held

  “Wake up!”

  Something hard struck Lottie in the back. She groaned and rolled over on the hard floor.

  “Get up. Now.”

  Lottie readjusted the head covering so she could see out from the eye slit and rose. The only thing she could see was a small fireplace. Something boiled from a pot hanging above it. Despite the heavy facial covers, the aroma of a hearty stew drifted to her. Her stomach growled and her mouth watered, reminding her it had been days since she’d last eaten—though she couldn’t remember how many. Everything blended together into one horrifying blur.

  She turned to get a better look, but all she saw was a rugged shelf built into the wall, holding jars of food—jams, pickled items, and more. If allowed, she would have run over, opened any of them, and eaten. She didn’t care what it was as long as she could swallow it.

  A hand gripped her arm, squeezing tightly, nails digging into her flesh but not quite piercing the skin through the thick robe. “Come on.”

  She followed the two women outside the tiny house and down a muddy pathway to a dirt road filled with a variety of tire marks—ones that were all too familiar. The community used wheelbarrows, wagons, and horse-drawn carriages to carry goods and travel through their immense property.

  They walked along the side of the road for a full twenty minutes. Little, sharp rocks dug into the soles of her bare feet, cutting through the skin like miniature knives. The pain at least distracted her from the cold. Lottie’s stomach hadn’t stopped growling. The older of the two women turned and glared at her each time, but she didn’t say anything.

  Community members stopped and stared at her. It was always a curiosity when someone new joined them—and it was obvious given the typical garb with only the eye slit. Since she had been brought in as a prisoner, she likely had a letter of shame on her robe after she had entered the community. Lottie wondered with the letter might be. D for deserter? The possibilities were endless.

  They stopped in front of a long, rectangular building. It reminded her of the former meeting hall, except the door had five locks.

  “We’re here with a prisoner. Lois, the rebel!” The older woman squeezed Lottie’s arm.

  Rebel? If that’s what they were calling them, maybe Lottie had an R on her clothing.

  Five clicks sounded—slowly, one after the other. The door opened out toward them. Lottie tried to move out of the way, but the woman held her in place. The door scraped over Lottie’s bare toes. She cried out. The older woman smacked her across the face. At least the head covering protected her from the sting.

  The woman shoved her inside the building. Lottie stumbled, scraping her heel on a stone in the packed dirt floor. She lost her balance and fell, hitting her chin on a larger rock. A man loomed over her, his hands folded across his chest and his brows furrowed. “Get up.”

  Lottie rubbed her chin.

  He kicked her side so hard that little white dots danced in front of her. “I said, get up.”

  She grunted and struggled to her feet. The man pulled off her head covering, also grabbing onto her hair. Lottie’s head yanked backward.

  “You’ll join the other prisoners. Follow me.”

  Lottie looked back for the two women—as unpleasant as the older one was, she was far more tolerable than this man. Neither of the women were in sight. She rubbed her neck.

  “I said to follow me!” His brows came together and his nostrils flared. “Don’t be insolent, woman. You may have spent the last ten years out in the world’s influence, but that’s over. Time to relearn some respect and obedience, or get it beaten out of you.”

  She flinched.

  “Thought that’d get your attention. Don’t test me.”

  Lottie lowered her gaze to the floor and followed him. Anger pulsated through her, but she pushed it down. She’d lived long enough to know giving vent to her frustrations wouldn’t get her anywhere. Her energies would be put to better use finding a way out. If nothing else, she needed to get out and warn Macy and Luke. The last thing she wanted was to see them back in the community, especially violently abducted as she had been.

  Muscles in every part of her body ached as she walked along, careful to avoid rocks in the ground. Even her feet hurt, and she didn’t want to add to the pain. She needed her strength for whatever came next.

  They stopped in front of another door. Lottie nearly walked into the man, but stopped herself just in time. He unlocked the door’s five locks, opened it, and stepped aside. “Ladies first,” he snarled.

  It took every ounce of her self-control to keep from responding to him as she walked through the doorway. He shoved her, but she managed to keep from falling.

  The door slammed with a thud behind her and the five locks clicked back into place.

  She looked up from the floor. A dozen others were in the room with her, and they had removed their head coverings. Apparently, the requirements didn’t apply to the small prison. She recognized each other person, and they all had an R on their robe. Most sat and a few leaned against the wooden walls. There was nothing inside other than the dirt floor. Her throat suddenly felt dry and her hunger hit her with a wave of dizziness.

  Nobody spoke to her or to each other. The mood was so heavy, she felt like she was attending a funeral—or maybe an execution. Given they all faced trial with Jonah as the judge and jury, it wasn’t all that far from their probable fate.

  Lottie leaned against a wall and slid to sitting. Her mouth grew more parched by the moment, and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Everything turned blurry and the floor rushed toward her. Just before hitting it with her face, she lost consciousness.

  Recognition

  Luke’s eyelids grew heavy. He struggled to keep them open, but it was a losing battle. After sleeping so poorly at the computer desk, he’d woken and continued working. He hadn’t even known Macy had left until she walked in through the front door, half scaring him to death. At first, he’d thought someone was breaking into the house.

  Now he sat on the couch in his in-laws’ living room. Everyone was talking about his mom, and he couldn’t even stay awake. Some son he was. He needed more coffee so he could push through the fatigue until they found her.

  Just as he decided to get up for the brew Alyssa had just made, his eyes closed, wrapping him in a warm, comfortable darkness. When he woke, he was sprawled across the couch, covered in a blanket, his head on a pillow. The room was quiet and he felt rested.

  Until he remembered his mom was missing.

  Luke sat up and tossed aside the blanket. How could he have slept? He needed to do more—there wasn’t time for sleeping. What he needed was the coffee he was about to get before he so irresponsibly fell asleep. Luke rose, stretched, and headed into the kitchen. The pot was cold, but he didn’t care. He poured some anyway and stuck it into the microwave.

  Chad came in, carrying a mug.
He held it up. “Great minds.”

  Luke nodded and took his mug out from the microwave.

  “I see you don’t mind stale caffeine, either.” Chad poured the cold coffee into his mug. “It all works the same, right?”

  “Yeah.” Luke mixed some flavored creamer into his cup. “Doubt I’m going to taste it, anyway.”

  Chad started the microwave and turned to him. “How are you holding up?”

  “About as well as could be expected, I suppose.”

  His father-in-law arched a brow, finished preparing his coffee, and sat at the table. He flicked his head toward the chair nearest Luke. “Have a seat.”

  Luke felt a talking-to coming, but he sat. The two men sat in silence for a minute, both sipping from their mugs. The strong coffee gave Luke a small burst of energy. Maybe after finishing the whole cup, he’d be up for handing out fliers at the Meriwether. He needed to speak with the residents personally.

  Chad set his mug down and met Luke’s gaze. “How are you holding up, really? You just spent the morning asleep on my couch.”

  “I was up late, getting word out about Mom’s disappearance.”

  “How are things between you and Macy?”

  Luke nearly dropped the mug. He hadn’t been expecting that question. “I—what do you mean?”

  Chad took a long, slow sip of his coffee, holding Luke’s gaze. “I’ve been where you’re at, son. Twice. A missing relative can wreak havoc on a marriage.”

  Luke swallowed. If he was being honest with himself, and he hadn’t thought much about it until that moment, he’d pretty much shoved Macy aside as he laser-focused on finding his mom.

  “I’m not trying to find fault.” Chad set his mug down. “I’m the last one to point fingers after some of the things I’ve done. But the fact that I’ve made some pretty big mistakes means I know what I’m talking about when I say be careful not to neglect your marriage. No matter what happens, your wife is the one you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. You two have already been through so much—hang onto that. You’ll need each other to get through this, too.”

  Luke sipped his coffee, giving him some time to let Chad’s words sink in. He took a deep breath. “You’re right. Thanks for the wakeup call.”

  “I wish someone had given me one long ago. It would’ve saved me a lot of heartache.” Chad pressed his fingers together and glanced off to the side, looking lost in thought.

  Luke wondered what had happened with Chad and Alyssa, but didn’t ask. If Chad wanted to talk, he would. But some things were better left unsaid.

  Macy walked in. Her eyes widened in surprise at Luke. “You’re up. Did you get enough rest?”

  He nodded and finished his drink.

  Chad rose. “We’re just taking a coffee break. I need to get back to work. I’ve got a deadline quickly approaching.” He left the room, giving Macy’s shoulder a squeeze on the way out.

  She sat next to Luke. “Did I interrupt? Things felt a little tense when I came in.”

  Luke shook his head and wrapped an arm around her. “Not tense. We were just talking.”

  “That’s good.” She turned and looked at him, her expression serious. “I want you to come look at something.”

  His stomach dropped. “What is it?”

  “Just come and see.”

  “This doesn’t sound good.” He rose and put the mug into the sink.

  “I’m not sure whether it’s good or not, but it might be the clue we’ve needed all this time.”

  Luke’s stomach churned acid. “You won’t tell me?”

  “You need to see what I’m talking about.”

  “Okay.” He laced his fingers through hers and walked with her to Alex’s room. He sat at the desk, typing a mile a minute, fully focused on the screen.

  Macy cleared her throat. Alex turned to them.

  “You found a clue?” Luke asked.

  “I have no idea.” Alex turned the laptop toward Macy and Luke. “She won’t tell me what’s going on.”

  “Guess that makes two of us.”

  Macy let go of Luke’s hand and scrolled through Alex’s blog. “This is one of the missing people from the Meriwether. Take a look.”

  Luke leaned over and studied the picture. It was a guy a few years older with a five o’clock shadow and dark circles under his eyes. He turned to Macy. “Okay?”

  “Scroll down. Keep looking at the pictures.”

  “We need to focus on finding Mom,” Luke muttered, but he scrolled, anyway. The next photo of the man was with a slightly younger woman, and the same guy from the earlier picture was now clean-cut, bright-eyed, and smiling widely. Luke was about to scroll down when he paused. There was something about those eyes…

  Luke studied the man’s face and was suddenly transported back ten years. He snapped his head toward Macy. “Is that…?”

  She nodded, her eyes lighting up.

  He turned back to the blog and scrolled up and down, staring at all five of the pictures. “It is him.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Alex demanded.

  Luke turned back to Macy, his palms growing clammy. His mind raced with possibilities of what this could mean.

  “Well?” Alex tapped the desk.

  Macy looked at her brother. “We know him from the community. He didn’t go by Rory then.”

  “He went by Isaac,” Luke said.

  Waiting

  Nick climbed into his Mustang after walking around it several times to make sure there were no scratches or other marks. If he’d have been thinking straight, he would’ve brought a police cruiser to the Meriwether. But all he’d considered before leaving was that a marked vehicle would scare off anyone who would otherwise talk to them.

  “That was next to useless.” Anderson snapped his seatbelt.

  “We did confirm that Lottie had been there giving groceries, and that Rory and Kinsley are both missing.”

  “All of which we already knew.” Anderson shuddered. “I feel like I need to shower off that stench.”

  Nick couldn’t deny that. He was going to pick up his kids from the airport in a few hours, and he had to get rid of the smell from his clothes and skin. It clung to both of them, stinking up his beloved car. He turned the ignition and pushed a single button to roll down all the windows. “Now we need to figure out what the connection is between a retired lady, a janitor, and a young college dropout.”

  “Lottie Mills loves volunteering. Maybe she was helping the other two, also.”

  “But if she was, someone would know, right? Nobody mentioned a connection between them and her.” Nick pulled out from the spot and squealed the tires as he made his way out of the neighborhood.

  “Maybe they didn’t know Lottie was helping them,” Anderson pointed out. “Her own kid didn’t even know she was going to the Meriwether, and it sounds like she’s been doing that for a while.”

  Nick tried to think of what would lead to all three disappearing. “Maybe Rory and Kinsley were involved with something, and it turned bad. They went to Lottie for help, and that led to whatever happened.”

  “Maybe.” Silence rested between them for close to a minute. “Unless Rory was into something, and he kidnapped both Kinsley and Lottie.”

  “Why, though?” Nick turned onto a main road. “If he took two older women, that would make sense—or if he took two eighteen-year-olds. But to take both of them?”

  “They might’ve seen something they shouldn’t have.”

  “That could be.” They discussed other possibilities until Nick pulled into the station’s parking lot.

  Anderson unbuckled. “We’d better debrief everyone. Maybe we can even find a connection between these three and all the missing homeless. You never know.”

  “Wishful thinking,” Nick said. “It’d be great to be able to solve all the cases at once, but we both know it never works that way. Anyway, I’m going to need you to take this one.”

  “Wait, what?” Anderson gave him a
double-take. “It’s all-hands-on-deck, Captain. Your orders.”

  “I know, and I’m going to work remotely. I have to pick up my kids from the airport.”

  Anderson nodded knowingly. “Corrine actually put them on the plane?”

  “She’d better hope so.”

  “I’ll keep you updated.”

  “My phone will be on.”

  Anderson left, and Nick closed his eyes. Despite having had the window open, he could still smell the Meriwether—a mixture of weed, body odor, and butt. Great. Now he’d have to not only shower, but find a way to flush the smell from the car, too. Of all the days for it to stink.

  Nick hurried home and into the shower. He threw on some slightly-faded jeans and a Pearl Jam t-shirt from a concert he had taken Ava and Parker to shortly before the divorce. Hopefully when they saw that, it would bring back good memories and they could start their time together on the right foot. He knew it would take more than a shirt to distract them from all the bad things Corrine had been saying to them from the moment she served Nick with the divorce papers.

  He walked around the condo, making sure everything was ready for the kids. The cupboard was filled with their favorite snacks. The spare bedroom was decorated with the items from the girls’ rooms that had been left behind, plus a number of new things he’d purchased since then for them. Nick’s room was converted into a double room using dividers, giving Parker the feel of having his own room.

  It was far from perfect, but it was the best he could do with a small two-bedroom condo.

  On his way out, he picked up his phone to call Corrine again. His calls had been going to voicemail all day.

  He had a dozen missed calls and texts, but none were from his ex or the kids. Nick grumbled and checked the time. He didn’t have to leave for the airport for at least another hour, so he checked the texts first. Alex had left most of them, insisting he had a break on Lottie’s case but he didn’t say what.