Fight For It

Chapter 29.On the Hunt

I flipped the bacon in the pan while the chicken noodle soup was simmering in the pot on the opposite burner. I felt so bad for Scarlett, she was so upset about her art, and I was sure she would be upset when she returned from her mom's so I figured I would cheer her up with her favorite lunch meal.

Everyone was off at work or school so I planned to pamper Scarlett. She would know what art supplies she needed once she came back so I was going to take her to get everything.

As I placed the bacon slices onto a plate a knock sounded at the front door. I chose to ignore it in hopes they would go away. But after thirty seconds another more urgent knock sounded. I huffed and walked over to the front door opening it to find Dylan standing on the front porch.

"What the hell do you want?" I growled.

"Is she here?! Is Scarlett still here?!" He shoved past me into the house.

"No, she went to her mom's a little under an hour ago. What do you want?" I was beyond confused, but he seemed frantic.

"Shit!" Dylan shouted, "She's not at her mom's! She lied! She went and turned herself over to Max!"

"Who the hell is Max?!" I boomed.

"CJ's older brother! He's been threatening her! But she was too stubborn to just go tell the police to let CJ go and she didn't want you or your family to get hurt so she turned herself over to Max! Shit! He's probably already torturing her by now!"

"What the fuck?! Why wouldn't she tell me about that?!" Now I was angry beyond belief. Who the hell was this Max guy and what was he doing to my girl?!

"She didn't want you to get involved! He threatened your life too, but she made a deal with him that it would be her instead of you."

"No," I whispered in shock. I knew she loved me, but I never knew she was so willing to put her life on the line for me. Now that I was thinking about it I knew I would too, but I couldn't bring myself to fathom allowing her to actually do it. "Well obviously she told you about her plan! Do you know where she is?"

"I think she was meeting him at Lincoln Fields Forest Preserve. She hinted at it, but didn't tell me directly. We have to go check!"

"It's the best lead we have so yeah we need to go there now." I went back to the kitchen and turned off all of the burners not even bothering to clean up the food.

After putting shoes and a jacket on I shoved Dylan out the door, we loaded into my car, and took off to find Scarlett.

We pulled into the parking lot and I immediately spotted Scarlett's car. I parked mine, got out, and ran to her silver Audi. To my dismay, it was empty when I looked in the window, but surprisingly I found the door unlocked.

Scarlett's purse was still in the car, and I found a piece of paper wedged between two CD's in the center console. I pulled out the paper and unfolded it.

"I'm sorry, I had to protect you and your family, my love. But I also need justice. Although my fate is unknown once I'm in his hands, just know I love you and I made this choice on my own because I love you. No matter what happens, it'll be okay. Much love, Scarlett"

I had tears running down my face. God knows what that monster was doing to my Scarlett.

"Asher?" A voice said as it walked up to the car. I turned and saw our ranger friend, Toby.

"Toby! Have you seen Scarlett?!" I quickly wiped away the evidence of my emotions and moved into action. Toby was always patrolling the area, he had to have seen her.

"I did, she was here with some man. She looked like she was about to cry and he seemed to be dragging her out of here, but she was lying for him so I didn't know how to stop her. Why? What's going on?"

"That man is going to hurt her for turning his younger brother into the cops. Did you see where he took her?!"

"He threw her into the back of his car and drove off. I did get the plates and the make of the car though!" Toby pulled out a notepad and read off the details to me as I typed them into my phone.

"Dylan, call the police, give them this car information," I commanded handing my phone to him. Dylan quickly did as I said and dialed the police. "Did you get a good look at the guy?" I turned back to Toby.

"Yes, he was about 6'4" and probably around 200 pounds. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a tattoo sleeve. He wasn't a bad looking dude but Scarlett was definitely scared and I could tell he was bad news," Toby closed his eyes and shook his head, "I knew I should have done something to get her away from him. She needed me and I failed."

I placed my hand on his shoulder and said, "Hey, you didn't know the whole situation. Plus, you said she was lying for him; if I was in your shoes I would have been confused too."

"Yes, I need to report a kidnapping. Scarlett McCana, she was kidnapped by Max Harper, CJ Harper's older brother about -" Dylan pulled the phone away from his ear, "How long ago would you say they left here?" He asked Toby.

"Probably about thirty minutes ago," Toby estimated.

"About thirty minutes ago," Dylan continued, "He's driving a black Jeep Patriot with the license plate QLV 674. He was seen last at the Lincoln Fields Forest Preserve and then headed..."

"South," Toby filled in the blank.

"South, he headed south from the forest preserve. Please hurry! Scarlett is in danger!" When Dylan got off the phone I had already thanked Toby for his help and was rushing back to my car. "Dude wait up!" Dylan said running to catch up with me.

"Hurry your ass up. We can't waste any time!"

"What do you mean? The police will find her."

"I'm not relying on the police for shit. I'm going after them myself with or without you." I got into the driver's seat and the engine roared to life.

"With me of course," he said when he buckled into the passenger seat.

"Pull up snapchat on your phone, see if Scarlett's location is there."

"Uh, I don't have her on Snapchat."

"Fine, use my phone," I tossed my phone at him and continued heading south of the forest preserve.

"Snapchat shows her last check in was at the forest preserve."

"Shit!" I paused to think, how else could I find her? "Find my friends! We enabled that! As long as her phone is on and still with her we've got them!"

Dylan shouted, "I found them! It looks like they're in some neighborhood just off of 12th Street!"

"Get me directions!"

Dylan began directing me to the address. I was going to get to her! Finally my heart was out of my throat and determination commandeered every cell in my body. I was going to save Scarlett and kick the shit out of Max.

***

Hello my lovely readers! I hope you are still enjoying the story! Holy moley it's getting intense, it's almost hard for me to write! But I love you guys and appreciate all of your support. Please don't forget to comment and vote both of those get me more determined to update faster. So more reader participation means more updates with less time in between. Again I really do appreciate all of you so so much.
XO - Sam