Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Again, the question of what he’d gotten himself into repeated in his brain.
Would you change your original offer to help if you could? Would you back out?
No. No, I wouldn’t.
The car surged around a bend, the ocean a vast jewel sparkling below.
So that’s that.
The only house Cami had found that offered a last-minute rental and was close by was far too big and had many more amenities than they required. They set their bags down in the open two-story foyer and looked up at the gargantuan chandelier. She gave him an apologetic smile. “It’s ridiculous. Late summer, apparently, is a popular time to visit Big Sur.” She paused. “But not for parties of twenty.”
He laughed, and she did, too, and for a moment they smiled at each other, he, at least, glad for the moment of levity amid the stress they were under.
“Anything with a roof and an outlet and Wi-Fi works.” He took the laptop to the kitchen and set it on the granite island and plugged it in. Outside the picture window, they had a view of the ocean, and he could see hikers in the distance, taking the trail that led down the cliff and onto the sand. As Rex well knew, evil could exist anywhere, even in glorious places, but here it still seemed particularly wrong somehow.
“God, this area is stunning,” Cami said as she, too, looked out the window at the picturesque scene. “I wish we could enjoy it.” He saw her blink. “I mean . . . well, you know what I mean—”
“I do,” he said, rescuing her and then turning to look at the laptop. It’d become second nature in the last day and a half. He wondered how long, once this was over and solved, he’d be compelled to look for a little boy on a screen that was no longer there.
He couldn’t wait to find out.
“Should we let that charge for a while and then head out and drive around?” she asked.
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“Do you mind taking a ten-minute shift while I go wash off the travel dust? I also want to check in with my work quickly.”
“Not at all.”
Twenty minutes later they were in the car and back out on the road. On the laptop screen, Cyrus was sitting in his spot on the bed again, staring into space, every now and then looking over at the door as though he expected someone to walk through it.
“How’s your business making out without you there?” he asked.
“Amazingly well, sadly for me. It seems I’m far less necessary than I thought.”
“That just means you hired good employees and trained them well.” He shot her a wink.
She let out a soft laugh. “I appreciate the pep talk.”
On their drive, they stopped in any and every establishment that served food and asked if they did carryout in paper bags. They received several strange looks and only two employees answered in the affirmative, but when they showed them a blown-up picture of the man who was guarding Cyrus and bringing him food, they both reported no recognition or memory of packing up the orders they described. Which might mean the man hadn’t been there or might mean the employee who’d helped him wasn’t working. Or that the man just hadn’t been very memorable.
And in the hour they were out and about, they hadn’t spotted any store or establishment that had a red logo with what might or might not be a cursive uppercase letter that started the word.
Cami continued to search the names of businesses in the area on her phone as Rex drove. He felt angry and frustrated. He wasn’t used to working with such limited information and without at least several more resources. And he wondered how in the hell the person who’d first called Cami had expected her to find what was essentially a needle in a haystack.
Or maybe they hadn’t expected that she’d be successful in the mission.
So, what was the point?
Put that aside for now. It won’t help. Find Cyrus and ask the bigger questions later.
Focus.
They could be on the wrong side of that sixty-mile radius entirely, though. They just needed time. Time that Cyrus didn’t have.
He took in a breath and blew it out slowly, sharpening his resolve to keep going even in the face of their current failure to move even one step farther.
“He’s somewhere close by,” Cami murmured. “I just have this feeling.”
He agreed, though not because of any feeling, but because he trusted Joaquin and knew he was exceptional at his job. He’d find the kid eventually. Rex just hoped to God it would give them time to get there before the others who were currently on their way.
“Hey, look.” He slowed and pulled into a parking lot, where there was a bike and kayak rental shop and next to it, Rapids Booksellers & Gifts.