Page 331 of All For You Duet
“We’re not doing this alone.” He’s right on page and not wrong. “We need your dad and Silas. We got one shot to beat Gentry to wherever the hell he goes before he can cover it back up again.”
It only takes a couple of hours to call my dad in from wherever he pulled his boat ashore on Tybee for the storm. Silas didn’t take long to get his boat in the water and come over from Daufuskie, either. They meet us at the marina, and our three vessels head out. I have a hunch, looking at the maps Dad and I already used to eliminate some barrier islands while others are still suspect.
I was right about the storm. Limbs and logs litter the water, and we all have to go slow, careful not to run over one and fuck up an engine.
We use our radios. Talking in code in case a guilty party can hear us, we act like we’re looking for the bald eagles that nest around these islands. Because there’s one small island in particular, it calls to me. Records say a holding company owns it. Some company out of Delaware, which makes no sense.
Why would a company in a small state known for big banks own a tiny barrier island in South Carolina? Unless someone’s laundering money through accounts and into a bank account you can’t trace back to an owner.
The questions fire through my mind while I send my drone up. The quadcopter buzzes through the sky while Redix anchors us on the river. Silas and my dad navigate to other spots near the small island’s shore, making sure no one arrives or leaves without their notice.
“Fuck, the signal is lagging,” I mutter while I watch the camera in the remote controller in my hands.
Over the months, I’ve gotten good at flying this thing. But there’s shit I can do about a weak signal out on the water.
“Be patient, Candy Cade.” Redix doesn’t annoy me. We’re both on edge, and his words ease my firing nerves. “Just keep looking.”
I close my eyes for a second and draw an inhale, sending up a prayer to Mama. You promised me…
When I open my eyes again, the tree canopy below the drone is tattered with green limbs down everywhere. The pines still stand tall, but I see a clearing, a small swath of land cleared by an old water oak that fell in the storm. To its north, at the top of the crown of the fallen tree, an older magnolia still stands.
And I see it…
The rusted metal roof, a rectangular structure draped with camouflage netting blown off by the storm.
“Oh my God.” My hands start shaking. “Oh my God, we found her.”
I don’t need to enter. I don’t need to set foot in there to know it. My gun’s in my backpack. My mind’s already steps ahead, storming this island with my loaded 9mm, a pair of bolt cutters, and fury no man could ever survive because I will get my friend back.
Nine years it’s almost been. Nine years, Gentry’s kept Pamela someplace and then moved her here. I can’t imagine what I’ll find when I get to her, but I swear she’ll be safe now.
Redix watches over my shoulder, his chest pressed to my back, and breathing hard because he sees it too.
“It looks like an old shipping container,” he says. “Fuck, this area is littered with them.”
He’s right, and I gotta think this through.
I turn to him, and while every impulse in me wants to break every rule and go in there to get Pamela right now and fuck up Gentry’s world for good… I won’t do it.
I have a job to do the right way. I have a dream I’m living with the man I love, and breaking the rules over another evil man won’t take it from us again.
“I’m calling this in,” I tell him. “Hey, guys.” I radio my dad and Silas. “We found the nest. We’re gonna wait for others to come see this, too.”
It takes an hour for me to radio the office, for multiple response units, state and federal, to find their way to our coordinates. Dad and Silas hold their position the whole time in case Gentry approaches.
But he doesn’t.
His name isn’t listed on this island. But if Pamela is in there and alive, she’s the only witness we need. Her and all the federal financial crimes Gentry’s been committing with his “exclusive golf tours.”
And though I want to be the first one Pamela sees. So she won’t be scared. So she’ll know her nightmare is over. So she’ll have her life and hope back; it’s not safe.
I’d never risk this chance, and I have too much to live for.
I stand back while a tactical team runs advance, clearing the land for any traps or explosives that may be set for those who approach. Thankfully, they find none.
Standing in the shade of the old magnolia tree, I wait with Redix beside me, and I bite my lip so hard it bleeds. Sobs want to yank me down a hole of grief for what Pamela’s endured, but that’s not what she needs now.
A team enters and secures the structure, and it’s forever but only minutes before a big FBI agent emerges with a tiny woman wrapped in a silver emergency blanket in his arms.