Over the Edge

Ch.29-Vigilante

~Rhys~

“Bro, you look like shit.”

“Just shut up and get in the car.”

Rico did as he was told and joined me, strapping in his seatbelt. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” he asked. “About her?”

I nodded. He smirked.

“Well, well, well. I guess ole’ Rico finally did something right, too.”

“Quit fucking around. You’re here to help find Emma, not be a distraction.”

His eyes widened. He held his hands up. “Whoa, calm down, man. Just trying to loosen the tension.”

I gripped my hands tighter around the wheel in response.

“Alright, so I think—whoa. Who is that?”

I flickered a glance up at the rearview mirror and saw the squad car pull up behind me. I could see the familiar face through the windshield. I growled. How the hell had her dad found out where I was going?

“Do you know him?”

“That’s Emma’s father,” I muttered, rolling the window down as he climbed out of his car and walked up to my side. “What do you want, Officer Hall?”

“I know what you’re doing Rhys, and it’s dangerous and stupid.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Yes I do. You’re going after him. What happens if you find her? What then? Maybe the guy has an arsenal? Maybe he has back-up? What would you do if you put Emma in a worse situation?”

I ground my teeth together. “With all due respect, sir, anything could be happening to Emma at this very moment and standing here and arguing about it is doing nothing for her.”

“I know.” He yanked open my door. “Get in the squad car.”

“Oh, hell no!” Rico cried out. “I am not getting in one of those again.”

Officer Hall poked his head through the open window. “Who is that?”

“Rico,” I explained quickly. “He can find Emma.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Is he trustworthy?”

“He can find Emma,” I repeated, staring him straight in the eye. He thought on it a moment before nodding.

“Fine. Both of you get in the car. We don’t have a lot of time.”

For the sake of the moment I kept my trap shut and slid into the front. Rico was forced to climb into the back, grumbling all the way.

“Now’s your time to speak, son,” he said to Rico. “Where is my daughter?”

Rico situated himself in the seat. “There are only six safe places he could go around here, without risking interruption from the feds or a common citizen.”

“Okay, six places. Any way we can narrow that down?”

“Yep. Three of them were shut down a while back, and out of pure paranoia nobody will go back there.”

“So that leaves three.”

I stared anxiously out the window. It was late. Or maybe early. Either way it was dark and I hated thinking that Emma was out there somewhere, alone with that psycho. “If it helps,” Rico continued, “I’m ninety-nine percent sure there’s only two he would take her to.”