The Control Freak: A Kip and Ezra Novel

19.

Carter sat up and winced slightly, looking around. He felt around his abdomen as he lifted up his shirt. His wound was fully healed and he felt... good. He stood up shakily and darted his eyes, looking for... something. It was dark and his head hurt. He felt dizzy but stable enough to stand.

    "Carter Ezra. So glad you're finally with me," A voice called from the darkness.

    "Estes," Carter breathed out as he watched the large man emerge from the shadow. "I've... been searching for you my entire life. Wait till I tell... ugh. My head hurts."

    "That usually happens. I'll tone down a little bit."

And then everything went black again.

    "Then check everything again! I refuse to believe he's disappeared into thin air, Jayden!"

I huffed as Jayden left me to go back over the camera footage. Carter had to have gone somewhere... somehow. Fox was still back at the precinct, still battling arms with me that Estes had Ezra. I still believed that Carter was still out there.

I had to. He was my partner.

I couldn't imagine what would happen if-

A shout intruded my dark thoughts.

    "Sir! We found something!"

I raced over to Jayden and stood next to him and another officer as he pulled up the footage from the last auto shop we found Estes. Carter appeared on screen and disappeared into the garage. You could hear a slight thump and he didn't return.

    "It's not much but-"

    "Wait!" I said as I continued watching. "Look!"

As we continued to play the video and zoomed in a little, you could see the figure of a large man with glowing red eyes come up behind Carter.

    "This is proof enough. Get this footage back to Foxtrotter and the rest of the officers."

    "Where are you going?" Jayden asked.

I clicked my gun in my hand and held it at my side.

    "I'm going to find Carter."

Carter woke up again to realize he was somewhere different. But it was somewhere familiar to him.

    "This is where we first met," Estes said in a low voice.

Carter's eyes adjusted and he set them on the man sitting in front of him. All his life, Ezra believed that Estes had glowing red eyes. Really, his pupils were dark black and the rims were a light red. Not glowing. His hands were calloused as if he had been holding onto rope, the scratchy material withering away the skin on his hands. His hair was white, his skin wrinkly and aged. But still, he was exactly like Carter had imagined.

He was mesmerized.

His head still hurt and as he started to wake up more, he realized how... weird he felt. Almost as if...

    "So, let me untie you. We got work to do."

Carter could tell what was happening to him but he couldn't stop it. Every second his head pounded more and more and it became clearer that he was here to do his master's bidding.

And nobody could do anything to stop him.

This was what he had been searching for all his life.

I took a sip from my water bottle as the sun beat down on me as I walked. Some people on the street gave me weird looks as I walked down it, the protective covering on my vest. I just sort of nodded at them, tired of having to keep pulling out my badge. It boldly said FBI in white lettering and I assumed half the population could read. My gun was concealed at my side in its holster.