A work in progress

Chapter 17

"Where did you see her last?" Chloe asked Rachel, her heart hammering in her chest.

"After she won the contest, Mark held her back. I watched them. Max left and I walked her back to the dorm but then Max said she needed to go do something for Ms. Grant and I stupidly thought she'd be fine since Ms. Grant was just outside the dorm gates.." Rachel trailed off, guilt heavy in her voice. "God, I don't know what I'll do if she gets hurt."

Chloe expected jealously but only worry washed over her like a tidal wave. "I don't either, but I promise you we'll find her." She promised, reaching over to grip Rachel's hand.

Rachel's hazel eyes glowed with concern. "Chloe, I'm sorry." She said, "I've done so many shitty things to you and now I've dragged Max into the mess I created. If I hadn't been so desperate I wouldn't have gotten mixed up with Mark." She looked away, "If I had taken a step back I would have seen how terrible he was."

"There's nothing we can do about that now Rach," Chloe said, "but we can save Max from him." She pulled into Victoria's driveway and switched off the ignition. "Come on, we don't have time anymore."

Rachel nodded, "Alright." She said, following the punk.

Victoria opened the door, "Nathan's already on it." She told them before Chloe had time to knock. "Come on, hurry."

Chloe exchanged looks with Rachel before they both bolted into the house.

If it had been any other time, Chloe would have taken time to look over how huge Victoria's house was, with victorian esque architecture coupled with modern techniques and outfitting, but her mind was focused on Max.

Nathan was on the couch, tapping on a laptop.

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked, raising a brow.

Nathan glanced up before he looked back down. "I'm trying to find Max. That tracker she placed on him, it tracked him out somewhere east out of town but it stopped pinging somewhere right here." He tapped his laptop and Rachel leaned down to see what he was pointing out.

"The woods?" She questioned out loud.

"Or at least just before it." The photographer sighed, "something's interfering with the signal, if I could just tap into the same signal...." he bit his lip. "I could reverse engineer it and find where he's at." Nathan tapped a a few keys. "But I've never seen something with this much protection, it's simple enough security, my father nor Jefferson is a genius when it comes to tech, but it's time consuming."

"We don't have time!" Chloe growled, slamming her hands down. "Rachel," she flicked her eyes towards the model, "do you remember where that greenhouse is?"

"Well, yeah, it's not exactly hidden." Rachel said, tilting her head slightly. "Why?"

"We're going back. We need clues and I suspect that greenhouse has all the answers." Chloe rose to her full height, her back straighten and a determined fire in her eyes. "Lead the way." It was said like an order.

"I'll keep working. Send me anything worth interest." Nathan hesitated. "The signal stops right before the woods just out of town, after hitting up the greenhouse if there is anything there that indicates.."

"We'll go straight away." Chloe promised, before nodding to Rachel.

Max

Max opened her eyes slowly, her head was pounding and her body ached, as if she hadn't moved in months.

She shifted her blurry vision around her, Where am I? She flinched, a sound of a cameras click sounded somewhere close to her. Off to the right.