Knock Down, Drag Out / Book One

Chapter Twenty Two

"I think we might have a slightly bigger problem than Lylah being taken," Landon shouted, rubbing his hand over his face and moving out of the way so Maddox could rush into the kitchen beside him.

They had been so caught up in trying to figure out what the hell to do that no one had thought to check on Darcy and their mom until Landon got suspicious of the lack of noise, and now the kitchen was empty with a window wide open.

"I swear to God, I'm tying Darcy to the bed and never letting her out of my sight," Maddox growled, going to the window and sticking his head out of it to take a look around. He noticed footprints leading into the tree line and slammed his hand down on the windowsill, letting out a string of curses that turned the air blue.

"I'll put mom in my basement. She knows better than to do shit like this," Landon muttered, easing himself down into a kitchen chair. His ribs were still killing him despite it being a week since his attack, and he wasn't much help in their rescue mission.

Maddox brought his head back inside and slammed the window shut, so angry that his hands were shaking. They knew better than to go outside, especially with Darcy being pregnant. His mom should have drug Darcy kicking and screaming back into the living room instead of going on a suicide mission with her.

He sat down in a chair beside Landon and cradled his head in his hands, trying to figure out what to do. If Steven Lambert got his hands on Darcy, he would kill Lylah and his mom and hightail it out of the area. The police had been searching for at least six hours, but there was no way they could cover the hundreds of acres of land surrounding them in time to find Steven and the idiotic women in Maddox's life.

"You know, before my dad passed away he taught me how to track animals while hunting. I could probably find the girls. They didn't exactly do a great job of covering their tracks," Damion pointed out, looking out of the window at the footprints Darcy and Ruby had left behind. If the rest of their trail looked like that then he'd be able to find them easily.

Stanford made his way to the kitchen doorway after helping Elijah sit up on the couch and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. He would have liked all of them to be in fighting shape to help Maddox, but with Elijah shot and Landon still in pain someone would have to stay with them and it was looking like he would have to step up and take one for the team.

"Take my gun. There's a flashlight in Darcy's kit, you can use that. It won't be light out for another four hours, so you'll have to be careful. But you find them. All four of them. And when you do, put a fucking bullet in Steven Lambert's brain and you bring our girls home safe and sound."

Maddox put his hand on his brother's shoulder to show that he had heard him. They all felt the same way about this, knew that Darcy's stalker had to die or be locked up for the rest of his life before they would be able to find peace again.

He got up from the kitchen chair and ran up to Landon's room, taking his gun out of the nightstand drawer and double checking that it was loaded. He slipped it in his waistband at the small of his back and took a deep breath in, trying to calm himself down before going on this rescue mission. He would be having plenty of words with Darcy when he got her back, right after he inspected every inch of her body to make sure that she hadn't been injured in any way.

Maddox made his way back downstairs and nodded his head towards Damion, letting him know that he was ready. Hopefully they were only a few minutes behind his mom and Darcy. It would make things so much easier if they could find them quickly and send them back to the cabin while he and Damion searched for Lylah.

"Be careful," Landon warned them, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "Steven Lambert is in the state of mind where he shoots first and asks questions later. He's already killed one person, don't let yourselves become number two and three on his list. Stay silent. Keep your flashlight low to the ground. Take the safety on the gun off before you start searching, it's so quiet out here he might be able to hear it. Keep your finger off the trigger unless you have something to shoot at. Good luck, and don't fucking die."

Maddox grinned at his brother and gave him a mock salute before heading to the backdoor with Damion, taking the gun out of his waistband and switching the safety off. Damion kept the beam of the flashlight low just like Landon had advised as they stepped off the porch and started following the tracks Darcy and Ruby had left behind.

Maddox was used to being aware of his surroundings from his fights in the cage, but it was different when he was surrounded by thousands of trees. Damion was in the same boat, both of them thinking like fighters who had to protect themselves from advancing attacks.

Shadows out of the corner of their eyes had them spinning around, Maddox with his gun raised and Damion in a fighting position. They checked their surroundings carefully before continuing on their laid out path.

They heard nothing but the wind blowing through the trees and insects singing, saw nothing but shadows and birds darting through the sky.

Maddox felt frustration deep in his bones, knew Damion felt that way too, because they had been following the damned footprints for ten minutes and still hadn't found the girls.

He let out a sigh and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand, only to jump and have his heart kick into overdrive when he heard a woman screaming. Dread coiled deep in his belly and he took off after a quick glance to Damion, both of them running in the direction of the tortured wails.