Already Gone (A Laura Frost FBI Suspense Thriller—Book 1) by Blake Pierce (notion reading list .txt) 📗

him; as he twisted,Laura saw past him to the police car that had pulled up. The suspect was beingpushed into the back seat, ready to be taken off. Questioned, probably forhours. The girl didn’t have that kind of time. From what he’d said, the way he’dsaid it, Laura knew. He’d been serious. She was dying, right now, and Laura hadno idea what that meant.

“Good work, Frost,” their boss said,nodding at her as he got into the front seat. The car started. Laura didn’teven have time to formulate a reply. They were gone. Around her and Nate, theother agents and police officers were heading back to the house or checking thecar over. Wrapping things up.

“I need to see,” she said, half toherself. Another vision. That was what she needed now. If she could somehowforce it to come—but there was no way. She had never been able to trigger them exactly—shecould only create the right circumstances and hope. They came unbidden andunasked for, like a bolt out of the blue. Laura saw the girl’s face behind hereyes, but it was only a fake, the memory of the picture she’d seen in thebriefing. If only she could have another vision, now, right now—

“See what?” Nate asked, ducking his headdown to her level, shadowing over her with concern. “Laura?”

Laura made an effort to center herself,to think through the mud and jagged rocks at her temples. She was actingsuspiciously. She needed to try to be normal.

“The farmhouse,” Laura said, managing tomake a connection at last. Yes. The farmhouse. Maybe if she went down there andwalked around, it would trigger something. Right now, she was removed from thescene—done with it, maybe. She could easily get in a car with Nate and driveout of the area, and the scene would be dealt with by someone else. She wasn’tinvolved enough.

She had to put herself right down there,in the middle of it. The kidnapper’s lair. Maybe then it would come. She had totry.

“It’s already been checked over,” Natesaid, reaching for her arm. “Boss wants us back at the precinct with everyoneelse. Come on. We’ve got to head out.”

“No,” Laura said, loud enough that Natequickly turned, blocking her from the line of view of the other agents who werestill around them.

“It’s an order, Laura,” he hissed underhis breath. “He wants us to go debrief. Come on.”

Laura had to ignore him. Even if itmeant more explaining later. Even if it made him angry with her. She pushedpast Nate and started down the road, even though she was bone-weary in all ofher limbs. The vision followed by the chase and the fight had hit her harderthan usual. But there wasn’t any time to rest and recover right now. Not whenthe girl was in danger. Not when her life could be ticking away, minute byminute.

Nate caught up with her halfway down thehill. Laura walked down the road this time, taking the easier path, stillwalking as fast as she could. Frustratingly slow. She forced her body to move,to carry her there, keeping her gaze focused on the farmhouse ahead. Everyonehad left in favor of checking out the car and the arrest. Someone would comeback, keep the scene secure, search for evidence, but it would be too late.

Laura was the only one who could actnow. She could feel it in her gut. If the kidnapper didn’t talk, and she didn’tthink he would, then Laura was the girl’s last hope.

“What are you hoping to see?” Nateasked, falling in with an easy lope beside her.

The road flattened out as they reachedthe bottom of the hill, heading on in a straight line for the farmhouse. “Aclue,” Laura told him, keeping it vague. She had never told him anything abouther visions; she didn’t expect him, or anyone, to understand. They had beenpartners for a few years, and she would trust him with literally anything else,but that wasn’t the point.

The point was she needed him to trusther, and not to start thinking she’d lost her mind. He had always trusted herbefore, since their first assignment together when her hunches proved right.She only hoped he would do so again now.

She forced herself into a jog, almost atthe door now.

“You think she’s somewhere around here,is that it?” Nate asked.

“He was coming back here,” Laura said, wrenchingthe door open and bounding through it, into the interior of the building. “Theremust have been a reason for that.”

Heading inside the farmhouse was likehaving a candle pinched out. The bright sunshine of the outside world was gone,barely filtering in through cracks around the shuttered windows, places wherethe boards of the exterior walls had shifted and left gaps. Rays of light burstthrough the gloom like shards of glass, brilliantly illuminating the dust thathung in the air.

Laura’s eyes adjusted to the gloomquickly as she glanced around, her head stabbing with pain every time sheencountered one of the rays. From the front door, a set of stairs led upward,two doors led to the left and right, and one final door was ahead at the end ofthe hall.

“This place is about ready to fall down,”Nate observed, following close behind her. “I’ll take a look up there realquick. Maybe he kept her in one of the bedrooms, might find a clue up there.”

Laura nodded distantly. “I’ll check downhere,” she said, more out of habit than any real meaning.

She heard Nate’s booted footsteps thudon every stair on his way up to the second floor. She closed her eyes to drownthem out, trying to think. Nothing was happening. The only thing she could feelwas the pain in her head from earlier, not the new pain she wanted to bring on.Wanted desperately. No matter what it would cost her, it could save the girl’slife.

Laura reached for the nearest door andshuffled inside the room, closing the door behind her. She shut out the soundsof the outside, the bright light from the doorway, the fresh air. Everything.She took a deep breath of the musty-smelling atmosphere inside the room,closing her eyes and letting her senses take over. One, smell: the decay of aplace that has been left