Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 76

Theo POV

Scott held me back, refusing to let me near the edge and to look down at the vehicle my girl must be trapped in. I needed to see her, hold her, and tell her that I loved her. You heard me. I love her. I did not realize it until now, when I thought she would be gone. I need to tell her how I feel before it is too late. 'Theo, listen to me, she is gone. My heart sank to the floor, and incredible emotions flooded me, causing me to sink to my knees.

'Gone?' I cried out. I saw my Dad rushing over to me. He had gone to the edge and looked down, and I saw him disappear over the edge. He would let me know, he would tell me the truth, and she couldn't be gone. 'Scott, the airbags. Dad said, crouched down beside me, pulled me into his arms, and tried to soothe me. 'Someone disabled them; they did not deploy, Scott said. I was only half-listening; I was too numb to take it all in.

'They had to have known that Bethany was going to be driving her Dad home, but how was it a calculated guess? We better get Theo's car checked, just in case they disable them both, to get it right.' Dad said they tampered with her car. Those bastards, we got to replace them and hurt them for hurting my girl. For the first time in my life, I wanted to hurt someone. I had always been a peacemaker; replaceing solutions to help people and wanting to hurt someone was a foreign feeling for me.

A helicopter could be heard, and I stood up with Dad and watched it land. The last person I expected climbed out of the helicopter, and the other police officers deferred to him, saluting him as he walked up to one of the senior police officers there; they conversed for a few moments and then pointed to me.This book has many missing chapters and scenes if you're not reading it on Jo b ni b.c o m. He looked up and nodded at whatever the man was saying. He walked to the edge and looked down before coming over to me; he reached out his hands and pulled me into a warm hug. I could feel his body shaking as he was fighting tears.

'We will replace her; she has to be alive, or they would not have taken her. Bob said as he held me tighter.

What, could she be alive?

What does he mean by replaceing her?

'Sir, they have scoured the whole area, her body is not there, and they have cut the seat belt to get her out, so she could not have been thrown from the car. A senior officer reported to Bob. I was surprised to see he was a high officer; I thought he was just an ordinary detective. Bethany never said, and I never thought of asking.

'We found her phone, purse, and phone were broken. Does she have any other tracking devices on her?'

'Yes, her necklace had a tracker on it. We will replace her.' Bob answered, and my heart rose a little as I realized gone meant taken and not dead; the relief was unbelievable, but then a new terror started: she could be hurt and in the hands of these madmen. It did not make sense to me why they would take her. Was it not causing her accident enough?

'What's going on, Bob?' I asked, looking into his red eyes. I could see how much this was hurting him, too.

'There is a group we have been investigating. I cannot go into details out here, but am happy to meet up later at Scott's lair. Have you seen it? It's a nice setup? I have been working with Scott, but even I was not expecting this. I had not expected the place I was supposed to be staying at tonight to be part of the wrong team, and Steve had turned off my phone. I am lucky Scott sent a man around!

'You are not exactly the person I was expecting to climb out of the helicopter! My Dad said, shaking Bob's hand. 'Sorry Hank, less who knew the better, but now this has become gloves off; they have hurt my girl and taken her somewhere; I don't care whose toes | have to step on; this has to end. I will go into more details later. Could you stay calm and wait for me? A lot is going on in the background, and I can't risk losing the bigger fish on this network. I had been working on it for far too long, and I had no idea how close had been till now. This was not just Cynthia getting her own revenge, but a warning for me to back off. Bob looked shattered, and it must have been hard for him, giving only little bits out when he could and knowing that Bethany would not share too much with anyone.

Eventually, Scott and Dad let me go to the edge and look down at the mangled mess below. All the windows were smashed, the airbags had not deployed, and the only reason she was still alive was because of the special roll cage that Bob had installed in the vehicle when he purchased it a few years back. He had the vehicle shipped over here. He used it as his preferred vehicle; even bulletproof glass shatters under pressure in a rollover like this.

I looked at her phone in my hand and thought of our last words together. I wanted her here, in my arms, and when we got her back, I was never letting her go anywhere without me again. I know all my threats of never letting her go are all emotional words and that Bethany would never let me keep her out of harm's way. It is not in her to hide from the world but to confront it and take it full-on.

I watched the activity for a little while later. They were going to pull the car up later when it was daylight, but they had towed the other car away and put it in a compound under Bob's control; he did not want more evidence to disappear suddenly. There seemed to be a lot I didn't know. Bethany never told me that Bob was that high in the police force, and when I saw him, he was always a down-to-earth kind of guy, never the pretentious type I expected from the hierarchy. They tend to act full of bluster as their position often causes them to be full of themselves, whereas Bob is not like that. It was nice that he was still the sports nut I had come to like and enjoy his company, and he and Dad got along well.

Dad pulled me away from the scene and back into my car. He drove me home, my mind miles away, wondering where they had taken Bethany and if she was okay. They said there was blood, and seeing the car, I would have been shocked if there wasn't so much damage to the vehicle. She had to have injuries of some kind. But how bad is she? Was it a head wound? If so, she could have a concussion, and that could be dangerous. I wish I knew where she was and that she was okay.

My phone rang; it was Robson.

'Hey, I heard there was an accident.' Robson's way of asking if it was someone we knew was that he had a radio band that gave updates on accidents, so he could be ready if the local hospital could not cope, and we needed to take on some patients. 'Yeah, Bethany!' I said softly and heard him take a deep breath.

'Is she okay?'

'I don't know. I could not say too much and had no idea how to answer that.

'Where has she been taken?'

'I don't know.' I said again, and Robson thought I was losing it. Dad took the phone from me as we pulled up to my parking stop.

'Robson, this is Hank.'

'Oh, hi Hank, What is going on?'

'The accident was to take Bethany; she has been kidnapped; we do not know how serious her injuries are at this stage. The words that flowed out of Robson's mouth were not ones I could repeat. I had no idea he had such a colorful vocabulary, but I guess we all learn the swear words first.