Chapter 433
Noah’s jaw tightens immediately as his eyes narrow on the guy.
“What the fuck do you mean the signal is coming from the Sahara, Blaze?” he asks, his voice full of disbelief.
So that was the guy’s name. At least now I can use it instead of just calling him ‘Guy p>
Blaze looks just as confused as the rest of us as he turns the screen slightly back toward himself, double-checking whatever he’s seeing.
“That’s exactly what I’m getting,” he says after a moment. “The signal is clear and stable and it shows it’s coming from there p>
I feel it happen physically, like something inside my chest caves in all over again because there is no way Brook escaped only to hide in the middle of a desert. It doesn’t make sense. Nothing about it makes sense.
For one brief moment I had allowed myself to believe we were finally close, that maybe after months of searching and heartbreak we were about to find Val and bring her home, but instead, I’m right back where I started, feeling lost, hopeless and empty.
“I think whoever sent the text used something to block his real location,” Blaze says, his eyes lifting from the laptop to look at us.
“You mean like using a VPN?” Noah asks, his brows pulling together.
Blaze nods slowly. “Something like that. The person probably bounced the signal through multiple servers before sending the message. That’s why it’s tracing back to the Sahara instead of the actual location p>
“Can you track the real location then?” Noah asks.
Blaze shakes his head. “When someone bounces a signal through multiple servers like that, it’s nearly impossible to trace their exact location p>
Once again, hope is ripped away from me. A painful tightness spreads through my chest as I try to pull in a breath, but the air gets trapped somewhere in my lungs. I lift a trembling hand toward my hair, trying to steady myself before I completely fall apart, but my fingers shake so badly that I can barely control them.
Tears begin slipping down my face before I can stop them, and no matter how hard I blink or tilt my head upward trying to force them back, they keep falling anyway. A sob suddenly tears out of me and before I can register what is happening, Noah is pulling me into his arms.
His hold around me tightens immediately as I break completely against his chest, months of fear, heartbreak, anger and exhaustion crashing out at once. I’ve spent so long trying to hold myself together, trying to stay strong because I felt like if I stopped fighting for even one second, then I’d lose myself entirely, but I can’t do it anymore. Not when every ounce of hope I cling to keeps getting ripped away from me.
Noah keeps whispering soft reassurances against my hair while holding me closer, but nothing really reaches me through the pain splitting me apart from the inside. My chest aches so badly; it feels unbearable.
“I just want my baby,” I cry brokenly against him. “I want Val back p>
Noah’s arms tighten even more around me, almost like he’s trying to hold together all the shattered pieces of me.
“We’ll find her,” he promises immediately, his own voice rough with emotion. “I swear to you, Sierra, we’re going to bring her home p>
I can’t answer him because the grief is too much and the fear is swallowing me whole, so instead I just cling to him while I cry until I physically don’t have the strength left to keep going.
When I open my eyes again, daylight is peeking through the curtains, filling the room with a pale glow that makes everything feel strangely quiet after the emotional storm of last night. For a moment I just lie there, staring blankly at the ceiling while memories slowly begin returning to me.
I remember everything, and I remember clearly Noah standing beside the bed after kissing both my cheeks softly before leaving the room.
A sigh leaves me as I slowly sit up, rubbing at the ache lingering behind my eyes. It’s still there, the grief and heartbreak, but after crying so much last night, it somehow feels duller now.
My gaze drifts toward the folder sitting on the nightstand and I immediately reach for it and begin going through it again carefully, flipping page after page while forcing myself to focus despite how exhausted my mind feels.
I study every photo, every statement, and every report, trying to find something Noah and his men might’ve overlooked. Some small detail. Some clue that could point me toward Brook or lead me closer to my daughter, but no matter how many times I go through the file, my thoughts keep circling back to the same place: the first house. The one Noah told me they found the dead doctor in. Something about it refuses to leave my mind.
I stare at the photo attached to the report for a long moment before finally deciding that I’m going to go there.