Title:Shattered Soul
Author: Cindy Ryan
Summary: When Emily becomes the hostage how far will Matt go to bring her home?
Taylor and Grafton had gotten into radio contact with the Vegas S.W.A.T team while enroute. So luck would have it that they arrived only a few minutes apart. Grafton had ordered sirens silent just in case Ellis was there.
After getting out of the car Grafton briefed the Vegas metro police liaison who had arrived with SWAT. The SWAT team fanned out around the perimeter of the ranch house while Grafton, his partner, and the Vegas detective Yeley cautiously approached the building.
"House is clear!"Grafton reported to the approaching SWAT officer as the trio exited the building a few minutes later.
Yeley looked at Grafton. "You're lead on this. What's your call?"
Grafton glanced at the blond middle aged man. "My gut's tellin' me Ellis was here even though the dust in the house says otherwise. There are a couple outlining buildings that SWAT already checked. We need to check them and the grounds. If this guy was to dump a hostage this may be the place to do it."
After three tries Emily had finally landed what she had entitled her beacon of hope. Twenty minutes of searching had passed before she had finally sought out the obvious. The bag that Ellis had dropped the supplies in was orange, almost day-glow orange. With her strength being zapped by the thin air Emily had decided to keep it simple. She anchored the bag with a medium sized rock and wrapped the excess around the rock. On the top, or what she hoped landed on top she had tore into the bag the letters S.O.S. and her initials.
Feeble attempt it may be but it was all Emily had.
Emily could only pray it was enough.
With the sun lowering in the sky, Frank pulled the rental car onto the famous Vegas strip. There had been a half hour delay in landing due to a brief rain storm. Frank had thought he was going to have to knock Matt out to get him to calm down. It'd been almost too much for Matt…..another half hour gone that they had no control over.
Frank glanced over at his friend to see Matt seated as far on the edge of his seat as the seat belt would allow. His dark gaze focused intently on the traffic ahead. His fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.
"I'd give anything for a siren."Matt stated quietly as the Camry slowed to a crawl.
Frank turned on the GPS navigation screen and keyed in the address. "Let's see if we can find some side streets. Hang on."
Matt gripped the door handle as Frank accelerated hard and took a sharp right turn.
"Anything?"Grafton asked into his radio a tree shielding him from the brief downpour.
"Found some vehicle tracks near the back of the property."The SWAT leader reported. "Look fairly fresh. Seem to be made by a large vehicle. No foot prints."
"On my way."Grafton acknowledged as he waved Taylor and Yeley over. "Start a search half a mile up and half a mile down from that location."
"Copy."