It rang for a long time. I was just about to give up hope when he answered. “This had better be f**king important! Do you know what time it is?” he growled sleepily. Julian didn’t run the same type of schedule that normal people did; this was probably middle of the night for him.

“Julian, I’m sorry to call you so early. It’s Ashton Taylor,” I said, letting it sink in.

There was silence on the line, obviously he was trying to place the name; it had been a long time. “Ashton? Shit, man, I haven’t heard from you in years! I heard you went over to the dark side,” he joked.

I smiled weakly. “Sorry, but I haven’t got time for pleasantries. I need you to do something for me, it’s important. You owe me, remember? Well, I need to collect the favour,” I said sternly.

He coughed a barking, hacking cough that was caused by too many cigarettes and too many drugs. “Yeah, what do you need?” he asked.

I need to you help me save my girl from a sick son of a bitch. “I need you to find someone for me. Or, at the very least, someone who works for someone,” I answered, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.

“Who?”

“Carter Thomas.”

He gasped. “I can’t help you, I’m sorry.” His voice was gruff, he actually sounded a little scared.

“Julian, you f**king owe me, you know you do! I saved your life. Just get me anyone, anyone that works for him so I can get the information myself if you can’t find Thomas,” I growled, the frustration leaking into my voice now. I grabbed my bag and headed out of my apartment and downstairs, immediately hailing a cab heading to the airport.

“You don’t want to find him, Ashton. Seriously, whatever you want him for, it’s not important enough to find him for it,” he replied, sounding terrified.

I snorted at that comment. “It’s important enough, trust me. Find him and call me back. I’m serious; I’m calling in my favour.” I hung up and closed my eyes as the cab sped me to the airport. I called ahead and booked the first flight they had, but I still had to wait almost two hours. At least I would be there with the other agents, so if they got any leads I would be able to go with them, if Julian came up with nothing.

I couldn’t settle down. I was pacing back and forth, trying to think of any other way I could find her before he hurt her. I’d promised her that he’d never hurt her again – but what if he already had? Had I already broken my promise to her? The pain of thinking about it was torture. My whole body was tight with stress. The helpless, useless feeling was killing me slowly. My Baby Girl was in danger and there was nothing I could do about it.

Just as I was about to board my plane, my phone rang. It was Julian. “Tell me good news, man,” I begged as I answered it.

“Ashton, are you sure you want to do this?” he checked.

“Just give me the f**king information, I’m about to board a plane,” I snapped angrily.

He sighed. “Okay, well, I couldn’t find out much about his whereabouts, but a friend of a friend has just been hired by him. He was bragging in a bar the other day that he’d been hired by Carter Thomas to retrieve something important. Apparently they’ve been hauled up in Arizona for the last few weeks, looking for something, but they couldn’t find it. Apparently they were stationed in some abandoned factory on Western Ambrose,” he said.

Arizona. Looking for something. Holy shit, this is it! Western Ambrose, I repeated it over and over in my head, committing it to memory. “Okay, what’s the guy’s name?” I asked curiously. I needed to find this guy, talk to him, find out anything and see if this ‘thing’ they were looking for was Anna. If it was, then maybe I could find out where they were planning on taking her. I just prayed that he would still be at this factory. I just needed to find the guy, get the information, and then I could pass it on to the relevant people.

“Justin Morrison. Asshole apparently, real nasty piece of work. He told the whole bar about him and Carter Thomas being like best pals apparently. Maybe you could get Carter’s location from him,” Julian suggested hesitantly.

“Thanks. I gotta go get my plane. If I need anything else I’ll call you, okay,” I muttered, disconnecting the call, not giving him the chance to say no.

I didn’t call the White House; they wouldn’t exactly approve of the way I was going to get Carter Thomas’s whereabouts out of this guy who worked for him, breach of human rights and all that shit. Once I had more information, I would call them so we could move on Carter and get my girl back.

I called my new captain and told him I wasn’t coming in for the next few days, and that I had an emergency I needed to get sorted out. As I expected, he was less than happy about it, but there wasn’t much else I could do, and I didn’t care anyway. Nothing else was important apart from Anna.

By the time the plane landed, I felt sick. It was almost three in the afternoon, so she’d been missing for hours now. He could have done anything to her. I got the first cab I could to Western Ambrose and had the cabbie drive me the length of the street.

“Do you know of an old abandoned factory along this road?” I asked the driver, holding him out an extra twenty.

He pocketed it and smiled gratefully. “Well, there are two; one’s an office building really, the other one used to be a sewing factory years ago,” he replied, raising his eyebrows curiously. I made him drive back down the road and point them out to me before I got out and headed across the street to get a better vantage point. I needed to make the sweep as quick as possible.