Chapter 68
**Matthew’s POV**
The past three days had stretched into an eternity, each hour bleeding into the next, dragging me further into an abyss I couldn’t claw my way out of. Taylor and I had exhausted every resource, pulled every string, turned over every rock, but no matter how many people we had searching, no matter how many places we raided or how much money I threw at informants, we kept hitting dead ends. Heizel was nowhere to be found, as if she had vanished into thin air, and the weight of that failure pressed down on me with crushing force, heavier with every passing second.
It didn’t make sense. We had access to the best surveillance networks, underground contacts who knew the city better than the police, and yet, somehow, we still had nothing. The thought of her being out there—alone, scared, maybe injured—twisted something violent inside me, an anger so potent I could barely keep it contained. Every night I replayed the moment she was taken, scouring my own memory for something, anything I might have missed, but the outcome never changed. We were always one step behind, chasing shadows, following leads that led nowhere.
Taylor had been watching me carefully, probably waiting for me to snap, but I had no energy for anger, not anymore. I was running on nothing but caffeine and sheer determination, the exhaustion sinking into my bones, dragging me down, making everything feel heavier, slower, harder. I hadn’t eaten, hadn’t slept, couldn’t even think about stopping, because the second I did, the reality of it all would come crashing down on me.
“You need to eat something, Matt,” Taylor said, his voice edged with something between concern and frustration as he dropped a container of food in front of me, the smell hitting me instantly, though it did nothing to stir my appetite. “You’re running on fumes, and if you keep this up, you’re going to collapse before we even find Heizel.”
I didn’t even look at it. “I can’t think about that right now.” The words came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t care.
Taylor sighed, rubbing a hand over his face, leaning forward with that stubborn look I’d seen too many times before, the one that meant he wasn’t going to let this go. “I get it, I do, but if you don’t put something in your system, you’re going to make mistakes, and right now, we can’t afford mistakes. She needs you at a hundred percent, not whatever the hell this is.”
I clenched my jaw, knowing he was right but hating the fact that he had to say it out loud. The thought of eating made me sick, the idea of taking care of myself while Heizel was out there, somewhere, maybe tied up, maybe worse, felt like an insult. But I forced myself to grab the fork anyway, shoving a few bites into my mouth without tasting a single thing, the motions mechanical, my body accepting the food out of necessity rather than want. Taylor didn’t say anything, just watched, satisfied that I was at least trying, though we both knew it wasn’t enough.
At some point, I must have drifted off, my body giving in to the exhaustion even as my mind fought against it, because the next thing I knew, the sharp vibration of my phone yanked me back to reality, cutting through the haze of whatever restless, fragmented sleep I had fallen into. My eyes snapped open, my muscles tensing on instinct as my hand fumbled for the device, blinking against the harsh glow of the screen, barely able to focus on the words flashing in front of me.
**Mat, Hill’s family stopped the search.**
The words didn’t register at first.
Then, the moment they did, I shot upright, the rush of adrenaline so sudden it made my head spin. My fingers flew over the screen as I typed out a response, my hands unsteady.
**What do you mean they stopped? Did they say why?**
The reply came almost instantly.
**Just that they don’t want to cause any more trouble. It’s like they’ve accepted it’s over.**
*Over?*
My grip tightened around the phone, my heartbeat thundering in my ears as a cold dread curled in my stomach. Why the hell would they stop searching for their own daughter? It made no sense. Not unless—unless they knew something I didn’t. My thoughts spiraled, every possibility flashing through my mind in rapid succession, none of them good. Did they already know where she was? Had they known all along? Were they choosing to do nothing because they didn’t want to be involved?
I ran a shaking hand through my hair, trying to make sense of it, but the more I thought about it, the worse it felt. This wasn’t just them giving up too soon. This was something else. Something deeper. And I wasn’t going to sit around and let them bury the truth beneath a pile of carefully crafted excuses. If they had even the smallest piece of information that could lead me to Heizel, I was going to rip it out of them, whether they wanted to give it up or not.
I shot to my feet, my movements sharp, driven by an energy that burned through my exhaustion like fuel to an open flame.
“Taylor!” My voice cut through the office, sharp, urgent, already moving toward the door before he even appeared.
He took one look at my face and straightened, his entire demeanor shifting. “What happened?”
“Hill’s family has stopped searching for Heizel.” The words felt bitter on my tongue as I said them, each syllable edged with anger I barely kept in check.
“They’re giving up.”
Taylor’s expression darkened, his jaw tightening as he processed the weight of what I was saying. “That makes no damn sense. Unless…”
“Unless they know something we don’t.”
A beat of silence.
Then Taylor exhaled, slow and controlled, though I could see the tension in his shoulders. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not,” I said, my voice steady, my pulse anything but. “Which means we need to confront them. Now.”
Taylor nodded once, already reaching for his jacket. “If they have information, we’re going to get it. One way or another.”
I didn’t bother responding. I was already grabbing my keys, my mind focused on one thing and one thing only.
Getting answers.
And if the Hills family was hiding something, if they had even an ounce of knowledge about where Heizel was or who had taken her, then I wasn’t going to stop until I knew every last detail.
I didn’t care what it took.
I didn’t care what lines had to be crossed.
Heizel was out there, and time was running out.
And I refused to waste another damn second.