all out there on the line. That decided, he whipped out his cell phone and called her. It went right to voice mail, and he absently rubbed his aching shoulder as he left her a message. “Call me, Bella. I’m coming back to the shop, I need to see you, we need to talk.” He paused, wondering if he’d sounded too scary and would maybe cause her to bolt before he could get there. “I told you that I miss you,” he said, drawing a deep breath. “But what I should have also said was that I love you.” Hoping that would cover everything, he started to close his phone, then added, “I’m on my way. Please-” He closed his eyes. “Please be there.”
BELLA’S PHONE WAS ON SPEAKER, so both she and Trevor heard the message.
“Sweet,” Trevor said. “A little too little too late, but very sweet.”
She was driving, but she took a quick look over at him. How had she never seen the menace just beneath his surface before? And now that she had, how the hell was she going to get out of this without getting hurt? Or worse. “If I don’t call him back, he’s going to come over.”
“Yes. And find you already gone.” He affected a regretful expression. “So sad.”
“He’ll look for me.”
“No, he won’t. He’ll see that your duffel bag is gone-thanks for staying packed, by the way, I’ve got your bag in my trunk. Face it, Jacob is going to assume you’ve done what you’ve been talking about, that you’ve left town. Which you are doing. He won’t try to come after you. He has far too much pride and testosterone for that.”
She’d have thought so, too, until that phone call. In his voice had been bare, heart-wrenching emotion. For her.
“Turn right at the marina, Bella.”
She didn’t want to.
She wanted to turn left and get back on the freeway and head north to Jacob’s house. She wanted to reverse time, to the time before she’d told Jacob to let himself out, the implication being that he should let himself out of her life while he was at it.
She wanted to plant both her feet in the ground and make roots. She wanted to tell him she loved him, too, so very much.
“Turn right,” Trevor repeated softly, and gestured with the gun he had pointed at her.
She turned right.
16
WHEN JACOB GOT BACK to the shop, it was empty. He went upstairs and knocked on Bella’s door.
Across the narrow hallway, Willow’s door opened and she poked her head out. With tears in her eyes, she shook her head. “She’s gone.”
“What?”
Willow handed him a note. “This was taped to my door.”
Willow sniffed. “Lord, I’m going to miss that girl.”
Jacob’s heart had pretty much stopped at the “she’s gone” but he read the note again, looking at the hand writing. Neat, and legible.
His heart started again, with a dull thudding that echoed in his ears.
“What is it?” Willow asked.
“It isn’t Bella’s writing.” Or if it was, she was trying to tell them something. He ran down the stairs and found Tom in the lot. “Did you see Bella leave?”
“No,” Tom said. “I just got here. Hang on, I’ll check with Scott, who I relieved.” He pulled out his cell.
So did Jacob, and immediately called Ethan. “We have a problem.”
“That’s okay, being as I’m the solution king today,” Ethan said. “Did you know that the marina started fingerprinting people to store their boats? The chief told me just today. He found out when he went to store his new boat. It’s a new security system, letting people in the gate by their prints.”
“Fascinating, but-”
“So the chief puts his fingerprint in, and starts to think. The first shooting, we found that tread, with the marina sand. We canvassed the docks, all the hotels and motels on the marina, ran the boat owners, and found no one connected to Bella. But the fingerprint list doesn’t just include the owners, but anyone they allow to use their boat. I’m only half way through the log and I’ve already found two of the Edible Bliss’s regular customers, the coffee shop guy who was Bella’s fourth date, and her coworker, Trevor Mann.”
“Trevor,” Jacob repeated slowly, just as Tom hung up his phone.
“Yeah, his stepfather owns a thirty-two-foot Morgan,” Ethan said.
“Trevor and Bella left twenty-five minutes ago out the front,” Tom reported. “We were watching for unauthorized people going out only-”
“Tom says Bella left with Trevor,” Jacob told Ethan. “And there’s a note here from her saying she’s leaving town.”
“On Trevor’s sailboat?”
“Doesn’t say, but I can tell you if the note was written by Bella, it was written under duress.”
There was a beat of silence. “You sure?”
“I’d bet my life on it,” Jacob said.
“Okay, so she’s a missing person.”
“Yeah. I’ll meet you at the marina.”
BELLA WATCHED AS THE MARINA came into view, and her stomach cramped. This wasn’t going to be good. “I still don’t get why you’re doing this.”
“Don’t you?” Trevor asked.
“No!”
“You were meant for me, Bella.”
She stared at him. He looked so normal. How could someone who looked so normal be so insane?
“Breathe, Bella,” he reminded her gently.
“Look, if we go back now, I’ll talk to the police for you. I’ll help explain that you need help, and that-”
“I don’t need help. I got what I wanted, and that’s you.” He stroked a finger down her jaw and she shuddered.
“Don’t worry,” he said very softly. “It’s going to be okay.”
She sincerely doubted that. She really wished she’d finished those self-defense classes. If she had, she’d probably have been able to come up with a better escape plan then having an overdue panic attack.
“Turn here into the parking lot,” Trevor told her.
She wondered if she could slow down enough to jump right out of the car. Maybe. But an older man was walking along the sidewalk. What if she jumped out of the car and it ran him over?
“Ten points for the old guy,” Trevor said lightly, a small smile in place. “You’re sick.”
“Aw. I’m just a guy in love.”
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “This just doesn’t make sense. If you wanted me so badly, why didn’t you ask me out?”
“I did.”
“No, you joked about it, I never thought you were serious.”
“Your mistake.”
“I shot Seth because you liked him. A lot.”
Oh, God, Bella thought, sorrow nearly choking her.
“I shot B.J. because he kept calling you and asking you out. I tried to shoot Tyler just because he was bugging
