ditch. My feet began to move, but at a much slower pace than I normally would, maybe the cop side wasn’t coming out as much as I thought. I needed to look inside the vehicle.
“Whoa. There.” Z tried to stop me, but I ignored him, and continued plowing through him like a linebacker. “Deke. Stop!”
“Fuck you!” I barked back almost making it there when Z stood before me with his arms crossed. “Move.” I pushed.
“Deke. Just be warned, there’s a lot of blood. We think he took her.”
I whirled around, getting right in his face, nose to nose. “What the fuck do you mean ‘think’?”
“Damn it, Deke. Calm down.”
Grabbing the front of his shirt, I growled, “I will
“Stop this shit. The other guys see you, they’ll arrest you first and ask questions later.” His eyebrow shot up. It didn’t even register that he was in uniform.
I let go of him, wanting so badly to push his ass down, but refrained. “I’m good.”
“Sure you are.” Z smoothed the front of his vest.
I quickly made my way to the jeep, looking for anything and everything I could come up with to help me find her. No cell phone, no purse. The car was a heaping pile of mangled metal and inside showed no signs of her putting up a fight. Making my way to the tire prints, they looked to be from a larger truck like mine as they were set pretty wide. But they could have also been some type of large SUV. I’d have to wait until forensics ran them through their system.
The woods. I headed off toward the woods; maybe she got away and was waiting there.
“Wait!” I didn’t stop when I heard Tebbin calling my name. I wasn’t in the mood for his shit right now. “Damn it, wait!” Tebbin’s boots pounded the ground beside me, but I didn’t stop. “Here.”
Looking at the light being handed to me, I quickly said, “Thanks,” and took off. After two hours of searching these woods, I came up with nothing. My feet and body felt numb. I knew I was moving, but barely felt my body go. I really didn’t think she was ever in the woods. Whoever got her took her somewhere far away from here.
“I’ve got Fly going back to the station to run a trace on her phone. If it’s still on, we may have a chance.”
Dread and fear came back tenfold as my stomach twisted in knots. If it wasn’t on … we had nothing to go on but a couple of tire tracks.
Vann
Voices—no—a voice. The muffled, masculine sound came from a distance as if someone was speaking through a door or wall. The voice was low and gravelly, but not in a sexy way and not one that I recognized. I tried focusing on the words being said, but the pain surging through my head was blinding.
Speaking of blinding, how come I couldn’t open my eyes? Opening them is challenging, but something dark was covering them with only a small slither of light coming through the bottom. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were restrained, maybe tied to the chair I was sitting on.
My head felt so heavy, as if it weighed a thousand pounds and my neck couldn’t hold it up, but I strained to keep it up. My head was so cloudy that nothing seemed to come into focus.
My head became too heavy, falling back to hit the back of the chair. Closing my eyes, I just needed to rest a bit.
Startled and shaking, my eyes flew open only to see blackness again. I pulled my arms and legs trying to move, but they wouldn’t budge. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Panic surge through my body, causing it to shake.
The memories of the accident flood my brain, and I immediately know who has me: Gary. I try my damnedest to calm my ass down. There was no way in hell I’d get out of here alive if I kept freaking out, but it was definitely easier said than done.
I listen, trying to hear anything. The only thing I made out was a small scratching as if something was scratching wood.
Moving my head back and forth, I tried desperately to shake off the fabric covering my eyes, but it didn’t work. The small light that was at the bottom was still there, and I focused my energy on it, trying to find out where the hell I was.
My slither of light didn’t reveal too much. I was indeed sitting on a chair, which I could feel. Raising my head to get a better feel for the room, a bed sat off to the right of me with messed up blankets as if it was just slept in.
On the other side of the bed were bookshelves. As I squinted the one eye that could see out of the slit, shock pulsated my body. My books. It looked like all seventeen of my books all lined up and displayed on book holders with the covers facing out, in order of when they were written.
My entire body began to shake, but I reeled it in quickly knowing that I was the only one who would get me out of this alive. I needed to think and quick.
In front of me was a door with my purse lying next to it and half the contents spread out on the floor. I needed to get to my cell. I saw the screen light up with Deke’s picture and name. Thank God I had it on vibrate. I never turned the ringer back on after dinner.
I began to move my body trying to get over to the phone, but being tied so tight was hindering my movements.
The rattling of the doorknob caught my attention. My one eye flew to the door, trying to get a look at who was walking through. In an instant, my heart stopped, and I couldn’t breathe.
“Well, well, well … what do we have here.” He smirks. “Well, since you can see me, I may as well give you a good look.”
The man stepped closer to me, and it took all my willpower not to flinch as he pulled the fabric off my eyes. Blinking rapidly, I needed my eyes to adjust quickly to the harshness of the light.
Staring at the man in front of me, I was certainly confused. The khaki shorts he wore showed off his narrow, pale legs. His light blue polo shirt was neatly tucked inside his shorts with a brown belt encasing his skinny waist.
As my eyes travelled up his face, his green eyes locked on mine, but there was a void of emotion there. A cold shiver ran down my spine, but I did my best to keep it hidden. This man was clean-shaven with a slither of a nose. His jet-black hair was styled intricately and swept to the side with some sort of gel.
This man reminded me of an All American good ol’ boy, except for the eyes. The eyes were freaking me the fuck out, not to mention all the swelling around them. I didn’t know what I expected, let’s face it, I never wanted to meet face to face with this man ever, but this was not what I pictured. And it hit me. I’d seen his picture before, at my dad’s. My pulse picked up fast.
“Hi there … Gab—” he stopped, and then continued, “I mean Savannah.” I began to try to move my body, not knowing what this man was going to do to me. “Oh, come on … you’re not getting out, so stop it.” His voice was totally calm, and as much as I wanted to freak out, I knew I needed to learn as much as I could. Grams always said ‘knowledge is power.’ I willed my body to listen and calm down.
“I’ve missed you.” His voice was trying to be seductive, but I just wanted to puke. “You gonna talk to me?”
I stared into those void green eyes wishing I had some kind of superpower to read his mind. But this was the real world and that wasn’t going to happen. I also wished for magical powers to get me the fuck out of here, but that wasn’t happening either. I needed to get him talking without pissing him off.
I continued to stare at him. He knelt down in front of me landing on his knees as he looked up at me. “Come on, Savannah. Don’t you want to know why you’re here?”
I slowly nodded.
“You know I do much better with words.” His voice was stern, and I wanted to calm him.
“Yes,” I said, my voice raspy as if I’d just woken up from a really long sleep.
“I’m glad to see you talking.” He reached up and placed his hand on my knee. I breathed slowly in and out,
