I jump and spill my drink. “Fuck!”
“Sorry,” Brian says. “The alarm on the side of the house just went off. Where’s Corrine?”
I sit up straight. “We had a fight. She hasn’t wanted anything to do with me since this afternoon. I assume she’s gone to bed.”
Brian looks like he’s ready to tell me off, but instead, he goes running. I start to follow him, and I can hear him yelling her name repeatedly. He runs to the room where I think she is, but she doesn’t appear.
“Corrine!” he yells again. He looks down at the floor, and his speed increases.
It suddenly dawns on me—she should be responding to Brian. If it was me calling, I’d guess she was ignoring me, but she wouldn’t do that to Brian.
I hear him on a radio. “Check the feed. Corrine is missing, and she’s bleeding.”
“Bleeding? Missing? What do you mean?” My slight buzz from the bourbon is gone.
“She isn’t upstairs, and I can’t find her downstairs.” He points to brown spots on the dark wood floors.
Brian’s radio pops. “Brian, you’re going to want to see this.”
I follow him to the security office, and they have Corrine on the screen. She has a dark streak on her face.
Brian turns to me. “You may not want to see this.”
“What the fuck!” An arm comes out of the bushes and pulls her in.
“How did this motherfucker get on my property?” I rage.
It’s four seconds max, and we replay it and replay it. Brian runs out the door, grabbing a pair of night-vision goggles. He suddenly appears on the screen, but we can’t tell where he came from. We watch him and someone else go diving into the bush.
I can’t watch this any longer. I grab another pair of goggles and follow him out the door.
Fitting through the bushes is tight. The oleanders are large with thick stalks, but they’re also dense. Brian spots a footprint. But the trail just stops, and he thinks maybe they got into a car. We look inside the neighbors’ glass front door, and the house is black.
Corrine is nowhere to be seen.
I scream in frustration. “No!”
****
Less than fifteen minutes later, the police come racing up the driveway with lights flashing, but no sirens. An officer gets out of the car. “What’s going on?”
Brian explains who we are and the situation.
“Why weren’t you with your girlfriend?” one of the officers asks.
“We had a disagreement.”
“Did you hit her?” the other officer asks.
The idea of striking Corrine in anger makes my blood run cold. But I did spank her during sex, and it was angry sex. Fuck!
“Absolutely not,” I tell them.
My heart races. I begin to make a deal with Corrine in my mind. Whatever she wants—I just need her back.
You can rent Gabby’s old apartment, just come back to me.
Take whatever job you want, as long as you stay with me.
I need you.
I can’t live without you.
The tears hit, and I’m beside myself.
Please come back to me, Corrine.
I’ll give you all the time you need, just please come back to me.
I’m numb. I’ve never been scared for anyone like I am for Corrine right now. Has her stalker come all the way from the mainland?
The police are hesitant to do anything. But they manage to get everyone who lives on the property together and interview the staff.
“What is the relationship between Corrine and Jackson?”
“Is he abusive to her?”
“Would he hurt her?”
“Has she ever run away before?”
I’m furious that they’re focusing on me. We have proof in the feed that she was grabbed, but they don’t think it’s compelling enough. It could be a friend of hers.
We explain the footprints, and they knock on the front door of the house next door.
That’s it. Nothing else.
Leilani gives me a comforting hug. “Corrine loves you. She’s going to be fine.”
I nod. I want to believe Leilani’s right and it isn’t an empty platitude.
Time is clicking by, and the police are not in any hurry.
Don’t they understand? Corrine is missing, and we don’t know where she is or who took her. They’ve watched the video, and yet they’re acting like she ran away because of our argument.
As the minutes tick by, Leilani passes out coffee and snacks. “I don’t know what to do,” she says.
“This is perfect.” I give her my best smile. I can see she’s as worried as I am.
Eventually, the police leave. They’ve accomplished nothing and tell us if Corrine doesn’t appear in forty-eight hours, they’ll see what else they can do.
Forty-eight hours? I saw the cut above her eye. She’s in danger, and I don’t have forty-eight hours of patience.
Chapter 39
Jackson
Early Saturday morning, Brian announces Jim’s arrival on the property. We’ve been standing, pacing, and milling around for hours while teams scoured the estate and found nothing. The sun is at the horizon, trying to bring in a new day, but I need it to stay where it is so we have more time to find Corrine. I need her to be safe and in my arms.
“Jim flew in?” I ask as Brian passes.
He nods. “I called him as soon as you alerted me, and he left late last night for the airport.”
How can it already have been more than eight hours since this ordeal began? We’ve gotten nowhere.
The SUV comes racing up the driveway, and Jim and Kate jump out before it even comes to a complete stop.
“What do you know?” Jim demands.
“Nothing,” I tell him. “We had an argument, and the police think Corrine just ran away.”
“That’s not like her,” Kate says.
“I know. Corrine had
