But he was following us, always just on the periphery of my vision, on the right side of the sidewalk behind us, all of the way to where the car was parked on a quieter side street.
“Come in, Beautiful, let’s get you home.” Cole prompted when I didn’t move to climb in his truck after he opened the door. The guy had followed us onto the sidestreet and now lingered in a doorway a few car lengths down from Cole’s truck.
Nervous and unsure of what was going on, I jumped forward and into Cole’s arms. He leant down to hold me back and I reached onto my toes to get to his ear.
“Someone is following us.” I whispered.
“What?” Cole snapped, he tried to pull away, but I held him in place, with one hand on his shoulder and the other around his waist.
“Don’t leave me.” I pleaded.
“Where is he?” Cole asked as he settled back before me.
“Third doorway up behind me, he’s hiding, but keeps peeking out.” He kept a hold of me, but I knew by the angle of his head, he was watching. Then he moved and I knew there was no stopping him, he was pissed.
“Sonofabitch!” He hissed. I looked behind me, and saw the guy was starting to walk away, hurriedly.
“Livy, in the truck. Lock the doors!” Cole yelled as he handed me his keys, then he set off running after the stalker.
“Cole!” I cried, terrified he’d be hurt, and horrified he was leaving me alone. But he was already gone, just turned the corner out of my sight.
Too shaken and scared to stay so out in the open, I climbed into the passenger seat, locking the doors behind me. I knelt on the seat, staring out of the back window, just needing Cole to come back.
It was about five minutes later when he came running down the street toward me. I hurried to unlock the car and he jumped into the driver’s seat.
“Are you ok, Babygirl? I shouldn't have left you. I wasn't thinking.” He gasped. He must have run pretty far, considering how winded he was.
“I….Yeah…..I’m good. Are you? Did you catch him?”
“No, I lost him. He was pretty fast.”
“What do you think he wanted? He took some photos of me I think.”
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. We’re gonna go to Kade’s office, tell him what happened, ok?”
“Now?” I was too tired and stressed to go anywhere but home for a long hot shower.
“Yeah. I know you’ve had a long morning, but this is important. We need to know what that fucker wanted, make sure he’s not going to try to hurt you.” Cole explained as he pulled me in and hugged me, giving me the boost I needed.
“Ok, you’re right.” I agreed. “Let’s go find Kade.”
CHAPTER 9
KADE
The office was in chaos. A ten year old girl had been reported missing by her parents four hours ago, after school had called to notify them their daughter was absent.
As soon as the amber alert was issued, every cop in the city became aware of the missing child and my heart had dropped. Was this him, Livy’s ‘Shadow’? We hadn't been able to get a single lead on the fucker, and part of me had been sure Livy must have killed him when she escaped, but this, this missing girl, it had me feeling very uneasy.
There were too many similarities to Olivia’s kidnapping, the missing girl a very similar age to Livy when she was taken and the picture of this missing child showed she too had dark hair, and was very petite for her age, just as Livy had been.
Links had been made and there was huge pressure on our unit because we had been working on finding this kidnapping fucker for months. Problem was, we had nothing. The guy was a ghost. There had been mentions of him coming down into a small town about two hours from where Livy was found near Shawnee; a man matching his description buying groceries on a weekly basis for years, but not one soul knew where he came from, what he drove, or even a general direction he came from. No one had a name for him, and as far as we could tell, he never said a word to anyone in that town.
The area had been searched, by local cops and by a team from Shepard Security, where Kyle worked, but no building like Livy described had been found.
If Livy found out that scumbag had possibly snatched another child, it was going to tear her apart. I couldn't let that happen. She had been through so much, and not just the eight years she spent being tortured by this fucker. She had been taken by a fucking serial killer! Some crazy who in his delusional state believed he could time travel in order to stop himself from burning down his family home, and killing his parents and ten year old sister. He had been thirteen when he set that house ablaze, in the throws of a psychotic break. He had been incarcerated in a secure mental health facility for twenty years as a result, before being released. Three weeks off his meds and the murders started, culminating in us all almost losing the love of our lives. He was dead now, one threat down for Livy, but it was really starting to look like her original kidnapper was back, and I was terrified it would be the final straw for her if she found out. She was only just starting to find a way to cope with
