They reached Edward’s bedroom and Keri gave a strangled gasp as he jerked her to her feet by the collar of the T-shirt she’d pulled over her leotard.
With his grip still on her T-shirt with one hand, he slapped her with his other hard enough that she stumbled. Her T-shirt ripped in his hand and she almost fell.
He released his hold on her torn shirt, then shoved her. This time she dropped onto her back on the mattress. “You hurt me in more ways than one, Keri. We were meant to be together, but you threw that away.”
“I—” she started.
Edward raised his hand and slapped her. Keri’s mind spun as lights and colors erupted behind her eyelids.
“Here is what I am going to do, Keri,” Edward said with a cold look in his blue eyes. “You violated me. Now I’m going to violate you. You took some of my life away. I will take all of yours away.”
Keri’s skin prickled from every word Edward said. She knew she didn’t have a chance if she didn’t keep him talking. Adam had to get here and she had to stall until he did.
Keri swallowed. “I thought you were in Florida.”
“I knew these loser cops were following me,” Edwards said. “They’re so stupid. It’s not like it’s hard to outsmart them. I have a double. Name’s Bruce. Idiot cops watched him go to the airport and get on the private jet I chartered. So as far as they are concerned, I’m in Florida and I won’t be blamed for you disappearing.”
“Edward,” Keri said, “I was frightened back then. I was afraid of what you would do to me after you crushed my knee. I cared about you, I still do, I just didn’t know what to do. I was young. Please Edward, don’t do this. I am sorry.”
“I love to hear you beg,” Edward said in a growl. “But your lies don’t help you here.”
Keri clenched her hands in the bedspread beneath her.
Edward reached for the buckle on his belt. “Time for payback, bitch.”
* * *
Adam was a few blocks down the street from Carter’s house when Captain Wilson’s voice came over the radio. “Boyd,” she said, “House is empty.”
Adam’s skin crawled. “Empty? What do you mean it’s empty?”
“I mean nothing’s here,” Wilson said with impatience in her voice. “Place is clean. Not even a stick of furniture in it, much less Carter or the woman you say he kidnapped.”
Confusion made Adam’s head spin. “She said Edward’s house—” Then he realized his screwup. “She meant his old house.”
Adam couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. Carter’s old house. Carter had used it sort of like a guesthouse for friends or meetings. He’d kept it and rented it out. Not long ago he’d sold it to a fellow lowlife friend. When this started up again, Adam had gone by the house, not knowing it had been sold.
“His what?” Wilson said over the radio.
“Carter had another place two streets over.” Adam whipped his SUV down a side street in the direction of the other house. He gave the captain the address he had in his Blackberry as he drove. “I’m almost there.”
“Damn,” the captain said, but Adam barely heard her as he neared the house.
Twenty seconds and Adam was parked down the street from Carter’s old house.
He killed the engine and quietly climbed out of the SUV. Lights were on inside the house, downstairs and up.
In front, a van was against the curb and three men were standing nearby, having an animated discussion. One of them looked up and down the street every so often, but it looked more like it was ingrained in him as opposed to real concern.
Adam drew his Glock and crept through the darkness. He avoided the streetlight as he ducked through the shadows and walked toward the house.
Gravel shifted beneath one of his shoes. He paused and held his breath, waiting for one of the men to say he’d heard something.
“What’s the boss doing with her?” one of the men said as he rubbed one hand with the other, as if it bothered him. “The bitch bit me.”
“I told you to quit whining like a girl,” the big guy next to him said. “My bet is he’s having some fun before he takes care of her for good.”
Adam gritted his teeth. Keri had to be okay and he’d get there before anything happened to her.
Gripping his handgun, carefully, slowly, Adam made his way to the side of the house. When he reached the wall he leaned against it and took a deep breath, then let it out.
He had to find Keri. He was running out of time. Keri was running out of time.
One-handed, Adam grabbed the short fence that ran along the side yard. He vaulted over the fence, and rushed into the shadows, and pressed himself up against a wall, melting into the darkness.
He held his Glock in both hands as he peered in the windows through gaps in the curtains. The house was furnished and it looked lived in. But he didn’t see anyone and he definitely didn’t hear anything.
Adam tried to keep his professional cool as he prayed he wasn’t too late. He ran around the house to the back. Lights came from windows on one corner.
Holding his handgun tight, Adam tried to peek into the windows on the east side of the house, but the curtains were shut too tightly.
He made his way around the corner. Just as he tried to get a look in through that window, he heard a woman’s scream coming from upstairs.
Keri.
Adam’s heart pounded faster. He ran for the back door of the house and tried it. Locked.
Keri screamed again.
Adam used the butt of his Glock to knock out a small pane of glass
