Chapter 5 #2
My breaths fell out hard and fast, my limbs shaky.
I stood there in silence with a heaving chest, feeling both confused and embarrassed.
Cooper didn’t seem angry by my reaction.
He didn’t seem the least bit offended or upset.
He continued to hold my wrist in a careful palm, his eyes soft and worried as they met with mine.
My body instinctively calmed at his touch, my fear melting away.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, his tone low, merely a whisper. “I should know better.”
My heartbeats slowed to a less concerning pace.
God, what had I planned to do?
Hit him?
The truth was, I hadn’t planned anything at all. My body had just reacted. This was my new normal. Everything, and everyone, was a threat.
As humiliation settled in, I pulled my arm from his grip and took a step backward. “I’m so sorry, Cooper. I’m just on edge. I didn’t mean…” I dragged my fingers through the roots of my hair, linking them behind my neck. “I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re working through a trauma.”
“Yeah, but…” I chewed on my inner lip, closing my eyes to force back tears. I hated crying. I hated showing weakness. “Thank you.”
Cooper stood from the stool, reaching for his coffee and twirling the paper cup between his hands. “I’ll be outside if you need anything.”
I felt the urge to hug him. To thank him for giving me grace.
Instead, I just nodded, unable to meet his eyes. I felt him sweep past me, his cedar scent lingering as the door snapped shut.
I breathed it in.
It gave me peace.
Cooper
I headed into the station later that day after Daphne returned home to whisk Abby into town for a shopping adventure. I’d called Kravitz to take over the evening watch so I could go over the new surveillance footage with James.
We had a stolen van, a physical description of the suspect, and fingerprints we’d collected from the vehicle. We had a hell of a lot. More than most cases.
And yet…we had nothing.
No sightings, no fingerprint matches in the database, no witnesses coming forward.
It was beyond frustrating. The man who’d abducted Abby was not careful—he was sloppy.
He’d made a public appearance at The Crow Bar and had brought attention to himself by bailing on his tab.
He’d stolen a company van in broad daylight. He’d left physical evidence behind.
The attack felt spontaneous and unplanned, and the perpetrator appeared to have been running on adrenaline as opposed to logic and careful design.
I sighed, nodding a greeting at Faye as I passed.
I wondered if this was a crime of opportunity, after all.
I’d done my homework and had dug into Abby’s past, and while there was a great deal of heartache, there wasn’t anything that would lead me down a rabbit hole of violent suspects.
Her parents were killed in a car accident twelve years ago, orphaning both Abby and her brother, Ryan.
Their grandmother, Cecily Stone, gained custody of the siblings, until Ryan moved out a year later.
I’d even spoken to Jordan Kline—Abby’s long-term love interest of fifteen years who’d been caught cheating with a young neighbor girl. While he was a skeevy son-of-a-bitch, he wasn’t our guy. Description alone ruled him out, along with his alibi of being over four-hundred miles away.
And the idea of Jordan hiring a hitman was ruled out. He had no motive, and there wasn’t anything suspicious that stood out from his bank statements.
All we had was the van and that surveillance footage.
The suspect had stolen the vehicle out of the parking lot of a packaging supply company called Kristoff’s, located in Ashland.
The video recordings had just come in. I was itching to have even the smallest lead.
A damn breadcrumb. Abby’s kidnapper was still out there and she wasn’t safe until that man was behind bars.
“Please let there be something worthwhile on there,” I said, tossing my keys onto my desk and eyeing James, who was holding up the hard drive. “We need a break.”
James fired up the laptop as we leaned over the desk, waiting for the footage to load. “We got all these leads and no reward. This guy must be cunning,” James said, shaking his head with frustration.
My eyes narrowed. “I think he’s just incredibly lucky.”
The surveillance footage began to play. We moved in closer, scanning the monitor.
It was taken at the same time the van went missing—four-sixteen p.m. on the day of the abduction.
I watched as a silver sedan pulled in and parked at the back of the lot.
When the man exited the vehicle, I pointed a finger at the screen.
“That’s him.” The footage was fuzzy and full of grain, but I could tell it was him by the baseball cap and dark long-sleeved shirt.
The height and weight also matched. “Is there a way to zoom in on the car?”
“Not in my skillset, McAllister. I can make a few calls, though.”
I tapped my foot. It was too grainy to get a license plate number, but at least we had a vague description of the vehicle the suspect was driving. It looked to be a Kia Optima. Maybe a 2013.
Luckily, I was knowledgeable when it came to makes and models.
We watched as the man spent a solid ten minutes inside the van, likely hot-wiring it, before it sped out of the parking lot.
James and I straightened and faced each other. “All right,” I said. “Let’s start getting a list of car owners within a thirty-mile radius. We’ll start there. I’m almost certain it’s an Optima, which is fairly common, so I’m not exactly hopeful. But it’s something.”
“I’m on it,” James replied. “Want me to relieve Kravitz tonight?”
I considered it but shook my head. “I’ll head over there after I get a nap in.”
I should have agreed. A break would do me good.
An actual day off. But as long as Abby’s kidnapper was still on the loose, I felt an overwhelming responsibility to protect her.
I’d sit in Daphne’s driveway twenty-four-seven if that was what it took.
Handing the reins over to another officer didn’t feel right.
I wanted to be there if something happened. I wanted to be the one to cuff that bastard.
My mind wandered to my meeting with Abby that morning. I had tried to keep my distance; I really had. But Kate’s words kept gnawing at me…
“You’re probably the only person who can reach her right now.”
I may have hardened over the years, but my heart was still susceptible to a woman in need.
Ultimately, it was susceptible to her. I would just need to be careful.
I would need to avoid that look she got when our gazes tangled.
Something inquisitive. Whimsical. There was a whisper of yearning enmeshed with pain.
There was something that made me want to hold her in my arms and tell her it was going to be okay.
Dammit.
Those were the thoughts I needed to avoid.
I could be her friend. I could protect her, solve her case, and be her platonic friend.
We weren’t black and white—she’d said so herself.
We were gray.