Chapter 20
Awareness trickled through the darkness holding Katherine hostage.
Throbbing pain in her head beat along with her pulse, turning her stomach and forcing her eyes closed.
She groaned and curled onto her side. Maybe if she lay here long enough everything would go back to normal.
Her world would shift to the way it was supposed to be, and she’d wake from this nightmare.
But wishful thinking wouldn’t get her out of this mess.
She opened her eyes and light blasted against her retinas. Her stomach revolted and the throbbing against her temples turned into body-consuming agony. She slid to the side of the bed and let her head fall over the edge seconds before vomit spewed from her mouth.
Heaves wrecked her body, sweat dotting her hairline. After she emptied her stomach, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand then flopped back on the mattress.
Oh God. She was laying on a bed.
A different kind of terror shot through her and forced her to a sitting position.
She leaned her back against the dirty wall and took in her surroundings.
The bare mattress she sat on was pushed against the far corner of the room.
An old dresser with a missing top drawer was the only other furniture. The carpet was thin and stained.
But one fact reigned supreme in her mind.
She was alone.
Ignoring all her pain, she shoved up to her feet and staggered toward the closed door. She lunged for the handle, but when she turned it, the door wouldn’t budge.
Shit. She was locked in. There had to be another way—another option.
She wouldn’t just sit around and wait for her abductor to come and do whatever it was he had planned.
Patting her pockets, she searched for her phone but came up empty.
Disappointment pressed down on her lungs.
She’d handed that over before putting on that stupid bandana.
Okay. No phone. Doors locked. Look for something else to help.
She spotted the lone window on the other side of the room. A threadbare curtain blocked out most of the sun. Pulling in a steadying breath, she made her way to the window, praying she could wiggle her way out without being noticed. She peeled away the fabric and found a fifteen-foot drop.
She swallowed hard. The fall could kill her but so could staying in this room. A large maple tree was close to the house. If she could jump far enough, she could grab hold of a branch and climb down to safety.
From this vantage point, there weren’t any neighbors, but she wouldn’t waste time figuring out what to do until she was free. First, she had to get to that branch.
Leaving the curtain in place as much as possible, she found the lock and clicked it over then yanked at the ancient window. Splintered wood scraped against her fingers and the house groaned with the effort it took for her to get the glass to budge a fraction of an inch.
The muscles in her arm screamed from the strain, but she kept trying.
Exhausted, she dropped her arms. A tiny breeze whistled inside the crack, but it wasn’t even wide enough to fit a finger let alone her whole body.
She blew out a long breath, steeled her nerves, and went back to work. More groaning and creaking as the window moved little by little.
The sound of footsteps made her heart gallop.
The opening still wasn’t big enough. Her brain screamed to keep trying, but logic told her if her captor found her attempting an escape, it wouldn’t end well.
She tore herself away from the window and reclaimed her spot on the mattress.
If she closed her eyes and pretended to still be passed out, maybe he’d leave her alone.
Curling into a ball, she evened her breathing and let her eyes drift shut.
The door squeaked open. Footsteps grew closer. The energy in the room shifted, and dread coated her skin.
A hard slap across her face made her body snap to attention, her arm instinctively covering her cheek to ward off another attack.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?” He spat out the question. “I could hear your footsteps downstairs. I know you’re awake.”
Her eyes squeaked open, but her body stayed still. She stared up at him and willed her mind to remember his face. Maybe if she could place him then she could figure out how to talk herself out of this mess.
Or at least buy more time until Cody found her.
Cody.
Her entire body ached with longing at the thought of him. She had so much faith in him, so much trust. How could she have made him believe she didn’t? She had to get out of here alive because she had to make things right with him. She couldn’t die letting him think she didn’t love him.
Then there was Ollie.
Tears stung her eyes.
No. She couldn’t go there. If she let her mind wander to her beautiful son, she’d fall apart.
“There she is,” the man said. “Welcome back. I hit you a little too hard. Bet your head hurts like a bitch.”
“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“Because you need to be taught a lesson. You took away the last fifteen years of my life. You ruined me, then went on like nothing happened. Didn’t even realize how much damage you caused.
All because you couldn’t keep your fucking mouth shut.
” His temper rose with each word until his shouting rang in her ears.
Fifteen years? What the hell happened fifteen years ago that resulted in this man trying to kill her?
“I was seventeen years old at that time. Just a kid trying to figure out the world after my mom died. I never hurt anyone.”
“You hurt me.” His arm shot down like a striking snake and he grabbed a fistful of hair, yanking her to her feet.
Her head screamed and a cry broke through her lips. “Please. Please stop.”
He twisted her strands in his hand and brought his face inches from hers. “And now I’m going to hurt you. Nice and slow. I’ve waited so long for this—thought about it every damn day while I rotted away in that jailcell.”
If she hadn’t already emptied her stomach, she’d have thrown up. But she couldn’t crumble. Couldn’t just let him do whatever he wanted while she cried and begged for mercy.
Adrenaline pushed through her blood and blocked out all the pain. She had too much to fight for. She would not be a victim. She lifted her hand and jabbed her fingers into the man’s eyes, pushing as hard as she could until he released her hair.
“You bitch!” He took a step back, dropped his gaze to the ground and shielded his eyes with his hands.
She jabbed an elbow to his nose, forcing his head back up as blood quirted from his nostrils. Taking a step forward, she jammed her foot down on his then rocketed her knee into his crotch.
Groaning, he fell to the ground.
She sprinted toward the door and found herself in a narrow hallway with stairs at the end. She ran toward the staircase and leapt down the steps. The stairs spilled into a bare living room, but the sight of the brown walls and spindled railing stirred a memory.
Shocked, she inhaled a sharp breath as she made a beeline for the exit. She knew exactly where she was, but one question still remained.
Why?
Cody stood in the kitchen surrounded by Katherine’s family. Guilt and fear ate away at him.
If only he’d had the conversation she’d asked for right then. Or if he’d insisted she and Ollie come inside so they weren’t alone.
But he hadn’t. And now she was gone.
“I spoke with Eric Rider’s dad, brother and uncle,” Owen said. “All have alibis. They don’t have her.”
“Which leaves us with diddly shit,” Mike said. He stood with his arms anchored over his chest. His face a tight line of torture. He flipped through the papers wedged in the file Tommy had brought and scattered them around the table. “We have to be missing something.”
Anxiety crawled over Cody’s skin. He wanted to be out in the world, pounding the pavement and knocking on doors. But there was nowhere to go, no tracks to follow. He and Tommy had gone through the woods and found no trace of Katherine or the person who’d taken her. It was as if she’d vanished.
But that wasn’t possible, and time was running out.
Elsie sat in the living room with Ollie. She’d tried to get him to leave but the boy refused. Not even the promise of time spent with Jimmy could coax him from the house where he was convinced his mother would return.
Tommy paced, biting his thumbnail. “Let’s go over everything we know again. Maybe something will stand out this time.”
Cody squeezed his eyes shut and replayed everything they’d learned.
“The person we’re looking for has an axe to grind against authority and a personal vendetta against Katherine.
Called her a snitch, so he thinks she told on him or is the reason for something bad that happened.
No one who’s been released from the Cooper County jail in the past year fits the bill, and the list of released prisoners from the tri-county area is a mile long. ”
A light hand on his shoulder opened his eyes, and he found himself staring into Elsie’s kind eyes. “I’m not a cop, but I’ve had my own brush with danger. When my roommate was kidnapped it’s because she stumbled into a crime by accident. Could something like that have happened to Katherine?”
He shoved a hand through his hair and tried to recall all the conversations he’d had with Katherine. “Nothing she mentioned to me. Do you guys remember anything happening a few years ago, or hell, longer?” He tossed the question to her dad and brothers.
Owen and Tommy shrugged.
“Not really,” Owen said. “Katherine wasn’t one to get into trouble. Even to just stumble across it. She was always with Theo. The two of them usually stayed home or did pretty boring stuff. Movies, football games, the usual.”
Tommy let out a small, nostalgic chuckle. “We always joked they were already an old married couple even as teenagers.”
A smile cracked through Mike’s gruff expression. “She was the easy one. Took on a lot of responsibility after her mother died. Not like these two knuckleheads who I always had to worry about.”
A tingle of an idea nagged the back of Cody’s brain. “We talked about that. She said after her mom died, she rebelled a little. Went to a couple of parties but it left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn’t elaborate much on what happened, though.”
Owen’s expression hardened. “I remember that. Her friend Donna Jo took her to some college party. I wasn’t happy when I found out about it, but glad Katherine made the right decision and left. She was pretty shaken up about it.”
Something shifted in Mike’s eyes. He dropped his arms to his side and worked his jaw and forth.
“Wait a second. You called and told me about it right after Katherine got home. She was upset and didn’t want me to know she’d snuck off somewhere she wasn’t supposed to go.
But she thought her friend had been slipped something and drugs were being passed around like candy.
And didn’t she struggle to get her friend to leave because she was afraid she’d be taken advantage of if she stayed? ”
“Yep, sounds about right. Thank God Katherine knew better than to drink while she was there. That night could have ended a lot differently,” Owen said.
Elsie shook her head. “So many bad people doing bad things in this world. I hope they got in trouble.”
“I didn’t have any jurisdiction over there, but made a call,” Mike said.
Cody’s eyes flew wide. “Would that be public knowledge?”
Mike frowned. “What?”
“That you, sheriff of Cooper County and Katherine’s father, was the one who made that call?”
“I don’t see how,” Mike said. “Unless someone there knew who Katherine was. Understood her connection to law enforcement so assumed she was the reason for the police showing up.”
“We need to find out what happened that night,” Cody said. “If any arrests were made, and if so, if anyone put away that night has recently been released. What county would that be? Holms?”
“Yeah,” Mike said, grabbing his phone from his pocket. “She was at a house party near the college. A little outside of town so the sheriff’s department would have handled it. Let me make a call.”
A beat of hope pulsed through him as a new theory took form. Maybe Katherine couldn’t remember what she’d done to wrong someone because she hadn’t known the wheels she’d set in motion.
But someone did. And they had to figure out who before it was too late.