Chapter Fourteen #2
“Oh God… Brecken is obsessed with her. This was all about her.” His eyes brimmed with tears.
“We told him we didn’t want to be part of it, but he said we had to do what he told us, or he’d kill our p-parents.
” The quiver of his chin broke her heart.
It’d been years since that’d happened. “She’s such a nice girl.
I really like her, and she likes me, too. I didn’t want to help him get to her.”
“Don’t say anything to anyone until we talk to Sam. She’s on the way over now and so are Dad, Brooke and Nate.”
“Brooke is here?”
“She and Nate came home yesterday when we couldn’t find you. We’ve been so upset.”
“All I could think about was how mad you were going to be at me—and at Dad.”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m just so, so grateful to have you back. Nothing else matters right now except that you’re safe and so is Tomas.”
A police officer Tracy didn’t recognize entered the room. “I’m Captain Ruiz from the MPD, and I’d like to have a word with Ethan if I might.”
“He’s… he’s not ready to talk about it yet. Maybe in a little while.”
“We’re still looking for Luna Ahern, and as you can imagine, every minute counts.”
“I understand.” Tracy returned her attention to Ethan. “He’ll talk when he’s ready.”
“Ethan,” the captain said, “Luna is counting on you and Tomas to do whatever you can to help her.”
“I don’t know where she is. I never saw her.”
“That’s enough for now,” Tracy said, resisting the urge to snap at her.
Until she saw her sister, he wasn’t saying anything to anyone.
She was certain that’s what her dad would’ve told her to do if he’d been there.
As she held Ethan’s hand, she wished more than anything that her dad could walk her through this unprecedented situation. Thank God she had Sam to do it.
A few minutes later, a rustling sound outside the curtain alerted her to people approaching. Tracy sat up, wiped her face and turned to see Sam coming around the curtain. She stood to hug her sister.
Sam released her and went to Ethan, weeping as she hugged him. “Very happy to see you, buddy.”
“I’m happy to see you, too.”
“A female captain was in here wanting to talk to him, but I waited for you to tell us what he should say.”
“I just saw her in the hallway. She’s talking to Tomas while I talk to Ethan.”
“Oh, okay,” Ethan said with a hesitant glance at his mother.
“First of all, are you hurt?” Sam asked.
He ran through the list of injuries he’d already told Tracy about, and Sam made a note of each one in a notebook she pulled out of her back pocket.
“Can you tell me what happened, buddy?” Sam asked as she took a seat on the edge of his bed.
“Tomas and I… We met Brecken a few weeks ago at the Boardwalk arcade down at the Wharf, and he was so nice to us. He and his dad gave us money to play more games when we ran out, and we thought Brecken was really cool. He… he said we were fun to hang with and asked us to come back again this week, so we did. And when we got there, he didn’t want to play the games.
He wanted us to help him with something else and asked if we could come with him.
We liked him, so we said sure, and then he took us to this car—his dad was in the car—and Brecken told us to get in.
We were like… We didn’t think we should do that, but Brecken shoved us in, and the car took off.
Before we knew it, he’d taken our phones, zip-tied our hands, and…
we… we were so confused about what was happening. ”
Tracy was appalled as she tried to imagine how terrified they must’ve been.
“Where’d they take you?”
“We drove around for a long time. I had to pee really bad, and I told them I was going to wet my pants if I couldn’t use the bathroom, but they ignored me.
I don’t know how long we drove around for, but it was dark when we stopped.
They told us to walk up some stairs and be quiet, or they’d shoot us, and then they’d kill our families. ”
Tracy whimpered.
“What did they want?” Sam asked.
“Our phones. They used them to send texts. I think to Luna. We were kind of friends with her from when we went bowling, and Brecken said if she didn’t come out, he would kill us and her, too.
I asked him why he was doing this, and he said it was because Luna had disrespected him and needed to be taught a lesson in manners. ”
Good God, Tracy thought. What in the world?
“What happened after they used your phones to send the texts?”
“They left us in a dark room, and we didn’t see them again. But we could hear them arguing. Brecken’s dad was super mad that he’d involved the nephew of the president. That’s when I knew you guys were looking for me, when they found out Nick was my uncle.”
“Do you know how long you were in that room?”
“It was a long time. We both peed our pants, and we were starving. We were really, really scared they were going to kill us.”
“How did you get free?”
“We used my multitool. They cut our shirts off us and took our shoes but didn’t notice it in my pocket.
Tomas and I worked together to get it, and he cut me loose, and then I did him.
But it took us hours because we couldn’t see anything in the dark room, and we didn’t want to stab each other by accident.
We were careful with the knife, Mom, like you always said. ”
Tracy wiped away more tears as she smiled. “You did good, pal.”
“Do you have any idea where you were held?” Sam asked.
“It was near Connecticut Avenue, because when we got out of the house, we ran toward lights that turned out to be Connecticut.”
“Do you know how far you ran before you got to that road?”
“About three blocks. It wasn’t far. A police officer saw us and stopped to help. Never been so happy to see the police.”
“Did you come from the right side or the left side of Connecticut?”
Ethan thought about that for a second. “It was the right side, and the police officer saw us right near where we came out of the neighborhood, so it’s close to that.”
“This has been really helpful, Ethan. You and your friend did a great job of getting yourselves out of a bad situation, and the things you’ve remembered could help us find Luna.”
“I’m really scared for her. Brecken was so mad at her for blowing him off.”
“Is that what he said? That she blew him off?”
“He said she was super rude to him, and all he did was ask her to hang out, but she wouldn’t even look at him. He said she shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that.”
“Did you ever see her or hear her at the place where you were held?”
He shook his head. “No, but Brecken was mad that she wouldn’t answer his texts.”
“So tell me about your interactions with his dad before they kidnapped you.”
“He bought us pizza at the Wharf a couple of times before this and gave us tokens for the games.”
Every cell in Sam’s body tingled with sensation the way it did whenever the details of a vexing case came into sharper focus.
This guy—and his kid—had targeted and groomed Ethan and Tomas to make them willing to go along with whatever they suggested.
The whole thing had been planned with meticulous attention to detail with the ultimate goal of luring Luna to whatever horrors they had in mind for her.
Mike, Brooke and Nate stepped into the cubicle, and Sam stood to give Mike and Brooke room to hug Ethan.
Tracy stayed right where she was, next to her son, where she would remain for every minute he was in the hospital. Then she would take him home and keep him there until he was thirty.