Chapter 13
Ellie dropped Callie and Lewis at the hotel, then went to do some shopping. She’d brought relaxing, comfortable clothing for her time at the resort after the wedding, but she wanted to look nice when she met with Mac tomorrow.
She hadn’t asked him to join her. Not yet. But she was going to. Maybe dinner at that casual restaurant on the beach, or a private sunset dinner cruise. She was ready to make a new beginning, and she wanted everything to be perfect.
So she’d found a pretty pink dress that flattered her figure and made her feel beautiful, and paired it with new pink sandals and simple silver jewelry, her mind focused on the day ahead as she shopped.
She’d already decided it would be tomorrow, giving herself this evening and the night to revel in the anticipation of wanting him.
There was something decadent in the wanting, and in knowing she would have him in her bed once more.
Her cheeks heated at the thought. It was going to be a very long night without him. Stepping out into the sun, she pulled her phone and ordered an Uber to return her to the hotel.
Had Mac been with many women in the years they’d been apart? She would understand if he had, but worried nonetheless. She’d been inexperienced when they married, and hadn’t touched another man until Turner.
Thank God I didn’t sleep with him.
She thought of how close she’d come to marrying him and shivered.
She’d become so detached from the life she truly wanted, that marrying a man she didn’t love and couldn’t even argue with had seemed like a good idea.
She smirked at the thought of having a good fight with Mac.
The anticipation of that one was almost as good as the anticipation of sex.
Almost.
A car pulled up to the curb in front of her, the passenger-side window rolling down. “Uber.”
She opened the back door and settled in the seat. “Good evening. How are you today?” she asked, closing it behind her.
The driver didn’t answer. He wore a baseball cap backwards, the smell of alcohol faint on the air.
“Have you been drinking?” she demanded, suddenly very alert and not at all lost in her dream world as she had been moments before.
Again, he didn’t answer. “I said, have you been drinking? I smell alcohol.”
The car slowed for a red light, and she tried to open the door. It wouldn’t budge. “Let me out right now. Do you hear me? Let me out of this car!”
She pulled at the handle and pushed at the door.
But the child locks must be engaged, because the door didn’t budge.
Panic rose up within her, warring with anger for the upper hand.
She unlocked her phone and dialed 911, but nothing happened.
She looked at the home screen, the words, “No Service” written in the corner of the screen.
She cursed under her breath. She had to get out of here, fast.
The car took off, accelerating quickly onto a highway ramp. Ellie looked around for anything she could use as a weapon. The strap on her purse could be used to strangle him. A detached part of her brain interjected. Is an unresponsive, drunk Uber driver really a justification for murder?
Of course it wasn’t, but what was she supposed to do? Maybe she could strangle him just until he passed out, then make a run for it. Didn’t people pass out before they actually died?
“Pull over here,” she said as forcefully as she could muster. “Let me out of this car. I don’t want to ride with you anymore.”
If she attacked him while he was going this fast, they were both going to die.
She had to wait until he slowed down, almost to a stop.
Of course, then he could wrestle with her much better.
Was she stronger than this man? In the light of passing streetlamp, she could barely make out the shape of his head, no less his features. “Please,” she begged.
“That’s more like it,” said the man, the voice instantly recognizable to Ellie.
“Turner?”
“You thought I would just leave after you embarrassed me in the restaurant?”
“Were you following me?” Despite her annoyance, she breathed a sigh of relief. Turner wouldn’t hurt her. “You’re drunk. Pull over and let me drive.”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
He’d never spoken to her like that, not ever. For a moment, she didn’t know what to do. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Why? I hear you like your men drunk. Useless, drunk-ass idiots who get to treat you like shit then come back for more. Isn’t that right, Ellie?” He swerved across two lanes of traffic and took an exit ramp.
Ellie stared out the window, at a part of town where she’d never been before. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace we can talk.”
“I want to go back to the hotel. We can talk there.”
“Mac is there. I want to talk to you alone.”
If he wanted to talk to her, they would talk. He was obviously upset, and it wasn’t likely to go well, but this was not the end of the world. She remained quiet as he drove along rural roads, navigating them as if he knew the route well. “Have you been here before?”
“I lived here.”
She frowned at that. As far as she knew, Turner had only lived in Mobile and San Antonio, Texas. A new kind of fear sparked to life in her chest. “You never told me that.”
He laughed. “I never told you a lot of things.”
She unlocked her phone again, the bright screen illuminating the backseat of the car before she could cover it. Still no service.
“It isn’t going to work,” Turner said.
“What isn’t going to work?”
“Your cell phone. I already made sure of that.”
“What do you mean? You’re scaring me, Turner.”
“You should be scared. You should be scared just like Ursula was scared.”
Ellie’s senses seemed to take note of her surroundings in perfect detail, as if taking a picture of this moment. She wondered if she’d misheard him. “Excuse me?”
“It was supposed to be you. I was watching you. I wanted you.”
He slammed his open hand on the top of the steering wheel. “Why weren’t you there that night?” he demanded.
In an instant, everything she thought she knew turned on its head. “You took Ursula?”
“Where were you?”
“Lewis was sick. I had to stay home. But Godak—”
“You never do what you’re supposed to do.
He was so angry when it wasn’t you. I’d told him all about you.
I’d taken pictures of you. He was excited to meet you.
He wanted to go to your house and get you, then we would do you both.
But first I had to go to work, and there you were, right in my office, asking questions about Ursula. ”
She’d gone to the precinct when Ursula hadn’t come home. Roger was beside himself with worry, so it was Ellie who had gone to the police station to file a report. That’s where she’d met the detective in charge of the case—Mike Turner.
“I wanted to take you then,” he continued.
“Just stuff you in the trunk of my car and bring you home. But there were all these cops around, and I didn’t have the opportunity.
So I asked if your husband had driven you to the station and you said you were divorced, and I thought what if, what if I could have you for real, and Godak never even knew? ”
Ellie felt sick to her stomach, acid burning the back of her throat. She’d gone to that police station in desperate hope of finding her cousin. Instead, she’d conversed with the monster responsible for her disappearance. When she spoke, she didn’t recognize her own voice. “Did you kill her?”
“That was all Godak.”
“Then what did you do?”
He met her eyes in the rearview mirror, and she knew exactly what he’d done.
Poor Ursula.
Poor, sweet Ursula.
Ellie bent at the waist and threw up on the floor. She wiped her face with the back of her hand. Her cell phone didn’t work. She’d told no one she was leaving the hotel, no less where she was going. “What are you going to do with me?”
“You’ve left me no choice!”
He ran his hand through his hair, the tang of body odor wafting toward her on the air. “I was going to make you my wife. Make you respectable again. But no, you wouldn’t have that, would you?”
An eerie calm stole over Ellie. “What are you going to do with me?” she repeated.
“I’m going to do what we planned all those years ago. I’m going to make love to you, then I’m going to watch you die.”
She squeezed her eyes closed and prayed, then did the only other thing that came to mind.
Help me, Mac.
I’m in trouble.
I need you.
Please.