Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Raelyn
Opening my eyes, I wince from the throbbing pain shooting inside my head. Stale air fills my nose.
Looking around, I’m confused, then it all comes flooding back.
I try to lift my hand to my head to assess the damage, only to realize my arms and legs are tightly bound to a chair.
Blood covers my clothes.
By the way my head feels, and the amount of blood I’ve lost, I’m pretty positive that I need stitches.
What the hell did she hit me with? Looking around, I take in the dull, gray cement walls. Where am I? Maybe part of a warehouse or basement. I wonder if the walls are soundproof. Could someone hear me scream?
My heart starts racing, as panic and anger set in, taking over my body.
The door slams open against the wall, revealing my enemy.
The woman from the concert walks in wearing a rather smug smile on her face. She’s no longer wearing the ball cap, and I definitely recognize her with her blonde hair down. A face I never thought I’d see again. She’s the woman from the pictures, Jace’s mistress.
She comes to a stop in front of me and crosses her arms. An evil smile creeps across her face. “How does that pretty little head of yours feel? I may have hit you a little harder than intended. Sorry about that.”
Her apology doesn’t hold an ounce of remorse. I study her for a moment. “I don’t understand. What do you want from me? Is this about Jace?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Of course it’s about Jace.”
“But I walked away. I let you have him.”
She rolls her eyes. “Is that what you think? I’m trying to figure out why you’re so important to him.”
I subtly shake my head. “I’m not.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” She sneers at me. “He holds you with such high regard, while I’m easy to toss aside.”
The lightbulb goes off in my head. When I ended things, he kept pursuing me. He must have ended things on a bad note with this evil woman.
I sit silently as she starts to pace.
“He told me that I was a mistake. I was just a weakness, and not his future. I love Jace and was planning a life with him. I did everything for him. He was supposed to leave you. Instead, he left me, heart broken and shattered. He walked out of my life to try to get you back, and I’m left to pick up the pieces,” she screams.
There it is.
My heart starts to race as panic starts to ease in. How am I going to get out of this, I think.
She continues, her voice still rising. “I started following him. He started going to strip clubs and getting drunk after work. He started screwing strippers. I couldn’t stand for that, so I took care of those problems.”
My stomach drops. “Oh my God,” I say as I start to connect the dots. Bile starts to rise in my throat. “It was you. You killed those girls.”
She gives me an evil smile. “You are pretty clever. They never even saw it coming. I played the part well. He had a type, too. Dark hair with blue eyes. Sound familiar?” she asks with disgust dripping off her words. “I decided then, he doesn’t get to walk away from all the pain he caused me.”
This is so much deeper than I could have imagined. “All the random blocked calls were you?”
“Yes, you stupid bitch. You were supposed to be an easy target until you had to go make a famous musician fall in love with you. I almost got caught trying to break into the tour bus, so I had to lay low until I came up with another plan. I was almost out of time tonight, but then you walked perfectly into my plan.”
I thought the break-in was related to Holt. It never crossed my mind I was the one in the cross hairs. “How did you get past security? Kane was just outside the door.”
“The back entrance. I had a car parked close by the door. No one even noticed,” she says. “I put you in a big rolling container that normally holds equipment. It turned out to be the perfect getaway piece. People were busy getting to their duties since the concert was coming to an end. I live here and have friends who have worked concerts before. I broke in and stole a uniform last week. No one even noticed it was missing.” She smiles, pleased with herself.
“Why abduct me?” I ask.
Her cold eyes find mine. “Because I want to hurt him as bad as he hurt me, and you’re his weakness.” She says the words as if they’re laced with venom.
The threat is clear in her words as my heart races. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but Jace won’t come for me. We are over.”
She tilts her head to the side as a smile plays on her lips. “We’ll see about that,” she says as she turns and leaves the room.
Holt
Hours later, we sit in a conference room listening to the police ask questions and discuss details of Raelyn’s kidnapping.
The backstage bathroom has been roped off with crime scene tape.
When I saw the bathroom with her blood splattered all over the floor, I lost it again. I dropped down to my knees, and begged God to please let her be okay. Please let her live and let us find her.
Every time I close my eyes, I see her blood everywhere. It’s forever ingrained in my brain now.
They watched the footage on the camera outside the bathroom. Nothing is on it.
“We have something on the footage from the outside exit,” an officer says.
“I want to see it, now,” I demand.
The officer pulls the screen up in the conference room for everyone to see.
My heart’s in my throat as I watch. He plays the tape, and a female appears on the screen wearing a uniform like all the other workers. Her hair is tucked into a ball cap, but the footage is grainy. I squint my eyes but can’t make out any clear details of her face.
We watch her enter the bathroom with a rolling storage bin. Only a few minutes go by, but it seems like an eternity until she reappears. She pushes the container down the ramp into the parking lot.
Holding my breath, I stare at the footage waiting for what’s to come next. She makes her way to a car, then checks her surroundings while opening the trunk.
To my horror, she opens the container revealing Raelyn’s unconscious body. Even with the grainy footage, I can tell there’s so much blood covering her face, neck, and shirt. My heart feels as if it’s being torn from my chest.
The girl struggles to pull Raelyn out of the container, placing her body in the trunk. She shuts the trunk and looks around one more time. Then, she hurriedly gets in the car and drives off.
I jump up, slamming my hands down on the table. “Where were all the damn workers? How did someone not notice anything? I will kill her,” I scream. I turn into a mad man picking up anything and everything I can get my hands on and throwing it across the room.
“Someone get the doctor in here, now,” I hear an unfamiliar voice holler.
Next thing I know, I feel hands on me, holding me down. “Holt, this is only for your safety,” a voice states.
I struggle trying to fight everyone off until I feel a needle. Then the world blacks out.
Jace
I’m startled from my sleep by my phone blaring. “What the hell,” I say, opening my eyes. I reach for it to turn it off when the emergency alert catches my attention. Staring at my phone, I think, Am I dreaming? I close my eyes for a minute, but when I reopen them, the same picture is on the screen—Raelyn’s face.
Raelyn Victoria Grace
Age 24
White Female
5’3” 125 lbs.
Abducted by a white female. Build around 5’5” 135 lbs. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Suspect is driving a white Honda Accord Louisiana tag. Plate number H6B2483. Call the number below with any tips or whereabouts.
Jumping out of bed, I hurry to turn the news on for more details.
A reporter is talking, while showing Raelyn’s picture.
I turn up the volume.
“Raelyn Grace was abducted from backstage of the Holt Hayes concert last night in Baton Rouge. The two have been dating. We’re getting reports there was an attempted break in a week ago on Holt Hayes’s tour bus in Texas, but the suspect got away. Police believe the incidents are linked and this is the same suspect—a petite, white female who is considered armed and dangerous. That’s all the information we have to be released at this time. If you have any further information, please call the Baton Rouge police department.”
I sit down, staring at the screen in disbelief. My heart sinks. How could this be happening? Who would want to hurt her?
I’ve seen her all over social media with Holt Hayes. I had to get a new phone after the night I found out about them. I tried to drink myself to death and crushed my phone into a million pieces throwing it against a wall.
Do they think it’s a crazy, obsessed fan, I wonder? Someone with a vendetta against Holt? God, please let them find her. She doesn’t deserve this.
If only I hadn’t screwed up, she’d never have found that damn singer. This feels like a bad dream.
I need to reach out to her family. Picking my phone up, I send Rylie a text.
I’m so sorry. I just saw the news about Raelyn. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I’m in Louisiana.
Holt
I hear muffled voices talking. My eyes flutter open, as I look around an unfamiliar room. Where am I? Maybe a hotel.
In that moment, everything comes crashing back to me. I jump out of the bed, as panic sets in again. I rush to the door.
“Have they found her?” I ask, desperate.
A room full of eyes land on me. My mother makes her way to me, giving me a tight embrace. “Oh Holt, I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now. I’m so sorry, son.”
Fighting back the emotion, I scan the room. Both our families are here, along with our close friends. Everyone looks so solemn and pained.
I immediately spot Raelyn’s mom and go to her. The resemblance is uncanny. “I’ll find her,” I state, as my throat closes up.
“Oh, Holt.” She sobs, wrapping me in a tight hug. “My girl’s a fighter. She always has been. We will get her back,” she says with determination. “We’ve got to be strong for her now. She loves you something fierce. She told me that last night before your show. Mark my words. Y’all’s story isn’t over yet. Just pray. I believe in the power of prayer.”
I feel a tear stream down my face. “Yes ma’am,” I reply, unable to form more words.
Our families weren’t supposed to meet this way.
The guys are all standing around.
“How long was I out?"
“The doctor sedated you because you checked out in a rage and were tearing the place apart,” Luke says. “You were out eight hours.”
“Shit. I feel like I’ve already let her down by not helping. Please tell me there’s an update. Where are we now?”
Luke seems at a loss of words for a minute. “Kane just briefed us.”
I tense at the mention of his name.
“He’s having a really hard time with Raelyn’s abduction as well,” Luke adds. Luke knows me well enough to read me. “It seems we have hit a dead end at the moment. The woman wasn’t on the roster of workers that night. She must have stolen a uniform at some point. We did get the tag of the vehicle she was driving and have located the car. It was left abandoned in a parking lot with no cameras. It was a rental, and when Kane contacted the company, the woman paid in cash using an alias.”
I grit my teeth, clenching my fist, as anger fills me.
“The woman seems to be familiar with the area, but that’s all we have at the moment. A missing persons alert was sent out statewide. There’s going to be a break soon I can feel it,” Luke says.
Raelyn’s picture, along with pictures of us, plays on the TV. Her abduction is world news.
Closing my eyes, I fight back the turmoil inside me and decide to walk outside the hotel room to take a breather. Sliding the door closed behind me, I take a seat on the balcony, placing my face in my hands.
The door opens behind me, but I don’t move. Someone’s hand lightly touches my shoulder. I look up to see Rylie. My heart sinks at her appearance. Her eyes are red and swollen from crying.
“I’m so sorry, Rylie. She would be safe right now if she hadn’t met me. This is all my fault,” I state, feeling defeated.
“Don’t you dare say that. I’ve never seen my sister happy the way she is with you. You’re her one. She told us she was about to move in with you. She was so excited. She loves you, Holt.”
“What if she doesn’t come back to us?” I say as my worst fear grips me.
“All we can do is hope and pray. She’s strong, Holt. She won’t give up easily. The police are bound to get a lead soon.”