Chapter 21
Lakin was stuck in an old nightmare. The one where she could hear voices shouting at each other. She’d had such a hard time for so long with raised voices. School had been so tough in the beginning until she’d learned to ignore her reaction and suppress the old memories.
But they were back now, pulling her into the nightmare. The shouts. The sharp slap of skin against skin. Someone was fighting.
And the crying…
Someone was hurt.
Tears burned the back of her throat, like they were running down behind her closed eyes. Behind her closed eyes, images wavered, faded and yellowed like that old photograph Jasper Whitlaw had given her.
He wasn’t her father.
But she heard her father’s voice now: Will’s deep rumble. He used to wake her up from the nightmares and hold her until she stopped crying and trembling.
She needed him now.
She needed Troy to rush to her rescue like he always did. She imagined she felt like he had after falling off the oil rig—she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even open her eyes. She couldn’t pull herself out of the nightmare.
She had to…
She couldn’t keep counting on other people to rescue her.
Especially not Troy. He wasn’t sticking around.
He would go back to those damn oil rigs, back to putting his life in danger.
Maybe it was better being in danger doing a job than defending her.
She didn’t want him getting shot at again.
She didn’t want him or anyone else to risk their life for hers because she wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of causing someone else harm.
She had to rally her strength. And she also had to clear her head enough that she would be able to figure out who the hell had grabbed her and what they wanted with her. Then she had to get the hell away from them.
She drew in a little shaky breath and managed to lift her heavy lids. Not much… Just enough to see that she was in some kind of cave. Walls of rock surrounded her. The dirt was cold and hard beneath her body. The ground wasn’t smooth, either; rocks and twigs poked into her back.
She tried to move her hands, but they were numb, the circulation cut off from duct tape binding her wrists tightly together.
There was duct tape around her ankles, too.
And over her mouth…
She couldn’t move. She couldn’t speak, and in the dimness of that cave, she really couldn’t see, either. But she knew, from the rumble of voices, that she wasn’t alone. Had more than one person abducted her? Was more than one holding her here? Or was it just one person on the phone?
A sudden flash of light illuminated a corner of the cave. The light was from a phone. She could see its screen but not the face of the person holding it. Once again, he was only a shadow looming in the darkness, like the monster she used to imagine lurked in her closet or under her bed.
Now she knew that the monster was real.
* * *
Troy kept his phone app open, looking for an update on Lakin’s location. But her last location still showed the cabin from nearly an hour ago.
“Why do we have to wait for search and rescue?” Troy asked. Eli had shown up soon after Troy at the cabin. But it hadn’t mattered; they’d both been too late to save Lakin from being abducted. “You and I should be able to follow the tracks.”
“Do you want to waste your time?” Eli asked. “We don’t know if she was dragged off to a vehicle or…” He choked as if he couldn’t even say the words.
Was he going to say what Troy was afraid to even consider? That she’d been partially buried like those other women?
“She could have been put in a vehicle,” Eli said. “And if they’re not on foot, they could be anywhere. We have to wait for the dogs to see if they can follow a scent.”
Troy understood that, but waiting was killing him. It was like those weeks he’d lain in the hospital bed unable to move, to feel anything but fear and panic. He’d hated that helplessness.
He hated even more that someone had taken Lakin.
“Where are they?” he asked, his voice gruff with the fear choking him. He felt as if he couldn’t breathe, like he’d hit the water again after a long fall.
Eli shrugged. “I don’t know where the team is, but they should be here soon.”
Troy realized Lakin’s brother was as frustrated and frightened as he was. Maybe more so because he’d seen what had happened to the other women who’d disappeared.
“This isn’t the serial killer, is it?” Troy asked, although he’d been reluctant to even consider that horrific possibility.
“This has to be Whitlaw. Or maybe that rich RTA client. Or Billy Hoover.” But any of them might also be the serial killer.
His stomach pitched, bile rising with the terrifying thought.
“It’s not doing either of us any good with you speculating about what’s happened,” Eli said, his voice gruff with emotion. “We just need to stay calm.”
When the person who mattered most to him was in danger? Possible grave danger? Troy was hanging on to his sanity the best he could at the moment. Calmness was out of the question.
“If the SAR team doesn’t get here soon, I’m going to start looking myself,” he warned Eli.
“And potentially contaminate the scene and the dogs’ ability to track?” Eli shook his head. “You don’t think I want to be out there myself, looking for my sister? I know I have to follow protocol.”
Troy didn’t have to; he wasn’t in law enforcement. But he also didn’t want to do anything that might lower their chances of finding Lakin alive.
* * *
Eli totally understood and shared Troy’s frustration. Where the hell was search and rescue? They had to get the damn dogs here before the scent went cold. Before they lost their chance to find his sister.
Troy was right; maybe they needed to just start looking for her themselves.
Eli’s cell vibrated in his pocket. Maybe it was Kansas, calling with an updated ETA. But when he glanced at his screen it was lit up with: Dad.
Eli was tempted to swipe Ignore. But he couldn’t help but wonder about the timing of his dad’s call. Had someone notified their parents that Lakin was missing? If so, Dad had to be as out of his mind with fear as Eli and Troy.
He clicked to accept. “Dad—”
“Eli, I just got a ransom call for Lakin.”
“What?”
“You told me she was home,” Will reminded him. “So I wanted to check with you—”
“She’s not here,” Eli interjected. “Troy got back to the cabin and found the door open. Her SUV is here, but she isn’t.”
“And?” Will asked because he had to know there was more.
“Troy found a rag with chloroform on it,” Eli admitted.
It was the only way someone could have taken Lakin without her managing to get away like she had the other night when someone accosted her outside the office.
She hadn’t had to fight hard that night, though; she’d just had to run until Troy showed up.
But Troy hadn’t been fast enough to save her this time, and Eli could tell it was killing him. Troy paced, his limp all but forgotten, as he waited for the SAR team.
“Did you get to talk to her, Dad?” Eli asked.
“No.”
“Any proof that this person who called actually has her?”
“No,” his father admitted. “But I don’t care. I’m going to get the money together that they want, so I will be ready when they call back to tell me where to leave that money.”
“Dad…” Eli wanted to warn him that it wouldn’t guarantee her safe return. Nothing would. But his dad knew that as well as he did. “You have to make sure that you get to talk to her when the person calls back. What did the caller sound like?”
“A man. I couldn’t tell his age or anything by his voice, though, and the phone number was blocked,” his dad said.
“I’ll have your records checked,” Eli said. “We might be able to get it unblocked.” Montgomery might know a way. The crime-scene tech was very savvy.
“You do what you have to do to get our girl back,” Will said. “And so will I.”
Eli’s blood chilled. He’d never heard his dad sound so determined. But he knew why; he didn’t want to lose Lakin like he’d lost his younger sister. Aunt Caroline.
Before he could say anything else, Dad disconnected the call.
“What is it?” Troy asked.
“My dad just got a ransom call.”
Troy cursed.
“No, this could be good news,” Eli said. “There were no ransom calls when those other women were abducted.”
“So you don’t think it’s the Fiancée Killer who has her?” Troy asked. He sounded a little more hopeful now as he stopped pacing and studied Eli’s face.
Eli nodded. But just because it wasn’t the serial killer who had her didn’t mean she wasn’t still in danger. He knew that; he just wanted to assuage some of Troy’s fear and his own. But he wouldn’t be sure of anything until they found Lakin. They had to find her.
Eli had been in law enforcement long enough to know how few kidnapping victims were ever recovered alive.
Lakin had to be the exception to that grim statistic, though. They had to be able to get her back safely. And soon.