by Trisha Grace
“I understand. Paula explained how you struggled. I’m glad you’re okay now, and I wish we could’ve met under better circumstances.”
“Mrs. Nicholson.” Detective Miller moved next to her. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Hayley and Paula are always welcome in my house.” Debra put a hand on Hayley’s back and tried to lead her into the house, but Hayley shook her head.
“Can I take a look around?”
Debra arched a brow.
“Maybe I’ll remember something.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Paula asked.
Julian’s arm went around her waist. “I’ll stay with her.”
She turned to him and gave him a grateful smile. She’d thought he would make a fuss and tell her to stay in the house. “I’ll be fine with Julian.”
Paula glanced at Julian, then looked back at her. “Okay.”
“Stay with Paula,” Julian said to Colin.
Hayley walked around the old farmhouse. Her heart was pumping so hard that she didn’t hear anything else for a couple of moments until Julian cut in front of her.
“Hayley.”
She exhaled heavily and closed her eyes.
“You’re safe. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
She nodded.
“Do you remember what you were wearing?”
“My school uniform.”
“You must have been tired from running.”
She nodded against his chest. She’d been so tired. She’d stopped several times. Each time, Leanne would tug on her arm and tell her to keep moving.
“How did you know there was a house here?”
Julian’s question unlocked the memory she’d suppressed, and she could see the lights in the distance like she did that night. “There were lights.” She opened her eyes as her memory reel played in her mind.
She moved to the back of the house.
The light had lit a fresh hope in her, and that gave her renewed strength.
She and Leanne had made a mad dash toward the light. Leanne fell once, and Hayley grabbed and dragged her forward. Neither of them made any noise even as they burst through the woods. “There.” She pointed at the vantage point that was so clear in her head. “We came out of the woods there.”
She turned back to the woods.
“You might’ve been running in circles.”
Hayley turned at Jeffrey’s voice.
“I have the laptop.” Jeffrey had driven here right after getting the laptop from Leanne’s car. “There wasn’t any sign of struggle in the car, but I did find this nearby.” He fished out the car key in his pocket, and Hayley recognized the keychain immediately. That was how she got the idea to get the tracking tag for Anita. Leanne was always misplacing her things too.
She and Julian headed to Jeffrey’s car. She got into the passenger seat while Julian stood next to her.
Opening the laptop, she typed in Leanne’s password.
“The police pinged her phone. She’s around here, but it’s a huge area. They’re thinking of starting a search.”
“They couldn’t find the bunker back then,” Hayley said. “We can’t wait for them to do a slow search.”
Hayley turned back to the laptop and opened the safari application. “Leanne and I are both terrible at remembering passwords, so we let our laptops do it for us.” She scrolled through Leanne’s lists of username and password. “There.”
She took her phone, opened the application she’d already downloaded while on the way here, and entered the username and password to the fitness watch. She held her breath while the application loaded.
When it did, she sighed.
Nothing.
“We might be out of range,” Julian said.
“The range would be cut a lot shorter if she’s underground and in a bunker.”
Hayley licked her lips. “But if we get close enough, we can find her, right?”
“Except we don’t know which direction we should head toward.”
Hayley touched the cross pendant on her necklace. Jesus, give us wisdom. Give us a clue. Help us find her. “Polaris.”
“What?” Colin asked while Julian just stared at her.
Hayley wasn’t wearing that particular necklace now. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the Polaris necklace the moment her gaze landed on it. Something about it called out to her. Now she knew. “It was what brought Leanne and me here.”
“Hayley.” Julian put a hand on her back to get her attention.
“I went out on a yacht with my father and his friends. One of them told me about the North Star.”
“Polaris,” Julian said.
Hayley nodded. “That was where we ran. Leanne said we just had to get as far away from the bunker as we could, so I stuck to one direction. That way, we wouldn’t end up running in circles.”
“Are you certain?” Jeffrey asked.
She nodded. She’d spent years refusing to think about what happened that day, but now that she’d opened the box, the memories were coming back. “If we move south from here, we’ll get closer to her. I’m sure we’ll be able to sense her fitness tracker then.”
“I’ll go with my men,” Jeffrey said.
“I want to go along.”
“No.” Julian glared at her when she turned to him. “You’re not going anywhere. I don’t—”
“Julian, you don’t know what Ted Shears said to me.” She swallowed. “If anything happens to Leanne, I’ll never forgive myself. I can’t just sit here and wait.”
“No.”
Hayley hopped off the car. “I’m sorry, Julian. I’m going with Jeffrey.”
“He can track Leanne with the tracker.”
“He may be able to track Leanne with the tracker. What if the Bluetooth signal is too weak to penetrate the metal bunker? Maybe I’ll remember something when I get closer. Maybe—”
“Maybe! You’re going to risk your life for a ‘maybe’?”
“No. I’m doing this for my sister.”
Julian moved forward, but Colin grabbed his arm.
“Stop it, Julian.”
Julian shrugged off his arm.
“We’re going, now,” she said to Jeffrey.
“No. I hired you. You listen to me.”
Jeffrey sighed. “I can watch over her.”
“No.” “Go.”
Julian and Colin said at the same time.
“Go,” Colin repeated when Julian shot a glare at him. “Watch her,” he said to Jeffrey.
“I’ll go with you.” Julian moved forward, but Jeffrey extended a hand.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Nicholson. I can’t have you coming with us.” Jeffrey dropped his gaze to his legs. “The terrain in the woods—”
Julian slammed his hand against the car.
“Julian.” Hayley cupped his face. “Please don’t be angry with me. I’m sorry. I really am, but I have to do this.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”
“Hayley.” He grabbed her hand as she turned. His grip was so tight that Hayley thought he was going to forcibly make her stay. “Please be careful.”
She nodded. “I promise.”
“Okay.” Jeffrey crossed his arms. “If we’re doing this, you do things my way.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
HAYLEY’S LEGS WERE aching. She hadn’t exercised in a while, and she had to choose this morning to do a five-mile run.
She pushed through the ache in her muscles and continued ahead, following behind Jeffrey. Jeffrey and another guard walked ahead of her while two more guards tailed her. They’d been walking in this formation for over an hour.
Just how far had she and Leanne run that night?
“Anything?”
Hayley stopped and looked around. Honestly, nothing looked familiar. She shook her head. Lord, help me find her. She took a step to the side, stepping out of the perimeter of her guards so she could have a better look.
Still nothing.
With her eyes on the trees, she stepped back.
“No!”
Before she knew it, she was flung forward on the ground. The wood’s foliage and soil cushioned her fall, but the impact still stunned her.
Shouts of pain, then muttered curses broke through her shock, and Hayley flipped herself over. Two of her guards were looking down into a hole she’d almost dropped into.
“He set traps,” one of her remaining two guards said.
“I thought the police combed the area.” Jeffrey extended his hand toward her when she got back on her feet. “Don't move.”
“Are they okay? I’m so sorry.”
“You didn't know.”
Had the traps always been there? “I’m so sorry.” Not knowing about the trap didn't change a thing.
“It means we’re close.” Jeffrey’s eyes widened, and Hayley knew things were about to get worse even before she felt cold metal against her neck.
“Both of you. Get into the hole.”
Hayley recognized the killer’s voice, just as she did when he’d picked up Leanne’s phone.
Jeffrey straightened. “Let her go. The police have you surrounded. You’re not going anywhere.”
“I have plenty of traps around.” Ted buried his face in her hair, and his chest knocked into her back as he took a deep breath. “Which is why I couldn't believe you and that meddling girl managed to escape. I thought for sure I’ll find you in one of the holes.”
Hayley wanted to gag when Ted Shears pushed her hair aside and touched his lips to her shoulder.
“You’re not pure anymore, but I’ll still have plenty of fun with you.”
“Where’s Leanne?”
“Dying. And these men are just wasting our time.” He pressed the knife closer against her throat, and Hayley could feel the sharp edge breaking her skin.
Hayley knew who Ted Shears was, but had locked every thought of him so deep in her memory that she hadn’t immediately realized who had been sending those cards to her. She hadn’t held on to what he’d said to her in the bunker or in court before he was led away. Her pastor and the Casas made her promise she wouldn’t read any of the news articles about him, and she didn’t.
Ted Shears equaled danger. But it wasn’t until he made a call from Leanne’s phone that everything got real.
The cards? The cards were a threat sent from a distance, and Hayley wasn’t one to bemoan being trapped at home. She didn’t mind staying home. She didn’t mind needing to arrange security every time she stepped out of the penthouse.
The threats had stirred memories, but she hadn’t felt the full weight of fear until this moment.
But she refused to react to the pain. Instead, she nodded once at Jeffrey.
Still, Jeffrey didn’t move, and his man didn’t move without his permission.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Mrs. Nicholson.”
Two words that reminded her she wasn’t on her own anymore. She wasn’t the thirteen-year-old taken by Ted Shears. Leanne needed her now, and Julian was waiting for her. She wasn’t going to let either of them down. “I’ll be fine.”
Jeffrey glanced over at his man, then nodded once. He watched his man lower himself into the hole, then dropped himself into it after another glance her way.
“Finally.” Ted Shears removed the blade from her neck and spun her around.
And there she was, face to face with the man who had kidnapped her with the intention of torturing her to death in the worst possible ways.
Ten years ago, he’d approached her with a plea for help. His daughter was enrolling in her school the next day, and he wanted her to take a look around to familiarize herself with the place. But she was afraid and didn’t want to come out of the car. Would Hayley go tell her that it was okay?
He’d appeared kind, and he’d spoken to her politely. He looked just like her mathematics teacher. So Hayley agreed.
She was too young to understand that people hid behind masks, that evil existed.
Despite the smile he was wearing, nothing about Ted Shears looked friendly now. She saw the depravity of his soul. He didn’t have to tell her the thoughts running through his mind. She knew for certain he’d waited for a decade for a chance to get her.
He wouldn’t go easy on her. He would torture her. He would savor every second of her pain.
Which was why she should run.
His knife wasn’t on her throat anymore. She could fight.
But she couldn’t. She needed to get to Leanne first. She opened her mouth to demand Leanne, but something within her stirred, urging her not to do so.
Hayley swallowed her words, and Ted Shears smiled.
“I like that you haven’t changed.” He ran his thumb across her wound, pressing into it as he did.
Hayley winced at the sudden spike in pain. Her reaction broadened the psycho’s grin.
“Good girl.” He sucked on his blood-coated thumb. “Move.” He cocked his head to the side, gesturing for Hayley to move ahead of him.
She did as he wanted. David took down Goliath with five stones. Stones. Samson killed a thousand men with a donkey’s jawbone. She would be fine. Hadn’t she come to the conclusion that she didn’t need to be the damsel in distress? She could be the hero. She could slay her own dragon … right?
Julian shifted his grip on the walkie-talkie. He was tempted to check in on Jeffrey and the team. He wanted to know that Hayley was safe, but he couldn’t.
Jeffrey had made it clear: Julian wasn’t to contact them. Jeffrey and his men would contact him. They didn’t want to alert anyone to their presence, and that made sense. But he couldn’t sit still until Hayley was back with him. He couldn’t stand waiting in the farmhouse while she was out there.
“You’re not making her any safer by pacing back and forth,” Paula said.
“He needs to practice walking anyway,” Colin answered before Julian had to reply.
Julian was glad Colin interjected. He almost forgot who Paula was, and he’d almost snapped at her. How could she be so calm? Leanne had been taken by Ted. Hayley was out there in the woods. How could she sit and look at her phone as if nothing was wrong?
“They’ll be fine,” Paula said as if she’d sensed his question. “The blood of Jesus is over them. Nothing can hurt them, especially not a man.”
“He isn’t just a man. He’s a serial killer. He took them before. He made it clear he would hurt them.”
“They escaped him once.”
“What if they used up all their luck?”
“It wasn’t luck.” Paula closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “God’s hand is over them. No one can pluck them from him.”
“Ted Shears took Leanne already.”
“The two of them have each other’s back. They’ll be fine.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but Colin moved in front of him and shook his head.
“You’ll see,” Paula said.
Julian headed out of the house and back to Colin’s car. He slapped his hand against the car. “I shouldn’t have let her go alone.” He looked down at his legs. If only he hadn’t been in the accident. “I shouldn’t have left the party early.” That would have changed everything. He wouldn’t be stuck here waiting if he hadn’t been in the car accident.
“If you’re thinking that you wouldn’t be standing here if you hadn’t been in the car accident, then you’re right.” Colin leaned back on the car. “If you hadn’t been in the car accident, Hayley would’ve left you before that week was over. You wouldn’t know anything about Ted Shears coming after her. You wouldn’t know anything until this showed up on the news. So you’re right. You wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been in the car accident, but Hayley would probably still be in this exact situation.”
Julian clenched his fist.
“A lot of people are praying for them.”
Julian frowned at Colin.
“That’s what Paula was looking at. I s
aw the messages. The words were like this huge.” Colin gestured with his thumb and index finger. “Maybe we should too.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“What else can we do? Pacing until we wear a path ten inches deep wouldn’t do a thing to help them. What if, just what if, the prayer thing actually works?” Colin shrugged. “God, wherever you are, keep Hayley and Leanne safe.” He strode back to the house, and Julian sighed.
He opened the car door and pulled himself onto the seat. “God, please keep Hayley and Leanne safe. Bring them back.” He dropped his head into his hands. “I can’t lose her, not when I’ve just gotten her.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“PLEASE DON’T HURT me.” Hayley repeated for probably the hundredth time since being taken by Ted Shears. She tripped over nothing and made pathetic noises when he jerked her to her feet. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“I love hearing your voice, my angel.” He dragged her ahead.
Hayley had already lost all sense of the direction he was taking her. The trees all looked the same to her, and it wasn’t as if she had time to observe her surroundings.
The grip on her arm suddenly tightened, then she was pushed to the ground.
“Run, and your friend dies.”
Hayley watched Ted heaved up a covering camouflaged with leaves and branches. Her heart thudded while she reached into her pocket, and she tried to do so as subtly as she could. Keep yourself small. Don’t draw attention, Jeffrey had said to her.
She dropped the tracking tag next to her and covered it with a handful of leaves. “Please just let us go. You can leave. I won’t tell the cops anything,” she said as Ted Shears moved back toward her. “Please, I promise.”
Ted Shears laughed. “I have no intention of going anywhere, not until I have my fill of you.”
Uncannily, his words didn’t just bring a wave of fear. An equal or greater portion of anger rose to match that wave threatening to overwhelm her, and she had to consciously remind herself to remain meek. That was what Ted Shears wanted; that was who Ted Shears thought she was.
“Down.” He pointed at the ladder leading down to the underground bunker.