“And now you’re here to interrogate us,” Miller spelled out. It was clear he wasn’t happy at having been followed. “To force a confession under duress.”
Nathan took a step forward. There was a harsh glint in his eye that promised he was a man of his word.
“Don’t worry, Detective. Remember, I’m on your side,” he said. “The only thing you’re guilty of is not getting a confession. So I’ll get one for you.”
The way his smile twisted, coupled with his certainty, left nothing but dread in Madi’s stomach. How could she confess to something she didn’t do? And even if she did confess, what would happen next?
She wasn’t the only one who was wondering the same thing.
“Then what happens next?” Miller asked. “Let’s say she tells you what you want to hear—what then? Do you let me take her to the station?”
That wasn’t at all what Nathan had planned. Madi saw that as clear as day before he ever shook his head.
“I’m sorry but no, Detective.” Nathan got so close Madi could smell his cologne. “We both know we’re past that. No, what’s going to happen is this.” He pointed to Madi. “You’re going to tell me what’s going on and where my wife is. Then I’m going to go get her.” He bent down so his eyes were even with Madi’s. “And when Loraine is finally by my side, I’m going to be as surprised as everyone else in this town that Madeline Nash met her end in the same woods that scarred her when she was a child.” Madi kept perfectly still as Nathan reached out and traced the scar on her cheek. “And at the hands of the same man her father suspected all those years ago.”
He dropped his hand.
“If you’re going to kill us anyway, why would we give you anything?” Miller asked. His voice was hard.
Nathan straightened his back, standing to his full height. He smoothed his blazer down and picked invisible lint off the sleeve. It was a more menacing sight than if he’d brandished a weapon and waved it in Madi’s face. When he was done, he was smiling for all he was worth.
It terrified her.
“There is nothing either one of you could do to stop the outcome,” he said. “Wouldn’t you feel better finally doing the right thing before that happens?”
The name of the game was stalling. Madi knew that. Yet all words died on her tongue. She wanted to cradle her stomach; she wanted to tear through Nathan for being so callous. For being so wrong.
Miller didn’t respond, either.
Nathan eventually shrugged.
“We’ll do this the hard way, then.”
For all his pomp and circumstance, Nathan simply left the room. The door shut behind him with a weight Madi felt in her bones. Only after the sound of the dead bolt locking did Miller speak.
“We’re most likely in the old storage building at the park. The one that’s been closed for years. If they stage it just right it’ll look like I brought you here to kill you.”
“Julian and my brothers will think I tried to stop you out of self-defense,” she offered.
“And that me snapping is what made you do it. All of this starting with me knocking Julian out.” Miller sighed. “He’s put us all right where he wants us.”
Madi’s vision started to blur. The tears were fast, but they weren’t sad.
No. They were angry.
She wasn’t going to let that happen.
Chapter Twenty
He was wet, bloodied, handcuffed and mad as hell. Quite the sight, Julian was sure, as he ran into the Nash family’s main house. Madi had once said it was the heart of the ranch. He didn’t see how that was true since she wasn’t there, but thankfully, one of her brothers was.
Desmond jumped up from the dining room table, which had papers stretched out across its surface, and took in Julian with blue eyes that only reminded Julian of what he’d lost.
“Julian! What’s going on?”
His body protested the walk from the doorway to the table. After Loraine had posed her question, Ray had taken the gun from her. Julian didn’t know if he meant to use it or just hold it for the woman so she could ramp up into a speech. Regardless, he hadn’t stayed around to find out. Julian had charged them as soon as the gun’s barrel was down and, once again, had thrown Ray’s footing off. He’d used the opening to run as fast as he could into the rain, his mind made up.
He needed backup.
Ray and Loraine hadn’t followed. Julian had made the run from the retreat to the main house with determined power in every movement of his muscles, yet the last few steps exhausted him even more.
“Tell your brothers to get here. Now.” Julian dropped the soaked pillowcase and plastic bag on the ground. He crouched down and retrieved Madi’s photo album. It wasn’t wet, a small victory in what now felt like a long war.
Desmond eyed it with confusion but already had his phone out. There was no hesitation in him dialing. Ray had lied about no calls going out. Not that Julian was surprised.
He’d lied about a lot.
“Where’s Madi?” Desmond asked. Judging by his expression, Julian knew the man realized it was nothing good. Still, they were working against time. Brevity was the key to getting her back.
“Detective Miller took her,” he rushed. “And Loraine and Ray are hell-bent on getting her, too.”
Desmond’s eyes widened. Anger, worry and pain raced across his face.
Julian knew all three well by now.
* * *
TOO MUCH TIME had passed. From the moment he was knocked out until the moment after he’d caught up the Nash brothers and Caleb’s partner, Detective Santiago, Julian was able to track the time they had lost. The period between the last time he saw the beautiful woman and the present.
Almost two hours, give or take.
Those were too many minutes. Too many seconds.
Julian, now free of his cuffs and wearing a change of clothes, felt each one of them like the stab of a knife.
They only continued to go by as the detectives and sheriff got on their phones and made several calls. It wasn’t until Declan came back in, sheriff’s badge pinned prominently to his belt, that the rest filed back into the dining room. There was tense authority behind the man’s words as he addressed them all.
“There’s an all-points bulletin out on Miller. The same for Loraine and Ray since Ray’s cabin didn’t have any clues as to where they might be. Officers, deputies, even reserve deputies are all out in force looking for everyone. If they’re anywhere in the county, we can find them. Just in case, other departments and stations have been notified.”
“And what about Miller? What did the chief say about his detective kidnapping a pregnant woman?” Desmond asked, hot under the collar. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest to still have them involved?”
Declan took his cowboy hat off and rubbed the back of his neck.
“This entire thing is a conflict of interest for everyone involved. We’re a small county, it happens,” he said. “But we need the numbers and, truth be told, I trust the chief. I’ve never trusted Miller.” He cursed. “I should have fought more to have him taken off the case. If he’s working with Loraine and Ray, then that means he was involved with the people who shot Holloway.”
“Not to mention his potential involvement in our kidnapping when we were kids,” Caleb pointed out.
Declan nodded grimly.
“There is that.”
Julian didn’t feel the same certainty.
“Miller could have killed me,” Julian said. “In fact, that would have been the smarter play. I’d seen him. Why not kill me? He had to have known I’d come to you all.”
“Maybe he didn’t want the mess or the hassle?” Detective Santiago offered. “It’s one thing to be a kidnapper—it’s another to be a cold-blooded murderer.” The Nash brothers turned to her at that. “Sorry,” she muttered. “But you know what I mean.
”
Julian rubbed at the raw skin around his wrists where the handcuffs had been.
“But what about the cars?” he added. “When I came to, both his truck and my SUV were gone. Who drove them? Miller and Madi? I can’t imagine he would allow Madi behind the wheel of a car. She would try to escape.”
“Loraine and Ray,” Caleb said.
That didn’t feel right. It hadn’t since Julian had first thought about it.
“When I asked Loraine where Madi was she said she didn’t know. Yet. Ray also seemed genuinely surprised to see me. Even more so when I said Miller had taken Madi. There’s a lot of things you can fake, but true surprise is hard to hide.”
“What are you saying?” Caleb asked. “That Loraine and Ray weren’t behind Madi being taken by Miller? Or that Miller didn’t take her?”
Julian stood. He’d already downed several bottles of water. Still, he knew the next day he’d be as sore as sore could be.
“I’m saying there are too many pieces. Madi is framed for Loraine’s murder. Then the body is torched and the coroner killed. Then we have two men who attack us and want the truth about Loraine from Madi. Then we find out that the body wasn’t even Loraine at all but Kathy Smart. Fast-forward a few days and suddenly Miller decides to take her after we found the place that Kathy was most likely killed? Then I run into Ray, who has this album? And Loraine doesn’t know where Madi is?”
Julian leaned across the table to the photo album. He tapped his index finger on the cover.
“Why did they bother taking this from my car? When did they even do it? While we were in the woods or after Miller ambushed me? Out of everything this confuses me the most,” he admitted. “Madi said this was boxed away because the memories were too hard. Why on earth would you chance connecting yourself to a kidnapping for someone else’s photo album?”
“You wouldn’t,” Desmond finally said. “Not unless it was important.”
He moved toward the album and took the chair in front of it. Wordlessly he opened it and began to examine each picture. His brothers weren’t as worried about it. Declan shook his head.
“I can only work with the facts I have on hand,” he said. “And those are that Miller knocked you out and Madi is gone. Then Loraine and Ray attacked you and disappeared. We need more information.” He turned to Caleb and Detective Santiago. “Jazz, I need you to go talk to Nathan Wilson again. I know he alibied out for Kathy Smart’s murder but since we’ve seen Loraine alive, maybe he’ll have more to say. Caleb, I need you to find out everything you can on Ray, starting with another thorough pass over the cabin.” Both nodded. “As for me, I’m going to dig deep into Detective Miller. Des, stay with Julian and work the photo album angle.”
The sheriff put his hat back on. Everyone agreed on their jobs. Everyone but Julian. He followed the sheriff out to the front porch.
“Declan,” he called. “I want to help. I can’t do that with a photo album from the past.”
Declan’s expression softened. He clapped a hand on Julian’s shoulder.
“You ran about ten miles today in a storm, hurt and bound, just to sound the alarm. In the last week alone you have fought off attackers while trying your damnedest to keep Madi safe.”
“And Miller got her anyway,” Julian said.
Declan shook his head.
“He was supposed to be a good guy,” he replied. “They’re the worst kind of bad. The ones we never see coming.” He dropped his hand and adjusted his hat. The rain had stopped but his hat was still dark from it. “Let the people who live here scour the county while you help Desmond. If we come at this thing from enough angles we’ll eventually find Madi in the middle.”
Julian didn’t want to, but he nodded in agreement. The sheriff didn’t waste any more time. He took off along with the detectives. Julian went back into the house and pulled a chair up next to Desmond.
“How much did Madi tell you about her past?” he asked without looking up from the page of pictures he was currently on. “About our past?”
“Everything.”
“Even Andrés Casas?”
Julian nodded.
“The boy she hurt at recess,” he supplied. That garnered a look from Desmond.
“The boy she hurt at recess,” he repeated as confirmation. “As far as I know she’s never told anyone that story before. At least no one outside therapy and those group functions we all went to.” He gave Julian a small smile. “She must really care about you to open up like that.” Julian couldn’t deny that made him feel good, but he knew there was no time for it. Desmond looked back to the photo album but continued.
“You know, I’ve always told her that there’s no shame in what she did to Andrés. She was a kid who had been through a trauma and hadn’t had the right tools to process it yet. That’s why Ma was so excited for Madi when she went to that camp thing with children who had been through traumas. She wanted Madi to see that she wasn’t alone.” He stopped on the page with the group shot of the children, Madi in the front, arms crossed and smiling.
“She said she turned around toward the end of it.”
Desmond nodded.
“Yeah. The first few meetings weren’t that great. A few kids tried to make friends with her and she roasted them. Ma got a call about it. Then they sat down and after that Madi got better.”
“Roasted?”
Desmond tapped the face of a boy and girl a few kids down from Madi.
“I’m not proud of it but Caleb and I overheard Ma and Madi talking about it. Apparently they were making fun of some of the kids and she went off on them. I mean, she said some really nasty stuff.” Desmond shrugged. “I’m sure I would have done the same, to be honest.”
They lapsed into silence as Desmond went through the rest of the album. Julian looked over his shoulder, trying to see if an objective pair of eyes could see something family couldn’t.
Neither had any success.
“These are mostly just us as kids,” Desmond said, pushing the album away in frustration. “I don’t know why they would take it. Unless it was by accident? It’s just such a personal thing to take. I mean, I’m surprised Madi even took it out of the loft and she’s in it.”
Julian straightened in his chair.
“That’s it,” he said, a thought hitting him like a lightning bolt.
“What?”
He grabbed the album and started to flip through it in earnest.
“What is it?” Desmond asked again.
Julian didn’t want to get either of their hopes up until he was sure.
“It’s just a thought,” he said, skimming each page quickly. When he came to the end of the album his adrenaline spiked. “These pictures should only mean something to the people in them.” He flipped to the middle and slid the album to Desmond. “I know it’s a stretch but what if Loraine or Ray or both are in one?”
Desmond looked down at the group picture. He shook his head but didn’t say no.
“Wouldn’t Madi have recognized them or their names? They were guests at her inn. She talked to them at length.”
“Why else would they grab the album? They look about the same age. Honestly, how hard is it to look completely different from when you were ten? I’ve seen people from high school who have had to remind me who they are, and that was a lot more recent than elementary school.” Julian stood and reached across the table to Desmond’s phone. He handed it to the man. “It may be one heck of a stretch but why don’t we start with the two kids that you say hated Madi?”
Desmond took the phone.
“I’ll call Caleb,” he decided. “I mean, what have we got to lose?”
Julian knew it didn’t need to be said out loud but he couldn’t help it.
“If we can’t find her? Everything.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Only one man came int
o the room. It did little to calm Madi’s nerves.
“Nice to see you again, Blondie.”
He wore a smirk that was nowhere near charming. It was the man with the gun. The one who had chased them across the roof, shooting. Now that she could focus her attention on him and not escaping, Madi noted that his eyes were an alarming shade of green. Like they were radioactive. It was hard to look away from them. Green Eyes seemed amused as he dragged a metal chair through the doorway and across the room. He set it down in front of Madi with a widening grin and unbuttoned the bottom of his blazer.
“Last time we didn’t get a chance to talk,” he said, taking a seat. He was so close their knees nearly touched. “Let’s do something about that now.”
Madi shared a quick look with the detective. She felt more fear than she wanted to admit.
“Who are you?” Madi asked, careful to add a tremble to her voice. She and Miller hadn’t gotten out of their restraints, but they had managed to make a plan. One that relied on her acting skills. She just wanted to get as many answers as she could first.
Stalling was the name of the game after all.
“I’m asking the questions,” he skirted. “Starting with your involvement with Loraine Wilson’s disappearance.”
Well, that hadn’t worked, Madi thought with disdain.
“My involvement with Loraine starts and stops with her being a guest at my inn. I didn’t even make the reservation with her. I talked to Nathan’s assistant. I don’t know what happened to Loraine.”
“You called and had her phone before she disappeared,” he countered. “There was a dead woman in your bed who looked just like Loraine.”
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