Shae had walked into a trap, set by the one and only person who would want to do her harm—the same man who’d taken her sister and murdered countless other girls.
Shae was now at a serial killer’s mercy…of which he had none.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Jace recalled being pinned down in a village in Afghanistan, having been separated from the rest of his unit during an ambush on his convoy. They had exploded an IED on the gun truck directly behind his lead vehicle. Incessant gunfire along with the whoosh followed by a lingering hiss and subsequent booming sounds of RPGs hitting hard targets still resonated in his ears. The knowledge that it was only a matter of time before his vehicle was targeted had torn at his gut. Would he and his crew be able to avoid being captured? The fact that they needed to return had been all that had penetrated his mind.
Bottom line? It had been the most stifling sensation he’d ever experienced, almost as if a boulder had been set down on his chest to prevent him from breathing.
The only difference between then and now was that he wasn’t fearing his own life…he was scared shitless that Shae was going to lose hers.
Four hours had passed since anyone had heard from Shae, either in person or by phone. Something bad had happened, and he hadn’t been there to stop it. The alert had gone out and everyone was looking for her.
“We’re tracing Shae and Brynn’s cell phones now,” Mitch said, walking into his office while removing the rain jacket he’d had on during the showdown with Raymond Dixon. “Brynn used it to touch base with Rose this morning about their visit, but she hasn’t seen it since. It could just be a coincidence.”
“Brynn made multiple stops. She checked in with Kristen at the bar, the diner to pick up a pie order for Rose, and then to the lake at Tiny and Rose’s cottage,” Lance offered, letting everyone know that somewhere along her path she’d lost her phone. Either that, or someone had stolen it. “Their cabin is on the north side of the lake, near the restaurant.”
“And you tried the phone locator app?” Noah asked, his attention fully on the conversation at hand regardless that he’d been on his phone for the past five minutes. He was coordinating a search party for Shae through various people, including Reese. She was with Brynn and Gus, relaying pertinent information from the other residents involved. “What about Shae’s phone?”
“Sheriff, both phones are turned off.” Patty stood in the doorway, giving an update that was no help to Jace. He curled his fingers into the palms of his hands to keep from screaming at each and every one of them. He knew the odds. With each passing minute, the less likely it was to find a missing person. “But we were able to see that both devices were last pinged off the cell tower closest to the lake.”
That was enough information for Jace. He’d been leaning against a filing cabinet, doing his best not to lose his mind, but he instantly made a shot for the door at this latest development. Patty moved to the side without hesitation, though all of his brothers’ warnings were being vocalized. He didn’t stop and proceeded through the door of the station out into the cold rain.
“Jace, what have you got?”
A quick glance to his left showed Detective Kendrick making a beeline for the sheriff’s office. He was rushing forward in an attempt to avoid getting soaked. It was all but useless now that he’d stopped to talk to Jace.
“The last ping went to the cell phone tower up near the lake.” Jace ignored the sound of the door opening behind him. “I’m heading there now.”
“I’m having Patty pull the details on Shae’s phone to see if she received any calls or texts,” Mitch informed Kendrick, though Jace didn’t break stride as he stepped down from the curb and to the driver’s side of his Range Rover. “Jace, take Lance with you. Deputies Warner and Foster are scouring the county, looking for her Jeep Grand Cherokee. Noah is going to take a drive back out your way to see if maybe she ran off the road somewhere. Kendrick and I will follow you up to the lake.”
“I have an officer heading out to Jace’s residence, as well as two others taking a walk through the woods where Emma disappeared.” Kendrick’s words stopped Jace from actually getting into his vehicle. Reality had already hit home that Shae was likely in some sort of trouble, but to end up like her sister? He couldn’t conceive such a notion. “This perp purposefully placed the boots Emma wore the night she was taken into Shae’s room for a reason. It’s not a stretch to believe he was trying to make a point.”
Jace hesitated, allowing the rain to soak into his shirt. He’d gone back to his house to secure his firearm and was ready to face whatever came at him or to take down whoever had Shae. He couldn’t allow himself to believe that she would end up like her sister. It wasn’t going to happen. But Kendrick’s suggestion that the son of a bitch might take Shae to the same place he’d abducted her sister wasn’t unreasonable.
The locations were on opposite ends of town. Time was of the essence.
Which damned location should he choose?
Lance was already in the passenger seat, wiping the rain from his face. He’d go anywhere Jace wanted, regardless of the danger, as would the rest of his family. Noah was pulling out of his parking spot, quickly heading down the street with his given task.
What if Shae was somewhere in the woods? What if Jace was wasting precious time by driving out to the lake?
“We know one thing for absolute certainty,” Mitch said over the crack of thunder rumbling across the sky. He was holding his useless rain jacket now that his clothes were soaked with rainwater. “She was at the lake after meeting Jimmy for lunch. We go where the evidence takes us.”
Jace nodded, unable to get his words out around the constriction of his throat. He was betting Shae’s life on a cell tower.
He yanked open the door and settled in behind the wheel, reversing his Range Rover out of the parking spot before Mitch and Kendrick even made it to the car. The wipers were already working overtime on high, and the roads were basically clear of any other vehicles as he drove them out of town at high speed.
“She’ll be okay.”
Jace wanted to believe Lance with everything in his power, but they were both aware of the tally of victims by this bastard. He’d gotten away with kidnapping multiple teenage girls for over twelve years, maybe more. Then there was Whitney, murdered and then hidden away like all of the other victims. What would make Shae the exception?
She was exceptional to him. In every way. From her cautious spirit to the purity she displayed when her guard was down. Her laugh was infectious, and she wore her heart on her sleeve. Shae would do anything for anyone, regardless of the cost to herself. She’d proven it time and again with the way she interacted with Calvin, Harlan, the Schaeffers, and anyone else who had some connection to the case. She’d even extended a hand to Billy Stanton, regardless that he was worth less than a piece of shit stuck on the bottom of a shoe.
“They say fear is crippling,” Jace managed to say after clearing his throat a few times. He made a sharp right, taking the road that would lead them to the lake. He gripped the steering wheel tightly as he struggled to release his pent-up anger. “We dealt with it on a daily basis over a decade while we were fighting alongside our brothers and sisters. I’m not saying there wasn’t a time or two that I didn’t truly believe it wasn’t my time, but I was at peace with myself.”
Lance rested a hand against the dashboard as Jace took a turn in the road faster than intended, though the tires held fast to the wet road. He pressed the gas pedal a little more in hopes of gaining every precious second that he could, given the circumstances.
“This type of fear?” Jace could barely contain his sanity at the thought of what Shae could possibly be experiencing right at this moment. “It gives clarity. It provides a lucidity that makes all the world’s problems disappear in the blink of an eye.”
“I’ve been there, Jace.” Lance’s shaky breath told Jace that he wasn’t just saying platitudes. He’d heard what had happened when Clayton Scha
effer tried to torch down Lance’s house…with him in it. But it was witnessing Brynn standing in the middle of the grass soaked with gasoline that had turned his world around. “I know what you’re experiencing firsthand, and you can alter any decision about your future you feel is necessary once we get her back.”
Future? It was hard to think past the present when they were on borrowed time.
“I love her, Lance,” Jace admitted, not ashamed in the least when his voice caught in his throat. “I love her.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The pounding pressure mixed with the sharpest of pains in the back of Shae’s head was what initiated her consciousness. The nausea was overwhelming, but it was the cold, damp sensation that began her uncontrollable shivering.
“Stop.”
Shae was relatively sure that her plea didn’t cross her own parched lips.
She was swinging, the front of her banging against something solid. It was the air leaving her lungs in one long rush when she was thrown down onto her back that had the horrifying memories returning of her entrance into the cabin.
Someone had hit her from behind. It hadn’t been an aneurysm or some type of stroke. She’d been lured up to the lake so that she could be the killer’s next victim. How many times had she visualized talking to the man responsible for her sister’s abduction? Unanswered questions had cost her countless sleepless nights, and the constant wishing that she had a face-to-face with Emma’s killer.
Her chance was finally here, but she didn’t believe it would work out the way she’d dreamed over the last twelve years.
Shae forced herself to open her eyes, thankful her head was turned to the side so that the raindrops didn’t impair her vision. Her previous queasiness returned tenfold when the structure she was laying on began to rock back and forth.
They were on a boat of some kind, and the sun had set. Either that, or the storm above was severe enough to block out the sunshine.
What was lying next to her near the front seat? A thick silver chain and a cement block materialized as her brain finally accepted her fate. It was then that fear began to spread its tentacles as her mind became more lucid toward her environment.
Who could be this sick and twisted?
She still had no idea who was responsible for hitting her in the head and dragging her out onto the lake, but there was one thing she knew for certain—she was going to die if she didn’t get off this damned boat.
Where was he?
Shae tried to lift her head, but any movement immediately brought about waves of nausea. She couldn’t even move her arms, for they were tied behind her back with either duct tape or something else she wasn’t able to break free of by attempting to pull her wrists apart.
The rhythmic thud finally broke through her haze, as if a sign from above.
The boat was still docked, and it was hitting the pier.
Shae forced herself to open her eyes once again, searching for any sign that he was near. Had he left her all alone? The sight of someone leaning over the side of the boat and untying the rope from the pier came into view. She couldn’t tell the identity of the man, not unless she purposefully called for his attention.
He would kill her here and now.
Of that she was certain.
That left her little recourse but to try and escape without him noticing, but she was running out of time. And it wasn’t like she could get out of the boat without him seeing her. He was literally four feet from her, and she had no doubt that he would finish the job quickly and efficiently.
Shae would have given anything to call a time out and somehow stop this all from happening. No matter what she did in this moment…she was likely going to die. She bit back a sob, wishing the pain in her head would subside for just a few minutes. The throbbing agony made it hard to think things through.
Jace…what would he think happened to her? Would he be left wondering for years and years if she were alive or dead? Would he suffer the same fate she had over her sister?
Shae wasn’t being given time to make the decision on whether or not to satisfy her haunting need for answers, or prevent Jace from suffering the same destiny. It wasn’t fair. He was a good man. Honest, loyal, and caring to a fault.
Was it possible to love someone in the short amount of time they’d been together? She’d seen many things over the course of her career, and one thing always hit home in regard to her patients. Nothing mattered more than one’s happiness in their time here on earth.
She’d had every intention of leaving Jace and heading back to her life in Lansing…where she went through the daily motions of living. Her sister had been robbed of life by this man’s hands, and yet Shae had been willing to do it to herself.
No. She wasn’t ready to die. She wasn’t ready to leave Jace, and those answers she sought most of her life weren’t more important than the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
Shae almost waited too long in making her decision, for the man in the yellow rain slicker turned to face her. At the last second, the rope must have caught. He leaned over the side of the boat, giving her the precious time she needed to hoist herself up. It was difficult, considering her hands were tied behind her back and the head injury made it hard for her to concentrate. She managed to stand on wobbly legs all the same.
If only she could see the man’s face before she let herself fall backward into the cold water, but the rain was incessant in its torrent. The sound of her slipping off the edge must have caused him to spin, but her vision wasn’t clear enough to make any type of identification.
She didn’t even bother to scream as she plunged into the darkness, the lake swallowing her whole. Had he charged forward to try and catch her? Or did he already accept that she was dead, because she had no use of her hands and no way to swim?
A coldness unlike any other enveloped her, almost as if she were being wrapped in a malevolent cocoon.
Shae didn’t bother to fight the pull of the bottom, her heavy soaked clothes taking her down, down, down until her hands touched the sandy bottom of the lake. She grabbed ahold of the slippery vegetation, doing her best to hold on so that she didn’t float back up to the surface. It shouldn’t be too deep where the pier was located, but it was profound enough that he couldn’t reach her by leaning over the side of the boat…unless she floated to the surface.
The longer she held her breath, the worse the pain in her head became. It was only a matter of time before her body would force her to inhale. She still had use of her legs, so she did the only thing she could—she kicked as hard as the water would allow so that she was forced away from the boat.
She couldn’t swim, but she’d be able to use her legs to try to get herself toward the shore. Pushing off the bottom one more time allowed her to put a little distance between herself and the boat.
Would it be enough?
Shae didn’t have time to answer that question as her lungs began to burn from the lack of oxygen and her inherent need to breathe. She was going to have to come up for air. Had she pushed herself in the right direction? Would she be able to surge to the surface using her legs or had she gone too deep into the lake?
Her heart was beating so hard against her rib cage that it sounded like miniature detonations were being set off in her ear drums. She hadn’t even realized her eyes had been open in the minute or two she’d been submerged under water until lightning streaked across the sky above, giving her hope at how close it appeared.
Hope.
Jace.
The two were now connected in a manner she’d never thought possible, but it gave her enough determination to bend her knees and push with all her might. Her lips were open to take in as much as possible the moment she broke the water’s surface, while she kicked her legs furiously to try and keep herself upright.
Shae immediately sought out the boat and could have screamed in anguish when she realized her mind and body had been tricked by the lake’s underwater effects. She was no mor
e than ten feet away from him.
The barely lit sky behind him made up of storm clouds all but made him an ominous silhouette. He still wore the rain slicker with the hood over his head, preventing her from even getting a glimpse of his identity.
Did it matter? She was likely to die in the next few minutes.
The rain was coming down even harder, splashing against the water and causing her to blink furiously to keep her line of sight clear. He was pointing something toward her, though she couldn’t quite make out what it was until a wired net landed right in front of her face.
It was a fishing net.
A hysterical sob rose up in the back of her throat, making it hard for her lungs to make up for their lack of oxygen. The muscles in her legs couldn’t keep up with the amount of strength needed to maintain her upright position. No matter how hard she twisted her arms, the binding around her wrists wouldn’t budge.
She was losing the battle of her life.
Instinctively, she lurched back from the net so that the thick wire only caught the side of her face. She bobbed in the water, but she managed to lay on her back so that she could frantically kick and propel herself inland.
The start of the boat’s engine told her that he was more likely to reach her first than she was to make it to shore. Shae screamed as loud as she could to give herself the needed incentive to move her legs even faster, not willing to accept that she was to die in this lake.
As if the universe answered her plea, two divine lights came out of nowhere.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Jace and the others had spent the last half an hour scouring every section of land around the lake, starting with the restaurant. Deputies Warner and Foster hadn’t found Shae or her vehicle in their search of the town. Noah had been unsuccessful in backtracking to Jace’s property. Brynn, Reese, and Gus had struck out on all the other properties on the outskirts of town Shae might have driven to for one reason or another.
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