by Connie Mann
“What happened to you?” she asked.
“Who are those men?” he demanded at the same time.
They glared at each other.
Cat waited. She didn’t want to answer that question. Instead, she looked him in the eye. “Who beat you up?”
His eyes narrowed, equal parts concern and anger burning in them. “Couple of those goons didn’t like me keeping an eye on you. Who are they?” he asked again.
Possible answers ran through her head, but she couldn’t find one that didn’t put Blaze in more danger than she was already in.
As he stared at her, Cat saw a spark of something else flash behind his frustration. Before she could raise her defenses, he yanked her into his arms and muttered, “You are making me nuts,” before his mouth came down over hers.
Cat froze, stunned. This was Nick, stubborn, relentless, terrifying Nick. The heat and strength of his body made her want to melt against him.
She must have, at least a little, for he pulled her even tighter against him. In his kiss, she tasted frustration and fear, determination and strength, but there was more. He gentled his lips from demand to invitation, running his tongue along her bottom lip, seeking entrance to her mouth.
Cat opened up to him and sank into the kiss, lost in the taste of him, the safety and security within the hard strength of his arms. His hands came up and cupped her cheeks as though she were precious and something to be cherished and protected.
She’d never been kissed like this. Ever.
It was wonderful.
It scared her silly.
This was Nick. She couldn’t let him get too close. Couldn’t let her defenses down. Not even for a mind-numbing, toe-curling kiss.
Reality and regret slapped her in a double whammy, and she jerked away before she let her heart get tangled up. She couldn’t let that happen. Never that. No ties, no entanglements. It was safer that way. For everyone.
They stared at each other, breathing hard, and Cat figured her confusion mirrored his own. He stepped away, stared off into the distance while he scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
After several minutes, he turned back, studied her. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I’m not trying to be rude, but this doesn’t concern you, Nick. Let it go.”
He stepped closer until they were nose to nose again; only, this time, there was no passion, just frustration of a different sort. “Can you stand there and tell me, honestly, that whoever this was had no connection to Teddy’s death or to Blaze’s disappearance?”
Cat’s knees wanted to buckle. She remembered her uncle’s warning to keep Nick at arm’s length while also pumping him for information. How on earth was she supposed to do both? The silence lengthened until she finally said, “He did not kill Teddy, and he doesn’t know where Blaze is.”
Please, God, let both be true.
Nick looked like he was about to explode, but finally he just shook his head. “Fine, we’ll do this the hard way.” He turned and walked toward the back of the cottage. Which must be where he’d left his SUV.
Cat watched him go and then climbed into her car before she succumbed to the urge to run after him and spill the whole ugly tale. She had to stay focused. Never mind that Nick tempted her like no man ever had before in her life. Strong and trustworthy, he was everything her heart had ever wanted. But his tenacity and honesty—the very things she admired most about him—could also get Blaze killed if she weren’t careful.
First, before anything else, she had to find Blaze.
Blaze tried to keep her panic at bay. Wherever they were holding her was getting hotter by the minute, so she figured it was the middle of the day. Sweat slid down the side of her face, and she wiped it on her shoulder. She was going to suffocate in her hoodie if she didn’t cool off soon. Tears tracked down her cheeks, too, and she swiped at those, irritated at the sign of weakness.
Wasn’t that what her stepfather had always said about tears? Right before he pulled out his belt and gave her a chance to “practice being strong”? She shook her head to clear the memories. He was dead and gone, and good riddance. But the lessons he’d taught her still ruled her.
The strong didn’t cry. They were smart, and they planned, and they struck back when the time came.
Blaze just had to wait for the right time. The two goons that had her didn’t seem too smart. Otherwise, how had they grabbed the wrong person? Why had they even thought she was Cat?
She thought about that night. The clearing. Pretending to play the violin. Wearing a hoodie like Cat. No wonder they grabbed the wrong person.
Why had she been pretending to be like Cat, anyway? Cat was obviously in some kind of trouble if people were trying to kidnap her, right?
Or maybe, Cat had asked the wrong people about what had happened to Teddy. At the thought of Teddy, more unwelcome tears slipped down her cheeks, but this time, she let them fall.
Teddy had been different. He was supersmart, but he wasn’t a geek. He just knew things, lots of things, was always learning, and then his eyes would light up when he told her what he’d discovered. She’d never met anyone like him, who loved to learn as much as he did.
He’d liked her. That was the part she still couldn’t seem to wrap her head around. And he said he liked her just the way she was. He didn’t make comments about her clothes or the way she talked or her family. He just seemed to like hanging around her, which blew her mind.
Then at Eve’s wedding? She felt a blush steal over her cheeks. He’d asked her to dance, a shy smile on his face, and when he’d taken her in his arms, she’d almost tripped over the stupid dress. But he’d made her feel like one of those dorky princesses in fairy tales. He was no Prince Charming, and she was no damsel in distress, but he’d let her pretend, just for a minute, that fairy tales did come true.
He’d stolen a quick kiss, right before the song ended, and Blaze knew she’d remember it for the rest of her life. She’d never thought she’d feel anything like that, ever. Maybe she never would again.
Oh, Teddy. I’m so sorry. I wish you had told me what was going on. I would have tried to help you. You had to know that.
She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on them, let the tears fall. This should never have happened.
But after there were no more tears left and Blaze was drenched with sweat, she started thinking. And the more she thought, the angrier she got.
This wasn’t over. She wasn’t going to sit around and wait to die. She had to get out of here.
She saw a flash of light on the other side of the room. It disappeared. Then a few minutes later, it flashed again.
She rolled over and twisted until she was on her knees, her bound feet behind her. She put her bound hands down and leaned on her forearms as she inched across the small space. She was breathing hard when she finally made it to the other side. She collapsed next to the wall and tried to see behind the stack of boxes where she’d seen the flash.
There it was again. She tried to slide her hands between the boxes and the wall, but they wouldn’t fit. She turned onto her backside and used her legs to push and shove the heavy boxes, until finally she’d moved them several inches. Hopefully, it was far enough.
Frustrated, she wriggled her way around again and shoved her hands down into the gap. Almost . . . almost . . . She wiggled her fingers and kept pushing at the boxes, kept trying to get just a little bit closer.
She still couldn’t reach.
She pushed some more with her feet, shoved with her shoulder, and finally grasped what was back there and pulled it out.
Her cell phone.
Shock froze her in place for a moment. She’d thought for sure they had taken it from her when they’d kidnapped her. But it must have fallen out of either her pocket or one of theirs when they’d tossed her in here.
Hope bubbled up as she fumbled with the screen, saw the string of missed calls. A dozen from the marina’s number. Must be Sasha. At lea
st that many from Bryan and from an unknown number. Plus six texts from that same number. That must be Cat. A low-battery warning flashed on the screen. She didn’t have much time.
Footsteps sounded outside, and she almost dropped the phone. Not now, please not now.
She quickly typed the word trailer, hit send, and tried to shove the phone into her pocket. She missed, and it slipped from her hands. No!
When she heard the lock click open, she kicked the phone out of sight, then scrambled back to where she’d been and slumped against the wall, pretending to be asleep.
The door squealed as it swung open, and bright sunlight speared her closed eyes.
The man climbed in and slapped her cheeks. Blaze blinked up at him, but with the sun behind him, she couldn’t make out his features.
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty, time to go.” He hauled her up onto her feet, dropped some kind of fabric over her head, then tossed her over his shoulder and carted her off to a vehicle, where he dumped her into the back. The doors slammed shut, and moments later, what must be some kind of van took off. Blaze couldn’t hold on, so she slammed against the metal sides, banging her head.
Nausea roiled in her stomach as the vehicle sped away. All she could think was, Please find me. Please.
Nick swung by his cottage to clean up and change clothes. He really didn’t want to explain his bruised cheekbone to everyone at the station. He couldn’t believe the guy had gotten the jump on him. Which proved how distracted his worry for Blaze—and OK, Cat—had made him. He’d taken pictures of the men surrounding the dark SUV and had just finished photographing the license plates and the rundown house when he’d been jumped from behind.
He’d debated pulling out his badge and hauling them all in, but then he decided against it, said he was a realtor checking the place out. Luckily, he’d hidden his official Safe Harbor police SUV several hundred yards away in the woods surrounding the house. He didn’t want them to know who he was just yet.
Instead of returning to the station, he let Wanda know where he was and then pulled out his laptop and uploaded the photos he’d taken. He also did a search on the address, trying to find out if there’d been a change in ownership, but there hadn’t. The same family still owned it. Last he’d heard, it had been left to a distant relative in California when the owners passed away.
He scanned the photos of the men, but none of them looked familiar. They all had Asian backgrounds, though, based on their looks, just like Cat. Two were slender, like Cat. The third, who had opened the door for Cat, had a more stocky build than the other two. Who were they? And what were they doing in Safe Harbor?
He spent several minutes typing in his passwords and credentials but finally accessed the database he wanted. He uploaded the pictures, hoping facial recognition would get a hit.
In the meantime, he read over his notes on Teddy’s case again. His email chirped, and he saw a message from the toxicology lab. The water bottle he’d found at the quarry contained scopolamine.
They’d found the murder weapon.
He should have been elated at discovering another piece of the puzzle, but fury churned just below his skin. Who had dared bring that drug to Safe Harbor? And worse, used it to kill one of their own teens?
When someone knocked on his door, he walked over, gun at his side, just in case. Cat stood on his threshold, shifting impatiently while she waited. “Come on, Nick. Open the door.”
He swung it open just as she raised her hand to knock again. “What brings you here—”
Her eyes were wild as she thrust a cell phone at him and hurried inside. She spun to face him. “She texted me. You have to trace it or whatever, with GPS, so we can find her. Hurry.”
A quick glance at the phone showed a text message: trailer. “Are you sure it’s from Blaze?”
Her expression said she wanted to smack him for asking dumb questions. “It’s from her number. I tried to call her back and text her, but I didn’t get a response. We have to hurry.”
Nick walked over to his laptop, set the phone down. He grabbed his cell phone, called Eloise at Blue Sky Cellular. “Hi, Eloise, this is Nick Stanton from the Safe Harbor Police Department. How are you? Good. Glad to hear it. Listen, you’ve been such a help in the past. Right now I need a favor. Can you get me the location of a particular phone based on its GPS?”
“I’d love to help you, but I’m not authorized to give out that information, not without all the official paperwork,” she answered stiffly.
He wondered briefly who was listening in. “I completely understand and wouldn’t ask except that it’s an emergency. I believe the person on the other end of the line is in imminent danger, and I need to locate her immediately. Can you help me?”
Nick waited while she considered. Then waited some more as he heard keys clacking in the background. Finally she said, “Please do not tell anyone where you got this information. I need my job.”
“My lips are sealed,” he promised.
He grabbed paper and pen and scribbled down the address that she rattled off. He thanked her profusely and then turned to Cat, who was pacing like a caged tiger. “Let’s go.”
He ushered her out the door and to his official police-issue Ford Explorer. He held the door as she climbed inside, then hurried around and got in. He called Wanda and asked for JD to meet them ASAP. He gave her the address, then hit the siren and lights as he sped in that direction.
Beside him, Cat twisted her hands in her lap.
“Why me, Cat? Why now?” She’d just finished telling him to mind his own business. Why the sudden change?
Cat glanced his way, then back out the window. “I’m afraid for her. I need your help.”
“Which you hate asking for.”
She nodded, once. “I’m used to being on my own.”
No surprise there. Something else had been nagging at him. “You got a new cell phone.”
He wondered if she’d respond, but then she nodded, once. Shrugged like it was no big deal. “I get a new one every so often.”
Which begged the question, why? But now wasn’t the time.
“You got a new one since you gave me your number,” he clarified.
He saw her jaw clench. She finally looked over at him. “My experience with cops has not been what you’d call good.”
He sent her a half smile. “But I’m one of the good guys.”
Her answering nod was resigned. “I know. That’s why I’m here.”
“But you don’t want to be.”
That got a reaction. She half turned in her seat to face him. “I don’t want anything to do with cops, no. I don’t want Blaze in danger. I don’t want Teddy to be dead, and I don’t want to be in Safe Harbor.” She blew out an angry breath. “Doesn’t matter what I want. We have to find Blaze before—”
“Before what? What do you know, Cat?”
“Before whoever has her hurts her!” she shouted.
Nick let it go, for now. Getting info out of this woman was about as much fun as cleaning scallops. They were stubborn buggers, with sharp edges and slimy insides, hiding their tender center. But the effort was always worth it.
As he approached the location, he turned off both the lights and the siren and then pulled into the truck stop on the edge of town, out by the interstate.
It made sense. If you were holding someone, this was the perfect place to hide them in plain sight.
Cat was out of the SUV and running toward the restaurant almost before he came to a complete stop. He hurried after her.
Chapter 19
Cat came to a skidding halt just inside the truck stop restaurant. The noise level dropped as people stared, and she realized she must look like a crazy person, panting like she’d been chased for miles. She forced herself to take several deep breaths, to center herself even as panic clawed at her insides. If she wanted answers, she had to focus, to think.
Nick appeared behind her, and his solid presence loosened the tightness in her chest a fraction.
“Do you have a picture of Blaze on your phone?” he asked.
Cat shook her head. She never took pictures, hadn’t in years. It was too dangerous.
She watched as he pulled out his cell phone and started scrolling through photos. He held it up, showed her a picture of Blaze at Eve’s wedding. Unbidden, Cat’s eyes filled. She looked so dang beautiful.
They had to find her.
The heavyset twentysomething hostess approached, grabbed two plastic menus, a bored look on her face. “Two?”
Nick held up the phone. “Actually, we’re trying to find someone. Have you seen this girl in here recently?”
The hostess peered at the photo, then shook her head and looked from one to the other. “No. Is she in trouble?”
“We hope not. We’re just trying to find her.”
“Sorry.” She indicated the menus. “Do you want to sit?” She glanced behind them to a family that had just come in.
“We’ll just ask around,” Nick said and guided Cat to a table near the front of the restaurant.
Cat barely heard what he said, her eyes focused on a group of teens at a table near the back. She hurried over, checking to make sure Nick was behind her.
There were four teens at the table, two guys and two girls, obviously on a double date by the nervous glances they kept giving each other. Before anyone could protest, Cat grabbed a chair from the next table, straddled it, and eyed the four of them. “You all go to Safe Harbor High?”
They exchanged glances. “Yes, why?” said a tall boy who looked like he played football.
“Do y’all know Blaze Martinelli?”
At the blank looks, Cat turned to Nick, who held out his phone and showed it to them. One girl said, “Oh, I know her. She’s in my math class. Quiet.” She looked up. “Is she in trouble?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Nick answered. He pulled a card out of his wallet. “If you happen to see her, will you give me a quick call and let me know? We just want to be sure she’s OK.”
The girl nodded, all of them with worried looks on their faces. Cat thanked them, and they went to the next table, and the next, but no one admitted to seeing Blaze anywhere.