He loomed over her, staring at her with eyes she could never forget behind thick glasses. “Remember me, Heather?”
Macy’s voice caught.
Chester laughed like a madman. “Cat got your tongue? Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you?”
She glanced around him, hoping she could run. He was too close. Her only option was to fight.
“It’s time to set some things right, Heather.”
“You know I’m not Heather.”
Chester stepped closer. “You’re the new and improved version. I always liked you better, anyway.”
“That’s not a nice thing to say about your daughter.”
“You’re my daughter—my true daughter. Remember the ceremony Jonah performed? Me, Rebekah, you, and the twins—we’re family. And soon, we’ll all be united.”
Macy just stared at him. Chester really believed all that nonsense. He was an even bigger loon than she’d given him credit for. She glanced toward the street. “I married Luke, and he’s on his way to pick me up. He’s going to be here in just a minute.”
Chester shook his head. “If Jonah didn’t marry you, it didn’t count. You’re still under my authority, Heather.”
“Quit calling me that!” Macy bolted around him, dropping her purse but hanging onto the keys.
He grabbed her arm and squeezed tightly. He smelled like fish and chewing tobacco. The odor made her stomach turn. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She turned to him and dug a key into his cheek, just below his eye and ran it down his face. The gash bled out and got onto her hand.
His eyes widened, and he let go of her. “Now you’ve done it!”
Macy ran toward the street, nearly tripping over her own feet. She caught her balance and pushed forward. Her hair pulled, yanking her to a stop.
Chester tightened it around his fist, pulled her against him, and wrapped his other arm around her, pressing firmly against her ribcage. “You’re going to regret that.”
Macy kicked and squirmed, trying to get away. Then she screamed out, “Help me!”
He covered her mouth and dragged her back toward the building. She bit his hand as hard as she could. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. She ignored it and clamped down all the harder.
Chester yelled out and yanked her head back so hard he pulled some hair out. In response to the pain, Macy let go of his hand and spit his blood out.
“Our security system recorded all that!”
“You think we didn’t already take care of that?” He dragged her around the other side of the building. Three men stood in front of a van.
“Hurry up!”
Macy’s heart sank. She’d know that voice anywhere. Jonah.
Chaos
The door slammed shut behind the chief as he left Nick’s office. Nick banged his head on the desk. Police Chief Crawford spent most of his time in City Hall dealing with political matters, and when he showed up at the station, it was either great news or horrible. And given the new one Crawford had just ripped into Nick over Chester’s escape, tonight’s visit was clearly the latter.
Though the escape had been well-planned by a number of people, according to the chief, all official fault lay on Nick for having initiated the transfer in the first place. It wasn’t his fault Woodran had made a getaway. All security footage in the transport van had been tampered with, and the only way that could’ve been successfully accomplished was if someone had been working on the inside—and it sure hadn’t been him!
Not that any of it mattered. The chief needed someone to blame, and Nick was the one with the big, glowing target on his back.
His cell phone rang. Nick swore at the caller and then grabbed the phone. It was Alex.
“What do you want?” Nick snapped. “I’m busy here.”
“This is related to Chester!”
“If your sister’s having anxiety—”
“She’s missing!”
“What?” Nick demanded. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“You think this is a joke?” Alex swore.
“Of course not!” Nick grabbed a pen. “Tell me everything.”
“We can’t find her!”
“I need specifics if I’m going to do anything, Alex. Where was she last seen? When? By whom?”
“She was at work, seen by her coworkers, and she wasn’t feeling well. Her car isn’t home, she hasn’t been to her doctor’s office, and her phone keeps going straight to voicemail.”
“That’s a lot better. Where does she work? What’s her home address? Phone number? License plate?”
Alex answered all the questions except for the license plate. “You’re going to have to talk to Luke about that.”
“Fine. Send me the latest picture you have of her. Or have Luke do that and give me her license plate. I’m going to head over to the clinic and then over to her house. Is Luke there?”
“I think so.”
“Tell him to stay there. I’ll need to question him.”
“The family’s always suspect,” Alex mumbled.
“Not with Chester on the loose.” Nick scratched down a few more notes. “Stay by your phone in case I call. Send me her picture.”
“Okay.”
Nick ended the call, grabbed his notes, and stormed out of his office. The entire station was in chaos. Nick stuck his finger and thumb in his mouth and whistled. Everyone stopped and stared at him.
“Macy Mercer—now Macy Walker—is missing. Woodran kidnapped her when she was a teenager. We assume he has her now. Finding her alive is our top priority.” He turned to Anderson. “You head this up here. I’m heading over to her work and home.”
“Got it.”
Nick’s phone alerted him to a text. It was Macy’s picture. He held it up for everyone to see. “This is what she looks like now. I’ll forward it to you, Anderson, along with the other information I have. As soon as I find anything else out, I’ll let you know. Just get the word out!”
“Consider it done.” Anderson motioned for everyone to follow him into the meeting room.
“Foster, you’re coming with me.”
“Me, Captain?” The young officer stared at him with shock in her gray eyes. Her black hair fell into her eyes and she pushed it away.
“Yes, you. Come on.” He spun around and marched down the hallway.
When they reached the parking lot, Foster headed for a police cruiser.
“I always take my car.” Nick remote-unlocked his Mustang.
Her eyes grew wider. “Okay.”
As they drove to Macy’s clinic, Nick filled Foster in on everything he knew, including everything he could remember from her case more than a decade earlier.
When he turned into the empty clinic parking lot, Foster asked, “Do you mind me asking why you chose me to come?”
Nick parked, taking up two spaces. “Because you’ve shown me you have a lot of potential.” Though new, she’d proven herself to be one of the most reliable officers on the force, and more importantly, she was eager to prove herself. If he was right, she’d prove to be a big help in the case. He flung open his door and headed toward the building, shining his flashlight everywhere, hoping for a clue.
Foster ran up to him, shining her light in the other direction. “I see something by the building. Looks like a purse.”
Nick’s body chilled. He glanced over to where Foster had her light. Something brownish was on the ground, but he couldn’t tell what it was. He pulled gloves out of his pocket as they made their way over and picked up the purse once they got there. His light shone on something red on the ground. “Blood?”
Foster ran over to the red. “Looks like it.” She pulled a swab out from her jacket, slid it across the liquid, sealed it in a bag, and wrote on it. “We’d better call for backup.”
“Have at it.” Nick dug through the purse, trying to find ID. If the sinking feeling in his gut was right, he’d find Macy’s picture on it. He came across a rectangular box. At fi
rst he thought it was toothpaste, but then he realized what it really was—a home pregnancy test. He swore.
“What?” Foster turned to him, getting hair in her face again. She pulled it back into a ponytail.
He handed her the box, unable to find the words, and continued digging through the purse for a wallet. Finally, he found it inside a zipped pocket.
“It’s positive,” Foster said. “Whoever took this is pregnant.”
Just when he thought his night couldn’t get any worse, he opened the black wallet to find Macy’s smiling face. He showed the driver’s license to Foster.
Her tanned skin paled. “And she’s pregnant. Do we know how far along?”
Nick shook his head. “I can’t imagine it being very long. I’m not sure she told anyone. Her brother would’ve told me if he’d known.”
She aimed her flashlight toward the side of the building. “Those look like fresh tire marks. Someone fled from here recently.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “Looks like we’re going to need even more backup. I’m calling for everything—search dogs, helicopters, the works.”
Attempt
Lottie clutched the rock and looked around at the others. “Are you ready?”
They all nodded, clutching rocks of their own. They’d spent the last several hours digging up their dirt floor for the only weapons they could find. Once the others saw what they were doing, they wanted in on the action. Now every single prisoner was on board, and they were ready to fight.
“The evening check should be here any minute,” Lottie said. “There should only be three of them. This shouldn’t be a problem.”
Ruben turned to her. “We’ll fight them off, you women run.”
“I want to beat them up, too,” Jayla said. “They made me miss my art show. I’ll never get into the college I want now.”
“Just run.” Ruben narrowed his eyes. “We need you to find a way out. There won’t be much time. The guards will be expected to check in after coming in here. We have maybe ten minutes to find a way out of this fortress. Then we’ll have to escape while evading the leadership.”
“Fine.” Jayla scowled.
Lottie’s heart raced. Her entire body felt cold. Would she get to see Luke and Macy again, or would trying to escape be the last thing she ever did?
Click.
Click.
Everyone’s eyes widened, and they exchanged a mix of worried and excited glances.
Click.
Click.
“Ready?” Ruben asked.
Click.
It didn’t matter if anyone was ready or not.
The door burst open. Guards flooded in. More than a dozen of them—the prisoners were outnumbered.
Had they found out about the escape attempt? Lottie’s throat closed up.
That’s when she noticed what they were carrying. Chains and ropes. More than enough to restrain twice as many prisoners than were locked up already. They also had guns strapped to their backs.
Next to her, Jayla dropped the rock. Everyone else followed suit.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The guards didn’t even notice.
Gasping for air, Lottie looked around for Blue Eyes. He wasn’t in the group. Had they figured out that he was trying to find a way for her to escape? Her breathing grew more ragged. What if Jonah had hurt him—because of her?
She exchanged worried glances with the other prisoners. They had no chance of getting away. Even if they weren’t outnumbered, the door was blocked. It was tempting to fight the guards, for the sake of the others, but it would be futile. Maybe they stood a better chance wherever they were going. She had to hope, or she had nothing.
“Now!” yelled one of the guards.
Lottie’s heart sank. Whatever was coming would be worse than before. Of that much, she was certain.
One of the guards closest to her wrapped his fingers around her arms, squeezing until it hurt so bad she cried out.
“Shut up.” He pulled her arms behind her back and tied her wrists with ropes. Most of the others were chained. They saw her as less of a threat. She needed to use that to her advantage later. He then roped her ankles together.
They were tying everyone up at their wrists and ankles and then connecting each other together with more chains and rope. Once that was complete, they stuck head coverings on everyone—the ones that had been hard enough to walk in without being tied.
Bang!
Lottie jumped and her ears rang from what sounded like gunfire. Her pulse raced. Had they shot someone, or was that just to get their attention?
“You will follow us,” one of the guards commanded. “Act out, try to escape, or do anything otherwise stupid—get yourself shot. This is your one and only warning. Let’s go.”
The ropes pulled her toward the door. Shuffling sounded all around as everybody walked toward the door in a tangled mess. Lottie walked into someone else’s chains and nearly tripped. If she fell, she’d take everyone else with her.
Somehow, she managed to get outside without incident. It was hard to see out of the eye slit, but they appeared to be walking down a residential road. People came out to watch as the restrained, covered prisoners made their way to… wherever they were going. Lottie shuddered.
It was probably the trials she’d heard so much about. It wasn’t hard to guess what would happen once those began. Jonah would ramble on about his inflated self-importance for a while before judging them—and they were sure to be some of the least fair trials she would ever see.
Without warning, both sets of ropes yanked her to a stop. Lottie nearly fell, and would have, had she not crashed into a much larger prisoner in front of her.
Once standing up straight, she looked around to see where they were. There were no houses, only a building that loomed in front of them, seemingly taller than the trees.
“The trials will begin shortly,” announced a guard near the front of the group. “We will put you in a smaller holding cell until it’s your turn.”
“Will we be given a fair chance?” called out one of the men prisoners.
The nearest guard hit him in the head with the butt of his gun. “Nobody said you could talk.”
That answered his question, not that anyone had doubted the one-sidedness of the upcoming trials.
Lottie’s ropes tugged, and she snapped to attention, careful not to lose her balance again. They went around the tall building. Lottie glanced to the side and nearly stopped walking.
Gallows. As in, multiple. There was room for three at a time.
She stared until she rounded the corner. They came to a tiny shack that looked no bigger than an outhouse. The guards shoved the prisoners inside, one by one. Lottie’s heart raced.
Her end was coming soon. She’d never again see anyone she loved.
Despairing
The room was a dizzying blur of activity. Luke couldn’t bring himself to get off the couch.
Macy was pregnant, and he’d found out from a police captain who’d found blood near her abandoned purse. All while his mom was still missing, and though nobody would say it in front of him, probably dead. He wasn’t stupid, but he also couldn’t bring himself to say the words.
Could the pregnancy test have been planted there as a cruel joke by whoever had taken her? It was probably Chester—that was what everyone was assuming—but he couldn’t let himself think about that any more than he could think about Jonah having killed Mom.
Luke needed to do something, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. It was all he could do to keep breathing. His entire immediate family was in dire danger—his mom, wife, and child. Child!
As he struggled for natural breaths, his mind wandered to his romantic night with Macy about two and a half weeks earlier. He hadn’t thought about protection, and given that they’d been trying to conceive before his mom disappeared, Macy wouldn’t have been taking the pills.
If Macy thought she was pregnant, why hadn’t she said anything to him?
Was she planning on surprising him with the news?
He closed his eyes, unable to think about anything. It only made his head spin all the more.
The couch cushion sank as someone sat next to him. “Are you okay?” Alyssa asked.
Luke shook his head, unable open his eyes.
“Me, neither.” Alyssa’s voice shook.
It was enough for him to sit up and pry his eyes open. His mother-in-law sat next to him, her face tear-stained and the skin around her eyes swollen and splotchy. This was the second time she was living through this nightmare of Chester kidnapping her daughter.
His heart broke for her. He tried to say something, but nothing would come. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. Alyssa broke down and sobbed, shaking. That was all it took for Luke’s own tears to break free.
Together, the two sobbed and time ceased to exist. It could’ve been two minutes, or it could’ve been two hours. There was no way to tell. Alyssa sat back and rubbed her eyes before meeting Luke’s gaze. “We’re going to get her back again, right?”
The desperation in her expression matched what raged through Luke’s entire body. He nodded. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Chad came over and put an arm around Alyssa. “The police have more questions for us downstairs.” His eyes were as red and tear-stained as his wife’s.
Luke choked back another sob. Seeing his in-laws, who were normally so strong, was more than he could take right then. “I’ll go with you.”
Alex came over, sliding his finger around his phone’s screen. “Hold on. Do you have any more recent pictures than these?” Alex showed him the screen, which had a bunch of pictures of Macy.
“We’ll be downstairs,” Chad said.
Luke nodded to him and took Alex’s phone. “Yeah, I’ve got more. Do you want me to forward them to you?”
“I’ll do it. Give me your phone.”
“Okay.” Luke was too wiped out to protest. His arm felt like rubber as he reached for his phone. He entered his passcode—it took three tries—and handed it to Alex, who slid his finger around the screen, his brows together in stark determination.
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