That was when he had determined that he needed to exclude Cole from the picture before he confronted her. He wanted her alone for that. Needless to say, walking into that restaurant for a coffee allowed him to walk out with caffeine in hand and the knowledge of the bonfire the entire community was invited to. Call it a hunch, but Ethan knew Amy would attend it. In her mind, this was her new home, right? Of course she would want to be part of the community. Therefore, she would have to attend the stupid trivial events put on for community members.
Her new home. Hardly. That was all about to change.
Tonight, Amy was going to realize what happened when she disobeyed Ethan and embarrassed him on such a catastrophic level. He was going to show her exactly what happened when she took matters into her own hands and thought she could rid herself of him the way she had. The consequences of her actions were affecting the people around her as well, as she would soon find out, and Ethan had every intention of making sure she knew damn well that the repercussions could have been prevented had she just done what she was told and stayed where she was supposed to. Instead, she had caused a lot of trouble for Ethan and he had to react in a way that would prove he meant what he said when she had tried to leave him before. After all, he was a man of his word.
Besides, no explanation was needed for how he reacted after the bonfire party. He had followed Amy and Cole back to Amy’s place and waited. He had held his breath when Amy voiced her concerns about something being amiss in the house, but luckily for him, Cole had been so focused on the upstairs and living room that he hadn’t checked the windows closely in the kitchen itself.
The windows there faced to the side of the house and one had a large crack in the pane. It had been far too easy to remove the pane and unlock the window. That window had been his entry into the house after Amy and Cole had left for the bonfire that night. He had been in the house maybe all of five or ten minutes, but hearing Amy say she thought something was out of place made him instantly think he had moved something or left some sort of evidence behind that would announce his arrival. He didn’t think he had, but he couldn’t be sure.
He had purposely put the broken window pane back into its place crookedly so that, although it was not blatantly evident that the window was open, Ethan could hear what was going on inside, at least in the kitchen.
That was when he had heard Amy say she had never been in love.
It took everything Ethan had not to storm through the door right then and shoot them both on the spot. She had never been in love? So, either she had lied to him for the past eight years or she was lying to Cole now.
Either way, her words ripped his soul open and caused a searing fury to pour out of him. Then, almost as though he was purposely taunting him, Cole had made reference to being in love with her. Ethan had bit his bottom lip to prevent himself from screaming out in anguish as he gripped the butt of his gun in his pocket tightly. That was when Ethan had irrevocably decided that this little rendezvous between Amy and Cole must end tonight.
With that, he had turned to make his way back around to the front of the house with the thought of slashing the tires of Cole’s truck in the driveway. Then, almost as a blessing, Cole had said from inside the house, “I’d better go.”
Ethan hadn’t expected that at all, but it would definitely work to his benefit if he could get everything situated in time. He decided to stick to his original plan.
His borrowed truck was parked on the next block over, and he quickly made a dash for it. Cole would be heading home, and Ethan knew just where he needed to be in order to rid him from the equation.
There was a short stretch of road between the outskirts of town and Cole’s house, unlit by street lights and vacant of houses or buildings. Ethan made it there in record time, parking his truck on the side of the road. He had parked out here the other night and watched. Only one vehicle had passed by him in a span of two hours. It was late, dark, and deserted. It was perfect.
Ethan rolled out the police-issued spike belt he’d coerced a friend of his to let him borrow. Dirty cops truly were the best kind of friends to have, even if they were completely gullible idiots. When he stopped to listen intently, he heard nothing but the ominous chirping of the crickets all around him.
His setup had taken longer to complete than he’d planned, almost an hour, but he was still sure Cole should have shown up by now. Perhaps he’d changed his mind and decided to stay with Amy after all. The thought made Ethan clench his jaw.
Dammit, do not make me look like a fool again.
Close to two hours passed before he heard it. There it was, the unmistakable rumble of Cole’s truck as it rounded the corner. If Ethan watched carefully, he was sure he could see the glow of headlights on the pavement steadily growing brighter and brighter. He took a few steps backward and hid within the shadows of the trees. He picked up his open beer and took a swig from it, then he stood back to watch the show.
Cole never even hit the brakes as he unknowingly passed by Ethan and his truck and hit the spike belt squarely. Though hitting a spike belt of that calibre didn’t instantly make a vehicle go out of control, one foul move behind the wheel could.
He watched with casual interest as the truck swerved hard to the left and then quickly overturned into the shallow ditch off the side of the road. The unsettling sound of shattering glass and crunching metal echoed through the still air, steam hissing into the air as the truck came to a halt upside down.
Ethan didn’t move. He stared at the wreckage and finished his beer in a few big gulps. He smiled, satisfied with how it all had turned out. Not a sound could be heard in the distance, so Ethan slowly rolled up the spike belt and heaved it back into the back of his truck. Feeling smug, he ambled over to the wrecked truck and peered into the window.
He hadn’t expected it at all. How easy it had been.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
I snapped my eyes open, trying with difficulty to orient myself to time and place.
The insistent knocking on the front door downstairs shook through the house again. This time, I connected the sound to what it actually was. Someone was at the door. I sat up groggily and glanced at the clock. It was seven in the morning. Cole should be on the construction site by now, I thought.
Cole.
I had laid awake at nights dreaming about what being with Cole would truly be like once I was ready, what his hands would feel like as he explored my body, and what his breath would feel like against the most intimate parts of my skin, but never had I believed being with him would be so…was there even a word for it?
He had been so gentle yet so firm with me, so nervous yet so confident. Our time together had been beyond anything I’d ever imagined. There had been no lit candles, no soft music, and no well-staged bed sheets to capture the romance as they do in the movies, but those stereotypical things hadn’t been needed. The passion, romance, and pleasure of our night together had evoked more life in me than I had ever known, even if he did have to disappear in the middle of the night.
Cole, not only in all his physical glory but also in his gentle way of living, had awakened me. He had allowed me to know what life and love could truly be, what those two things could mean. He had aided me in recognizing the walls I had furiously built up after all my years with Ethan had knocked me down so low and helped me to rip those walls down. Love and chaos weren’t one and the same.
I slipped my hand under my pillow and transferred the gun into the pocket of my robe, tying it tightly as I ran down the stairs as quickly as I could force my sleepy body to go. Peering through the blinds of the front door, I stopped. My surprise was surely etched on my face. I quickly pulled the deadbolt open and unlocked the door, opening it slightly.
“What do you want, Officer?” I said, my voice less than enthused.
“I have to talk to you, Amy.”
“Yeah,” I said without opening the door any wider. “Cole isn’t here right now, so maybe—”
&
nbsp; “It’s about Cole.”
“Of course it is. But I don’t want to—”
“Amy!” Jeremy snapped, and I saw him struggle to keep his composure. “It’s not about that. I found his truck this morning on the side of Old Mill Road. It’s wrecked.”
I stopped and looked at him, feeling as though the world had suddenly stopped turning as I processed what he just said. “I don’t understand,” I said in a quiet voice. “He’s okay, right?”
Jeremy looked at me and put his hand on the door, pushing it open gently. I took a step back and let him come in. “I don’t know, Amy. He wasn’t in the truck when I found it.”
I closed the door and turned to face him. I could feel my breathing rapidly increasing. “What? That doesn’t make sense.” It was then that I truly saw the damage done to the side of his face. Cole’s punch had left him with dark purple and blackened bruising and a swollen jaw.
“I know, Amy. When did he leave you, last night? This morning?”
“Last night. He was here for a while and then left to go home.” My mind was racing. “Jeremy, what happened? Tell me.” I was trying desperately to remain calm, but hysterics were slowly creeping up on me.
He sighed and I could see the worry and confusion written on his face, too. “I found the truck this morning while on patrol about a mile from Cole’s house. It was upside down on the side of the road. The tires had been punctured.” I saw the paleness in Jeremy’s face increase. This was the truth he didn’t want to have to tell me.
“It was deliberate,” I said in a voice just a notch louder than a whisper.
Jeremy just nodded. The silence between us gave me time to think. I reached out and clutched the kitchen counter for support. Jeremy instinctively reached for my arm but then stopped, obviously thinking better of it.
“Are you okay? You need to sit down, Amy,” he said, going over and pulling a chair away from the table. I didn’t fight him on it, as I realized I was starting to feel sick.
“Where’s Cole, Jeremy?” I slumped onto the chair. I knew he had already said Cole wasn’t in the truck, but I feared there was more he was keeping from me.
“I don’t know, Amy. It doesn’t make sense. The driver’s side door had been pried open from the outside. Cole wasn’t in the truck this morning. I called the hospital already. No one there has seen him.” He pulled another chair up beside me and sat down.
What had happened? Was it possible that my feeling of something being wrong last night and Cole’s truck being wrecked were purely coincidental and not associated with one another? I supposed it was possible, but not likely. My gut was telling me what I didn’t want to believe.
“Someone has taken Cole, that’s what you’re saying.”
Jeremy eyed me carefully. “That’s what it seems like, although I know it doesn’t seem to make sense. None of this does.”
I stared at the blank wall trying to think clearly.
Ethan. It had to be. He had found me, he must have. And he must have known about Cole and where he lived, too. I felt bile rising up in my throat and I immediately lurched forward and made the few steps to the garbage can, lifting the lid as retching sounds came from deep in my throat but nothing emerged. I felt Jeremy’s hands pull my hair back as I bent forward, but I ignored him.
After a moment, I stood up and wiped my mouth. Jeremy wisely stepped away from me and stayed silent. It was in that moment that I realized what had been gnawing away at my subconscious last night.
“The curtains,” I whispered out loud, staring at the window in front of me.
“What?” Jeremy said, but I dismissed him and turned to look at the smaller window by the kitchen table.
“The curtains are open.” I crossed the room and pulling them back the whole way. I never left any of the blinds, curtains, or drapes in the house open. I immediately saw the broken pane that had been placed back into its spot crookedly. Instantly, my head started to spin and air seemed impossible to take in.
“Amy, what’s wrong? What is it?” Jeremy’s voice seemed distant, like he was not standing beside me in the same room.
Tears stung at the corners of my eyes. “I know what happened to Cole,” I admitted. “Or…who.” I looked up at Jeremy, my eyes wide with fear for Cole’s safety. “I don’t know where he is, but we have to find him, Jeremy.”
I stayed standing where I was as I gave him a shortened version of the life I had left behind and a description of Ethan and his capabilities. I explained that I never kept the curtains open, that Ethan had obviously been watching me, been inside my house, and that, although I couldn’t prove it right now, I knew he was behind Cole’s truck wreck.
Ethan has Cole. The thought chilled me to the bone. I swallowed hard and brought my gaze up to meet Jeremy’s.
“You have to take me to his truck,” I announced.
Jeremy looked at me incredulously. “Amy, there is no way I’m taking you to the wreckage. Besides, we need to head to the station. You need to report this guy.”
“Like hell,” I said flatly.
Jeremy just looked at me.
“If I report this now, if cops show up wherever he is, Ethan will kill him.”
My words sat between us in a momentary silence. I had said the word both of us had avoided since Jeremy had shown up on my front porch.
“If he’s still alive, Amy,” he reminded me.
The realization that this situation was weighing on Jeremy as well was suddenly staggering. He and Cole had been best friends up until only recently. Despite what had gone on between them as of late, they had a friendship, memories, and things that still needed to be said. As it stood now, the last things they had said to each other were cocky, cruel words said in anger. I turned to head toward the staircase. I planned on doing everything I could to make sure that Jeremy and Cole had the chance to mend their friendship.
“Stay here, Jeremy,” I said, taking the stairs two at a time. “I just need to get dressed and then we’re going to Cole’s truck.”
I heard him calling out to me in protest from the kitchen, but I ignored what he was saying.
***
I tore around the corner into the bedroom and dug in my dresser for a pair of jeans and a sweater. I quickly got dressed. I was just tossing my hair into a ponytail when I heard my cell phone beep telling me someone was calling. It was a quiet alert, as I had never been a fan of the boisterous shrill ringing of a telephone and I’d had the ringer turned down lower than normal since it had been right beside my head while I slept. If I had been downstairs, I would have never heard it. I picked it up and glanced at the caller ID. I practically ripped the phone open when I saw his name on the digital screen.
“Cole?” My voice cracked with the emotion I had been trying to keep at bay.
“Hello, my dear Amy.”
My blood ran cold at the sound of his voice. I barely held back the tears that were threatening to fall from my eyes. I gasped, panic rising into my chest.
“Ethan, where’s Cole? What have you done?”
“Well, now. You don’t sound nearly as happy as you did when you thought I was him, now do you?” His voice was slow and precise. He was beyond angry. I didn’t have to see his face to know that.
“This isn’t the time to play games, Ethan. Please, tell me he’s okay.”
There was silence on the end of the phone and the rustling of…tin? Some kind of metal was being tossed about nearby. “You started this little game, Amy, not me. You didn’t follow the rules.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing away the tears. I refused to let him hear me sob. “Cole isn’t part of this, Ethan. Please, let him go. This is between you and me.”
“It is, but it seems there has been a lot going on between you and him as well. From what I’ve seen, anyway.”
I refused to take the bait. I knew he was telling me that he had been watching me, but I had already figured that out on my own. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of pointing out the obvious.
> “Ethan, please. Is he all right?” I knew that asking Ethan such a question would undoubtedly enrage him even more, but I was hoping he would give me some kind of indication, anything that would let me know Cole was still alive.
“His blood is on your hands, Amy. You did this, not me.”
I bit my lip, squeezing my eyes shut again. What did that mean? Was he telling me that he had already killed Cole?
No, please tell me that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. I stayed silent, trying desperately to keep my composure. Ethan seemed to grow tired of waiting for me to speak.
“Amy, listen to me. I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to do and, this time, you had better listen, all right? You’re going to leave your house and walk your pretty little ass up to that bar you work at. If anyone there asks, you can tell them you forgot something there because you’ve been too goddamn love-struck to remember clearly. Make something up. I know your boss likes to go in there before opening for the afternoon.”
A thousand things went through my mind, and none of them made much sense. Why would Ethan want me to go to the bar before it opened? The fact that he knew I walked there every day was scary enough, but he also knew Ryan went in early. I couldn’t dwell on that right now. “What do I do when I get there, Ethan?” I asked him.
Wicked chuckling reached my ear from the other end of the phone. “One step at a time, lovely Amy. Oh, and one more thing. Lose your little cop friend, pronto. If he shows up with you, Lover Boy dies.” I heard a sharp click in my ear and the line went dead.
Cole was alive. A surge of relief ran through me. I was petrified of what was to come but at least I knew I had something left worth fighting for. I tucked my phone into the front pocket of my hooded sweatshirt, pushed the gun into the waistband of my jeans, and looked at myself in the bedroom mirror. Did I look as fearful and frantic on the outside as I felt on the inside? I wasn’t sure, but I was about to find out in about three seconds.
I bounded down the stairs and around the corner, almost running into Jeremy. I looked up at him and saw that he was looking at me with an air of curiosity and wariness.
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