Chapter Twenty-Four
Jen called out from the basement that she hadn’t found him as I was tearing apart the office and master bedroom. I was shaking, and on the verge of breaking down in tears as I ran back to the living room to grab my phone off the end table where I’d left it. Detective Cordova picked up on the first ring.
“Greenly, is everything okay? I was hoping you’d remember—”
“Sammy is missing!” I shouted. “I went to get him out of his room to say goodbye to Jen and we can’t find him anywhere and the sliding door to the backyard was unlocked and I know it was locked this morning. Please, you have to help us find him.”
I was crying now, full on sobbing as he reassured me he’d call it in and get the patrol car already in the area out looking for him immediately. Jen rushed back into the room looking frantic but not bawling, though she looked to be on the verge of breaking down as well.
“Is he going to send someone?” I nodded and relief washed over her, but her eyes were still darting around the house like Sammy might pop up at any second as if it were all a game and we could laugh about his antics.
Knowing that wasn’t going to happen, my panic edged a little higher. “We have to go look for him. You go to the park. I’ll check with my sister and some of the neighbors. I’ll call Roman on the way to Lydia’s.”
Jen nodded and we both darted out the front door. I lost track of her as soon as we separated, too focused on combing the streets for Sammy to focus on anything else. I called Roman as I hurried down the street toward Lydia’s and tried my hardest to stop crying before he picked up. I didn’t even come close to managing that, and Roman knew something was wrong the second the line was active.
“Greenly? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Sammy. He ran away. I’m so sorry. I can’t find him. Jen came by and he said some really mean things to her so I sent him to his room while I talked to Jen and when I went to go get him, he was gone. We searched the whole house and Detective Cordova is coming to help us look and Jen went to the park to see if he’s there, but I’m so scared, Roman. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I dissolved into another round of tears and had to stop walking because I couldn’t see anything.
Roman blew out a long breath, and I could hear sounds of movement over the line. “Greenly, take a deep breath,” he said. His voice was shaking, and I knew he was scared even though he was trying to sound as calm as he could. “Sammy did this once before. I want you to go down the street to where that running trail cuts through the neighborhood. We took Thor on a walk there last weekend with your nephews, remember?”
“Yeah, yes, I remember,” I said as I spun in the opposite direction and started running.
“A quarter of a mile down the trail, there’s a bench, and behind that is a row of bushes. Look behind the bushes. It’s his favorite hiding place when we go out there to play hide-and-seek with the boys.” He said the instructions slowly, like a prayer that I’d go there and find Sammy with no problems. His calm wasn’t fooling me, because I could hear the tremor in every word. “I’m on my way to you right now, okay? Stay on the line. Don’t hang up.”
“I won’t,” I promised. I needed to hear his voice as much as he needed to know everything I was seeing.
I was almost to the trail by then, and nearly plowed right into the trailhead marker trying to stop and turn onto the dirt path without slowing down. I wasn’t a runner, but I sped through the trees, head whipping back and forth as I yelled Sammy’s name and scanned every inch of the surroundings. After only a few minutes, I spotted the bench and hurled myself forward.
“There’s the bench! Sammy!” I called, praying he’d pop his head out from behind the bushes and run to me with an apology for scaring everyone.
I skidded to a stop in front of the bench and tried to find a way around the bushes. They were prickly and shielded the bench in a half circle. The growth was thinner than it might have been in the summer, but still difficult to see through. Trying to push branches from nearby trees out of the way, I strained to get around the bushes. A small body like Sammy’s would have no trouble slipping back there to hide, but I only made it halfway. It was enough to get my head into a position where I could see behind the bushes. When I did, my body sagged.
“I found him,” I whispered tearfully to Roman. Lowering the phone, I squatted down so I could get a little further behind the bushes. “Sammy?”
He shook his head, the movement revealing his tears and reddened face. “Go away,” he sobbed.
“Sammy, please come over here. I was so scared when I couldn’t find you. So was your dad and your mom. I thought I’d never stop crying if I couldn’t find you,” I told him.
“My mom didn’t care,” he blubbered.
“Yes, she did. She’s over at the park right now looking for you.”
He looked up at me, tear-streaked cheeks quivering as more tears rolled down his face. “I won’t tell her I’m sorry. You can’t make me.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Sammy. Not right now, okay?”
“Promise?”
I nodded. “Once everyone is back home and safe, we’re all going to sit down and talk, no fighting, just talk, so we can figure out how to get along and be friends, okay?”
“What if I don’t want to be friends with her?”
Kneeling down, I felt my adrenaline finally starting to drop. “It’s okay if you don’t want to be friends with your mom right now, but you might want to later. Even if you’re mad at her, she’s still your mom, right?”
“But I want you to be my mom, Greenly. I don’t want you to go away like she did.” Tears sprang to his eyes again, but his arms were too busy hugging his knees to his chest to allow him to wipe them away.
“Buddy, I’m not going to leave you and your dad, not even if your mom wants to see you more often. We can both be there for you, okay? I love you so much, and I’d miss you way too much if I didn’t see you every day.” I smiled at him, even though I was still shaking and wouldn’t feel okay about this until I had him in my arms and back home.
Slowly, Sammy started to smile as well. His grip loosened on his knees and one hand moved to reach out for me. I didn’t understand why his eyes suddenly widened until a hand clamped down on my shoulder and yanked me away from him. I barely had time to react before an arm wrapped around my middle and began hauling me backward.
“Sammy, run!” I screamed as I kicked and bucked against my captor.
Terror coursed through me, though most of it was directed at Sammy being hurt by this lunatic than for my own safety. I didn’t see whether or not Sammy listened to me. I was whipped away from the bushes and dragged back toward the trail before I could see anything. Rustling sounds from behind me gave me hope Sammy was running away. Fear that he might try to follow or help me renewed my terror and I fought harder.
“Stop it!” a harsh male voice snapped.
Like the video I’d seen earlier that day, there was something familiar about the voice. It sent a chill through my entire body and my struggling faltered for just a moment as I tried to place it. Detective Cordova had said I probably knew the stalker, and he must have been right, but I couldn’t remember from where. Struggling again, I quit trying to get away and twisted in an effort to see his face. Pain seared down my side as something hard dug into my ribs.
“You know I don’t want to hurt you, Greenly,” he hissed, “but you’re making this more difficult than it needs to be. Just come with, and everything will be fine.”
Hearing his voice again, I still couldn’t place it, but the tone reminded me of the letters. It was the same delusional confidence with underlying threats that were all too real. “Why…why are you doing this?” I begged.
“Why?” he mimicked. “Because you like playing games, don’t you? You played them with me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. I pushed again, digging my elbow into his stomach, trying to get a little separation
from him. All it accomplished was another flash of pain in my side. I hadn’t even considered what the object might be the first time, but I suddenly couldn’t breathe as the rectangular shape pressed against my body again and I realized it might be the muzzle of a gun. I was too terrified to cry, but my entire body was trembling. “I’m sorry,” I pleaded. “Whatever games I played, I didn’t mean to, I promise. It wasn’t intentional. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
His laugh oozed out of him, thick and choking. “I knew you’d say that. I knew you’d try to lie to me and pretend you hadn’t led me on only so you could humiliate me.”
I was even more confused now, because I was the one always being humiliated. I never would have done that to someone else, not when I knew how it felt. Scouring my mind, I couldn’t think of a single date I’d been on that had ended disastrously for the other person. It was always me getting food dumped in my lap, or stood up, or made a spectacle of when a date lost it because the steak was slightly overcooked or the cell reception was bad and he couldn’t watch the game during dinner…at a restaurant…on a date.
My thoughts froze as we emerged from the trees and I found myself being shoved up against an SUV. I couldn’t breathe. Panic strangled me and the trembling upgraded to uncontrollable shaking. Every puff of labored breathing fogged up the paint. It was blue, deep blue, the kind that could blend into the surrounding night, which wasn’t that far away, I was pretty sure. I’d lost track of the time, but I knew Sammy and I had eaten lunch several hours before Jen arrived. Even in the daylight, there were about a billion dark SUVs running around, and no one would even know what kind of car I was being shoved into.
That was when the tears came.
“Stop crying,” he hissed, his mouth right next to my ear. “I know you’re faking. Stop it!”
All his demands accomplished was make my cry harder. I’d finally found happiness in Roman and Sammy, and this guy was going to take it all away. Pity for myself was outweighed by the devastation I knew this would wreak on them, Sammy especially. I had just told him I’d be there for him, never leave him, and now I was breaking that promise. He was breaking my promise.
“Let me go!” I shouted. “Leave me alone!”
His weight pressed me against the car more firmly. I’d already known I wouldn’t be able to get away from him through force, and struggling to breathe while being crushed up against the car only served to shatter any remaining hopes. The sound of the seal popping on the back door was like a physical blow. I was almost certain that if he managed to force me into the car, I’d never get away from him. Pure panic gave me a burst of strength, enough to shove him a few inches back so I could make a move. I spun halfway before he recovered and pinned me again. Then I was left staring in confusion.
“Thomas?”
Seeming startled by something, I was still in too much shock to resist when he yanked me from my feet and pretty much threw me into the backseat. I jumped for the door handle as soon as I righted myself, but the child safety locks must have been turned on, because it wouldn’t budge. Scurrying away from him when he climbed into the driver’s seat, I huddled against the far door and watched him warily.
“I don’t understand,” I braved saying. “You were so nice when we went out. I really liked you.”
Thomas sneered at me from the rearview mirror. “Yes, you liked me so much you cancelled our date and picked up some new guy at the airport the next day. Then went out on another date with some random stranger the next weekend. Clearly, you cared so much.”
Shaking my head, I struggled to believe the sweet, seemingly normal guy who’d rescued me from my wrecked car, visited me in the hospital, and had a really good time with at dinner could have been so unstable. Had I just not seen it? Had he been normal, and somehow I managed to flip a switch in him to turn him into a lunatic who stalked and abducted women? I doubted I had that much influence over anyone, especially a guy I’d only met a few times, but my absolutely horrible luck whispered that if anyone could, it would be me.
“I only cancelled our second date because my sister was really sick and she needed me to take care of her boys while she was in bed with the flu,” I said. I was positive I’d explained that in the message I’d left when I’d called him to cancel two years ago.
“Sure, sure. And the guy at the airport was nobody important. Single women pick guys up from the airport all the time, right?” Twisted disdain blanketed his expression as he glanced back at me.
“That was my bother-in-law. He was on a work trip and my sister was sick, like I already told you,” I said. I supposed it shouldn’t have surprised me he had been watching me even back then, given his recent hobby, but it did. It truly shook me to the core that it hadn’t just been the last few months. He had been watching me for nearly two years.
“I’m sure it was. And all those other guys you dated right after we went out, they were all just friends, I suppose.”
I could have tried to explain they were all blind dates, set up by Lydia. What would be the point? Not only would he not believe me, it wouldn’t make him stop the car even if he did. I’d gone on one date with this guy. One. In his delusional mind, that seemed to mean I was his from there on out, not allowed to see anyone else or even think about anyone else, most likely. Nothing I said to him now would make him see how ridiculous that was.
“Where are you taking me?”
For a few seconds, he didn’t answer me. I thought maybe he wouldn’t. His gaze flicked up to glare at me through the rearview mirror before saying, “I told you that you’d regret playing games with me.” He refocused his attention on the road. “I could have put up with you screwing with all those other guys’ heads. Clearly, they were no threat to me, and just playthings to you. But then, you went out with that guy from the library, the one who tried to keep you for his own, when clearly you’re already mine. I couldn’t put up with that. When you ran away from him, I almost thought maybe you were just teasing me, but then you had to go and get involved with Roman and little Sammy. Then, I knew you were tempting me, seeing if I would do something to stop you. You pretend to be surprised, but you pushed me to this, Greenly. You forced my hand.”
I wasn’t sure I even understood what he was saying completely. What I did know was that he was very serious. In his mind, the last two years had all been some elaborate game, one he really thought we’d both been playing. One I had lost. Too shocked to even react, I sat there staring at the back of the seat in front of me, silent as I tried not to think about what Thomas had planned for me now that he’d won his game and claimed his prize.
The Crazy Girl's Handbook Page 29