I had just put the journal down when my phone buzzed. I picked it up, expecting it to be a text from Jason, but it was from a number I didn’t recognize.
It’s your lucky day. Memory was recently jostled. Have a couple of people I could put you in contact with who might know of Isa’s whereabouts. Because of who they are, need to tell you in person.
I found my purse and dug the business card out that Lucas had given me. Sure enough, the numbers matched.
Okay, I wrote back. When should we meet up?
I’ll be in my office at one. How does that sound?
I glanced at the clock. It was 11:50 a.m., which meant I had enough time to get ready and get down there.
Great. I can be there then.
And one thing, he wrote. Due to the sensitivity of some of the information I’m going to provide you, would appreciate it if you came alone.
I paused, looking at the screen. That little voice in my head was telling me that there was no information so sensitive that he would need to give it to me and me alone, and that I would be foolish to go there by myself, but a bigger part of me wanted to prove to everyone who thought I was incapable of looking out for myself that I actually could do it. I didn’t need to go running to Jason, or to Carolyn, or my parents, for that matter, just to get them to hold my hand and make sure that I was safe. No, this was something I could do on my own. I was certain of it.
***
I parked a few blocks from Oddlands and tried to ignore the way my heart was thudding in my chest.
There’s no reason to be nervous, I chided myself. You’re going to go in there, make some small talk, and get whatever information he has to give you. Then you can leave.
Before I got out of the car, though, I took my phone out and typed a quick text to Jason.
Lucas Oddland texted, I wrote. He said he had a few names to give me that might be helpful. I’m just heading into the club now and I’ll text you when I’m done. Maybe we can meet up and I’ll let you know what he told me.
I didn’t wait for him to respond; I slipped the phone into my purse and took a deep breath before getting out of the car. I walked the two blocks to Oddlands. The door was once again unlocked, but when I went into the club, no one was there. No sign of that woman and her stiletto heels, no sign of that guy Max, whoever he was, who had presumably left the door unlocked again.
“Hello?” I called out.
“I’m in my office. Come on back.” Lucas’s voice sounded distant.
I made my way through the main room and down the hallway to his office. The door was slightly ajar, and there was a sign with the word PRIVATE spelled out in what looked to be metal tubing. I hadn’t noticed that the last time we were here. I pushed the door open the rest of the way.
“Well, look at you,” he said. He glanced over my shoulder. “No bodyguard with you this time?”
“He’s not a bodyguard.”
Lucas stood up from his chair and came around to the front of his desk. He leaned on it, folding his arms across his chest. “I’m glad you came back. As I said in my text, it’s your lucky day, because I was thinking about it and I do have some names I could give you that you might find helpful.”
“I really appreciate it.”
“But... there’s something we need to get out of the way first.”
“There is? What?”
“You know, your sister and I had a mutually beneficial arrangement,” he said, taking a step closer to me. “Perhaps you and I could figure out something similar.”
The hairs on my arms stood up. I shouldn’t have come back here, at least not without Jason.
“Because,” he continued, “the way I see it is that I’ve got some information that you want, so what am I going to get in return?”
“My eternal gratitude?” I hated how meek my voice sounded. “You could be an integral part in helping find out what happened with Isa,” I said, and this time my voice sounded a little stronger. “So... who are these people you said you remembered? Were they her friends?”
His eyes glittered and it seemed like he was about to laugh at me. “You two really are quite different, aren’t you? I can tell just by looking. Your sister’s the wild one. You’re the good girl. I like good girls, you know. They’re underrated.”
“Um, thanks,” I said.
“Yeah, that sister of yours...” He let his voice trail off. “She ever mention me?”
“No. But... she didn’t tell me a lot about her social life.”
“You’ve probably thought about it before, though—am I right? What it’d be like to be a bad girl? Even if it was only for one night? Every good girl has a bad girl hidden inside, and sometimes it just takes meeting the right person to help bring her out.”
“I’m not really sure what you mean by bad girl,” I said. “Isa and I liked different things, sure, but I don’t think she was, you know, bad or anything.”
He did laugh now, showing his big teeth. “I bet you’d be wild if you’d just let your hair down.”
I shifted, hoping I didn’t look as nervous as I felt. “Listen,” I said, “I came by because you said that you had some names to give me? Some people I could maybe talk to about Isa?”
“I did say that, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“And I do have some names—some names of some very interesting people who would certainly have stories to share with you about your sister—but you do realize the exchange of this information is going to cost you something, right?”
I blinked. “Money?” I had maybe ten bucks in my wallet. “How much? I don’t have that much cash on me.”
“Money?” he snorted. “I don’t want your money. Does it look like I need your money?”
I paused. “Well... no.”
“You don’t know what I’m getting at here? You really are a bona fide good girl.” He unfolded his arms and rubbed his palms together. “I don’t care to mince words, so let me put it like this: in exchange for the information I have to give you, you’re going to let me undress you and then we’ll take the action over there.” He pointed to a leopard-print chaise longue in the corner, across from a large three-way mirror. “You’re going to let me make you feel nice—real nice—and then you’re going to return the favor. And once we’ve had that enjoyment, I’ll give you the information I have.”
I didn’t say anything for a moment, certain he was kidding. But that was foolish, because why would a guy like him be joking? I could only imagine how many girls he’d had sex with on that chaise longue, and I was not about to be another one.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. I’m not... I... that’s not the sort of thing I’m into.”
“Oh, I knew you’d say that. I’ve had plenty of girls tell me that, but it’s just because they don’t know what they’re missing out on. Once they get a taste, they’re just begging for more. So…” He pushed off from the desk and took several steps toward me. I backed up, but he followed.
“You don’t need to be scared,” he said. “I’ve got plenty of experience. I’ll take good care of you. You want to find your sister, don’t you? She’s been known to hang around with some rather unsavory characters. I could rattle off a whole long list of names of people who would want to abduct her and screw her six ways from Sunday—not because she’s a smokin’ piece of ass (which she is), but because of some of the shit she’s pulled. Things I’m sure you’d never do.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, and the quiver was back in my voice. I needed to get out of there, now. The situation had gone from being a little uncomfortable to dangerous, because I had a very strong feeling that this was not the sort of person who was used to taking no for an answer. “I should go,” I said, trying to push past him. He put his arm up, though, blocking my way. “Excuse me.” My voice was barely more than a squeak.
“I don’t think so, girly,” he said, and this close I could smell the alco
hol on his breath, see the pores on his nose. He rested his meaty hand on my shoulder. “That’s not how this is going to go down. You’re here; you want what I’ve got—so why don’t you just go along with it? Let’s not make this any harder than it has to be. Because if you know anything about me, it’s that I always get what I want. So let’s just enjoy this, eh?”
I made a break to run but he grabbed me, pressing me back against the wall.
“Girls like you don’t just get to come in here and call the shots,” he said. “That’s the sort of game your sister tried to play with me, but she learned real quick that it wasn’t going to fly like that. Guess you’ll have to learn, too. We’ll see if you’re as quick of a learner as she turned out to be.”
“Get off of me!” I screamed. I tried to push against him but he felt as heavy as a brick wall.
Lucas laughed in my face, his breath a blast of hot, sour air. His free hand grabbed at the front of my shirt. I smacked his hand away but he still had me pinned and I couldn’t move.
“Stop!” I said. “Please, stop. I’ll just go. You don’t have to give me any information—just let me go. Please.” Tears came to my eyes as I tried to plead with him, which only seemed to encourage him further. He leaned into me, leering.
“There’s some fight in ya. That’s good. I like it. But let’s settle it down a little. Just take it easy and this will go real nice. You don’t have to fight it.”
But I did fight it. I tried to fight like hell, which was hard to do when you felt like you were being smothered by an enormous bag of wet cement. I squirmed and twisted, going boneless the way a toddler will when a parent tries to extricate them from a jungle gym they don’t want to get down from just yet. But Lucas just leaned his body weight into me further, his hand going back to my shirt, groping me.
The sensation of his touch on my bare skin was revolting. His palm was hot and sweaty, rough, pawing me as if I were a piece of property. If I didn’t find some way to get myself out of there, I was going to be in big trouble.
The fear was a hard ball in my chest that was rapidly expanding, threatening to get so big it was going to paralyze me. I knew what would happen if I didn’t get out, though. I might not know exactly what he was going to do, but I could take a guess.
I did the only thing I could think of, the only thing I could physically do in that moment—I jerked one knee up, catching him right between the legs.
He let out an oomph! and reeled back, enough that I was able to get sufficient leverage to push him off. I was able to take two leaping steps toward the door, but he reached out and grabbed me, yanking me back. My feet went out from under me and I fell, the wind knocked out of me. He was on top of me in an instant as I lay there, chest seizing, unable to draw in a breath. His hands clasped around my throat.
“You little bitch,” he said, his face bright red, eyes enraged. “You think I’ll put up with something like that? You think this is going to end well for you now?” He squeezed and I could feel my eyes bulge out of my head. My arms and legs flailed, barely making contact with him. I tried to scratch his face but he leaned his head back so he was just out of reach, his mouth twisted in a terrifying grimace. His breath was coming in big gasps, spittle flying from between those lips. My own mouth was open but no sound came out; it felt as though my windpipe was about to be crushed. None of my hits landed; there was no way to loosen his vise-like grip. My tongue hung out of my mouth as black dots started to collect at the corners of my vision, filling in rapidly. It felt as if my head was separating from my body, as if my body were no longer even my own. I couldn’t control the way my arms and legs were kicking out, the way my whole body convulsed underneath his crushing weight. The pressure building inside my head seemed to grow beyond anything I thought I’d be able to withstand, but still it kept coming. His face floated above me, the enraged sneer. I locked onto his eyes, even as my own vision started to dim.
So, this is how it ends.
My heartbeat boomed in my ears. My arms fell limply onto the floor, twitching, my legs kicked out, but sporadically, with no strength. Lucas laughed.
“Your sister liked this shit, too,” he said. “Don’t fight it.” His grip tightened. “Lights out for you, girly.”
The darkness had almost completely swallowed me. It suddenly didn’t seem as important to try to fight this, to try to escape. Suddenly, I was looking down from above; I could see the back of Lucas’s head, the way his hair was thinning in a spot in the middle, the white-knuckle grip he had around my neck. I barely even recognized myself lying there, though; the girl on the floor very much seemed to be someone else, not related to me at all. I waited for my life to flash before my eyes, for something to happen, but the only thing I could think of in that moment was that Jason had been right—I shouldn’t have come back here. And I wasn’t going to be able to find my sister.
Chapter 13
Jason
I had a bad feeling.
I’d had bad feelings like this before, and sometimes they didn’t turn out to be anything, but this time the feeling gnawed away at me, a little voice in my head whispering not to ignore this, not to just dismiss it.
I looked at Emmy’s text again. Lucas Oddland texted... I hadn’t heard it when it came in because I’d turned my ringer off. It hadn’t been that long ago that she’d sent it, but I was kicking myself now because I could have called her and told her to wait for me. The calls now were just going to voicemail.
“I’ve got to run out,” I said to Cole, who had just gotten back from the Parkington Hotel. He looked up from his desk.
“Something come up?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ll be back.”
I could tell that he wanted to press me for details, but something in my tone told him not to.
“Sure,” he said. “See you when you get back.”
My palms were sweating as I stood, waiting for the elevator. Sometimes you could stand here waiting for minutes, but luckily, one came right away, and it was empty. I stepped in and hoped that it wouldn’t stop at every floor on the way down.
When I got outside, a cab was just dropping someone off. Another guy was moseying toward it, but I rushed past him and jumped in.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Asshole!”
I gave the driver the address to Oddlands. I tried to take a deep breath and tell myself this was just an overreaction, that I’d get there and she’d be getting whatever information he had for her... Except a larger part of me was thinking that whole thing was a load of shit. I’d seen how he’d looked at her; I doubted he even had any new information to give.
“Can’t you go around this?” I asked when the cab slowed to a stop for some roadwork they were doing.
“Cop’s up there directing traffic,” the driver said, annoyance in his voice. “Not going to get pulled over just because you’re in some sort of rush.”
I debated getting out and running the rest of the way, but it was still a dozen or so blocks. The cars in front of us started to move, and once we were past whatever it was they were doing that had one whole lane of traffic closed, we started moving at a decent clip, actually hitting all the green lights along the way.
Lucas Oddland. I didn’t really know him, but I’d heard some things about him. I hadn’t wanted to mention anything to Isa about it, but Oddlands was notorious for these over-the-top sex parties, and from the look of the flyer we’d seen, Emmy’s sister had been DJ’ing some of those parties.
Not that I was judging her, but more and more I was getting the feeling that Emmy didn’t quite know what she was getting herself into—and I sure as hell didn’t want anything to happen to her.
“Thanks, man,” I said when he finally pulled up in front of the club. I tried to hand him a wad of bills but I let go of the money before his hand had closed around it and the bills fluttered down onto the front seat. “Keep all of it,” I said. I didn’t know exactly how much I’d just given him, but it was definitely more than enough.
> “Thanks, asshole,” he muttered as I jumped out.
I barely heard him. The door to Oddlands was open, though the club was empty. There was a weird feeling in the air when I stepped in, and my senses went on high alert as I scanned the cavernous room, those ridiculous cages that would have lithe, oiled-up women gyrating in them.
I didn’t see any sign of anyone, so I hurried toward the back where Lucas’s office was. The door was shut but I didn’t bother knocking; I just leaned my shoulder into the door as I turned the handle and went in.
It took a second to register what was happening—Lucas on the ground, over Emmy, his hands clamped around her neck. Her eyes had rolled back in her head and her mouth was open, her tongue lolling out. She looked dead. Jesus Christ!
I was over on him in a flash, kicking out with my right foot, catching Lucas in the side of the head. He fell to the side, groaning, and I punched him twice in the face, knocking him out cold.
“Emmy!”
I dropped down on my knees next to her. I grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her, but her whole body was limp. My brain went on autopilot then, as I felt her neck for a pulse, which I knew wouldn’t be there. There were angry red marks on her throat; her lips were tinged blue. No. This was not going to happen. I was not going to let her die here.
I’d done numerous first-aid and CPR trainings over the years—it was mandatory if you were going to work at Parker Security—but I’d never actually had to do it on someone before. I positioned myself over her and did thirty rapid chest compressions, then tilted her head back, pinched her nose, breathed into her mouth for two long breaths. Her stomach rose with each breath, but still no pulse. I did another round of chest compressions, feeling like I was pressing down so hard I was going to crack her ribs. That happened, occasionally, the instructor in one of the classes had told us once. Ribs break. But that would be worth it if it meant you were alive.
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