He got up from his chair and walked over to the couch she was on. Alyssa scrambled to sit up. The movement made the pain in her head swim.
“Try not to hurt yourself any more than you already have,” the man chided. He took a seat next to her. “Here, let me look at that.”
Alyssa slapped his hand away as he reached out for her.
“I don’t know who you are, where we are or why you took me,” she said, voice rising despite her fear. “If you’re so concerned for my well-being, then why don’t you let me leave?”
A muscle in the man’s jaw jumped as his teeth clenched. His smile stayed but hardened, like someone trying their hardest to pretend they were still happy with the situation when clearly they weren’t. Alyssa instinctively leaned away. If he noticed he didn’t show it. Instead he laughed. The sound was forced and bitter.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing with me, Alyssa,” he said, voice eerily calm. “But I don’t have the time to join in right now. I’m afraid I have more work to do before we can be together.”
Alyssa felt like she was in an episode of The Twilight Zone. One where she’d been dropped into a world that looked like hers but was slightly off. The familiarity the man was talking to her with didn’t make sense. And definitely not the being together part. She wanted more than anything to point out, again, that she had no idea who he was. Yet her instincts were yelling at her to avoid trying to remind him of that. You couldn’t force a person to be stable. Sometimes you just had to try to keep from making him even more unstable.
Still, she had to try to make sense of something.
“Work,” she said, then paused to clear her throat. It was hard to suppress her nerves. “What work are you talking about?”
The tightness around his mouth smoothed. She’d made the right call not to question his identity again.
“I was hoping you’d bring that up,” he said, almost excited. “It’s been quite the endeavor, but we’re finally nearing the finish line. All that’s left is one last wahoo. And it’s a big one, Alyssa. I think you’ll really like how beautiful it all will be. A great finale to a long season.” He reached out and took her hand in his. She didn’t dare move. “And now that we’re finally together, it will be even better.”
Alyssa felt her eyes widen. This man wasn’t giving her anything more than vagueness and a creep factor that was off the charts. No recognition flared when she looked into his eyes. At least not before the courthouse parking lot and not with the same intensity. Yet he seemed so certain that there was a relationship between them.
“The bombs are yours,” she guessed, thinking she might get more information if she didn’t actually ask questions. “The one in my car and then in Ted’s house. I didn’t drop my keys, you took them from me at the courthouse and then gave them back when you were done placing it. Then you put one in Ted’s house.”
He ran his thumb across the top of her hand. It took all of Alyssa’s self-control not to pull away or slap him again.
“I wasn’t ever going to hurt you,” he assured her. “But I couldn’t abandon the plan either, not after waiting so long to put it in action. Not after all the planning. Even if I never planned for you.” He sighed and then took a moment before continuing. Like some lovesick high schooler. “So I compromised. I knew I could still get everyone’s attention by planting a fake one. That way I could keep you safe but still follow the correct order.”
“I was the first witness for the trial,” she added. “And Ted was the second.” He nodded. Although Alyssa was trying to navigate the obviously unstable mind of the man in front of her, she couldn’t help breaking her facade to ask a few of the questions burning in her mind. “But what’s the point of all this? Why kill witnesses for the trial? Surely you have to know the Storm Chasers would still be found guilty without us. Why help Dupree and his partner?”
The man used his free hand to pat the top of hers like he was trying to placate a child. “I couldn’t care less about the trial. Or the ‘Storm Chasers.’ My goal is and has always been bigger, the payoff much sweeter. Especially now that we’re together again. But don’t worry, everything will make sense soon. All you have to do is be patient and stay here, okay?”
Alyssa’s focus had stuck on the “together again” portion of his answer. It kept her from responding right away. The man wasn’t pleased.
The hand holding hers tightened.
“Okay, Alyssa?” he repeated. His smile skewed, no longer aligned with a pleasant mood. His grip was now tightening past annoying to painful. “You’ll stay here, right?”
Tears pricked at the edges of Alyssa’s eyes.
She nodded.
“Say it, Alyssa,” he demanded, voice cutting low and mean. He added his other hand to the grip and squeezed so hard she couldn’t keep from yelping. “Promise me that you’ll stay here.”
“I promise,” she rushed.
“You promise what?” The man’s intensity tripled. He was yelling now. “What do you promise, Alyssa?”
“I promise I’ll stay here,” she cried. “I promise!”
All at once the man returned to what she could only guess was his normal. He let go of her hand, and his smile brightened.
“Good,” he said. “I’d hate to see you lose your way. I know you’ve been forced to spend some time with Deputy Foster. I’d hate for him to get into your head and mess up everything we have. Everything we could have.”
At the mention of Caleb, Alyssa felt herself freeze.
Where was he?
Was he okay?
Looking into the eyes of the man in front of her, she dared not ask him.
He wasn’t just a man who was unstable. He was a man filled with delusions. Ones that involved her. And her instincts warned her that if she didn’t play along with her part in his daydream, they would come to a deadly end. But she couldn’t police the fear that had welled up inside her. It pushed the dam to the point of extreme. The tears she’d been trying to hold back started to roll down her cheeks.
If the man saw them, he didn’t seem to care.
“Well, now that we have everything settled, it’s time for me to have a talk with an old acquaintance.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips against Alyssa’s forehead. Every part of her body felt disgust. Thankfully, he stood when he was done. “Don’t worry, once this is all over we can have the life we’ve always wanted.”
He left the room and closed the door behind him.
The sound of a dead bolt sliding into place followed.
Alyssa was glad he was gone.
At least now she could cry in peace.
Chapter Fifteen
They all looked like fireflies. Dotting the neighborhood with their flashlights, uniforms converged on Alyssa’s property and then expanded out in an attempt to find Dupree and Alyssa. Guns were drawn, shouts were exchanged, neighbors were told to stay indoors, but no one set their eyes on the beautiful auburn-haired woman.
Or the beast who had managed to escape.
Hours crawled by, and with them Caleb’s sanity inched further away from him. Dante had been rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a fractured cheekbone and a nasty concussion. The doctor had refused to let him join the search on the basis of, at the very least, him being medicated out of his mind. His speech was even more impeded by the swelling around his cheek. He’d at least been able to express his guilt and anger at letting Dupree get the jump on him when they split up to check the perimeter after getting the call that he’d escaped.
But Caleb didn’t hold it against the man. It had been his fault, not Dante’s.
That fact kept becoming more pronounced as time slipped by. His darkening mood didn’t go unnoticed.
“I order you to go home.”
Captain Jones stood to the full of his height and p
ointed in any direction that was away from the department. With no new evidence, some of the men and women had regrouped for a new game plan.
“I’m not leaving until we find her,” Caleb said with a hardness one wouldn’t normally use with a superior. He just wanted Jones to know that it was more of a promise than a statement.
Whether the captain understood the tone or not, he also stayed firm in his decision.
“You need to get some rest,” he said. “There are plenty of men and women, including the local police department, who are out there searching for both Miss Garner and Dupree.” Caleb opened his mouth to protest, but Jones was quick to continue. “The dogs will get here at five and after they are done I will update you. But as of right now I am telling you to go home.”
“I’m off the clock,” Caleb pointed out, anger building inside him. It wasn’t aimed at the captain but himself. “You can’t order me around now. If I want to keep looking, I will.”
Jones’s lips narrowed and his nostrils flared. This time his anger was directed at Caleb. “This is a stressful situation. Never mind the emotional attachment between you and Miss Garner. So I’m going to give you a pass here and ignore that look and tone you’re giving me. You’re getting close to crossing that line again, Mr. Foster. Not with just me but the department as a whole. And that’s not something you can afford.” He took a noticeably deep breath and then let it out slowly. Like he was trying to calm down. Jones’s eyes then dropped to Caleb’s hands, now balled into fists, before he spoke again. “Helping people is what we do. Ensuring their safety, even when it means we lose ours. You haven’t been here long, so let me make you a promise. The men and women of the Riker County Sheriff’s Department are extremely capable, hardworking people. We will always be here for our community and stop at nothing to ensure their well-being.”
Jones took a step closer. He lowered his volume. “Trust us and listen to me. Go home. Sleep for a few hours and then get your ass back here. Just don’t waste any more of my time having to babysit you. Go home now. Or I’ll escort you there myself.”
The captain didn’t budge from his new stance. Caleb didn’t have to know the man well to understand exactly what his body language was saying. He meant every word, including the threat, and he wasn’t going to back down in the slightest. But he was right, in part. Their conversation alone was wasting time.
Time that could be spent finding Alyssa.
Caleb gritted his teeth and gave Jones a nod. There wasn’t any more to be said. The captain stayed still as Caleb turned and left the building. He walked to his car, hands still fisted.
Even if the captain was right, that he needed to trust the rest of the department, it didn’t make a dent in his resolve to continue to look on his own. Trust wasn’t easy for Caleb. Not after what had happened. Especially not with Alyssa on the line. He couldn’t just go home, get into bed and sleep hours away.
No, not when he had no idea what she was dealing with at the moment.
If she was even still al—
Caleb slammed his hands against the steering wheel.
“Don’t think like that,” he yelled at himself. “She’s tough.”
He tried to distract his mind from looping back around to the worst possible outcome until he realized he’d disobeyed direct orders once again. He parked his car outside Alyssa’s house and sank back in his seat.
Why was he even here?
Two headlights interrupted his thoughts as a pickup truck pulled up beside him. Caleb reached for his gun. It was nearly four in the morning and no one, not even him, had a reason to be there. Caleb readied to pull his gun just in case when the truck’s window rolled down. He immediately dropped his hand and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He got out of his car and walked up to the window.
“What are you doing here?”
Robbie was alone in the truck and looked ready. For what, though?
“I’ve been looking for you,” the man said back, hurried. Impatient. The tone put Caleb on alert. “I thought you might be here.”
“Why? What’s up?”
Robbie’s face hardened. “Do you have any leads on Alyssa or Dupree?”
Caleb didn’t like to, but he shook his head. “No, everyone is still looking.”
“And you?”
“I was told to go home.” Caleb motioned back to the house. “But I wound up here.”
Robbie lowered his voice.
“Do you have your gun with you?” he asked. It surprised Caleb, but he answered without skipping a beat.
“Yeah, why?”
Robbie leaned out of the window. “Because I think I know where Alyssa might be.”
* * *
ALYSSA’S FINGERS WERE bloody and her shoulder and head ached.
While her captor was gone she’d spent the last hour trying to actively escape her makeshift prison.
The boards on the window wouldn’t budge. They were held together by so many nails that not even one shifted as she pulled with all her might. Not that it would have made much of a difference if she managed to pull one off. Through the gap in the top layer of boards, she saw that on the other side of the glass was another layer. Still, she kept her focus on that window long enough to make her fingers rub raw at the attempt.
Once that route was proven to be a dead end, she’d gotten a little desperate. Trying to pick the lock was impossible thanks to having no tools of any kind, not even a bobby pin, never mind the skills or knowledge to do it. So she’d sucked in a deep breath, pulled herself together and then charged the door like a bull at a red flag. However, the door wasn’t as worn as the rest of the room. It creaked but didn’t budge. By the third attempt, all she was doing was breaking herself down, not the door. And she wanted to be the best she could be when the man returned.
She took a seat on the couch and tried to focus on anything she could turn into a weapon. Had the man had a gun when he was in the room with her? Alyssa tried to remember, but all thinking about him did was send a chill down her spine.
The way he talked to her.
The way he looked at her.
Was she missing something?
Did she know the man?
Footsteps sounded in the hall outside the door. Alyssa scrambled to her feet and looked around one last time in the hope that she’d missed some glaringly obvious pipe or baseball bat or vase—anything—but she knew she hadn’t. The dead bolt slid open. Maybe if she treated the man like she had treated the door she could buy herself a window of escape.
She readied herself, bending slightly, ready to go, but the door didn’t open.
Instead she heard the man from before talking to someone else. She moved a step closer to try to make out what they were saying.
“It’s my choice. Not yours.” Another chill ran down her spine. That was definitely the man in the horn-rimmed glasses. And he was angry.
“This isn’t part of the plan,” the second voice said even louder than the first. There was no chill cold or deep enough that could fully express her feelings for that voice. It was Dupree Slater’s. “She isn’t a part of this plan and never was. Get rid of her.”
Alyssa took an involuntary step backward.
Her panic levels had been holding steady the last few hours. Now they were increasing at an alarming rate. She almost didn’t hear the other man’s response.
“There will be no plan if you touch her,” he yelled, volume going from zero to a hundred in a second flat. Dupree reacted in kind, his voice more an extended boom than words.
“This connection you think you have with her isn’t real. She doesn’t remember you. And do you want to know why?”
Alyssa jumped as the sound of a tussle bled through the door. Muttered cursing followed and then Dupree had the door open. Alyssa let out a shriek as he
moved toward her with startling speed. Her back slammed the wall just as he reached for her head. Out of terror she closed her eyes, waiting for what she thought was a punch to her face. Instead something unexpected happened.
She felt her glasses slide through her hair and across her skin. Dupree pulled them off her face and whirled around to the other man. He held her glasses up and shook them. Then he dropped them to the floor.
And stomped on them.
“This is why,” Dupree bit out.
He walked over to the door and stopped. Alyssa blinked a few times to focus, but he was still a blur.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked.
“Wh-what?”
Of all the things he could have said, that hadn’t even made her list of possibilities.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he repeated, raising his voice.
Alyssa knew that there was no way other than to wear her glasses to answer him correctly. Still, she squinted and tried.
“I’m nothing but a blur, right?” he added.
Alyssa nodded.
What did it matter that she couldn’t see?
“That’s what I thought.” Dupree must have looked at the other man. His tone changed into a smugness that made the situation even more confusing for Alyssa. “She might have looked at you, but she didn’t really see you. And if she didn’t see you, Norman, then how did that connection happen?”
Alyssa didn’t understand what was going on, but now at least she had a name to give the man in the horn-rimmed glasses. Norman. Though that wasn’t the best feeling, considering the name brought her no recognition.
“That’s enough,” Norman growled. There was undeniable authority thronging through his voice. Dupree had hit a nerve. A big one. “We have work to do.”
The blur that was Dupree didn’t leave right away. Instead he stood next to Norman with a look Alyssa guessed wasn’t polite in the least. Then, without another word, he left them alone.
Alyssa felt her body relax a fraction. While she had no love for Norman, in her book, he was better to be with in close proximity than the man who had shot her the year before. But no sooner than she’d had that thought did it change.
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