****
“So you’re telling me some blond guy came in here, asked for forty thousand dollars and then left?” Tucker’s expression evolved into exactly what Luke had expected: disbelief. “Who is he?”
“Didn’t give me a name.” He’d been trying to figure it out all afternoon.
“Well, can’t you just ask her?”
“Cal Aston nearly killed his daughter.” Luke held back a wince at the words. “She’s had enough to worry about.”
“So, what?” Tucker ran his hands through his hair. “You going to take this to the captain?”
“The thought crossed my mind.” Luke looked over his shoulder, his eyes studying Trey as she slept. Bruises and cuts marked her delicate features, but the peace written on her face calmed the blood boiling beneath his skin. The kiss had taken a lot out of her, pushing her into a deep sleep, and his lips creased into a smile at the memory. He forced his attention back to Tucker. Hurdles blocked their way, but he would make damn sure Trey never had to live like this again. “What I don’t understand is why they want so much money.”
“You think it’s Cal’s debt?”
“Has to be. Suzanne’s medical bills weren’t cheap. Cal probably tried to pay them off with a bookie.”
“Where do we go from here?” Tucker crossed his arms over his chest, his legs shoulder width apart.
“I need more information.” He checked his watch. Seven in the morning. “Shit. I have a shift.” Luke looked back over his shoulder, hating the fact that he had to leave her alone.
“I’ll stay with her,” Tucker said. “I don’t work till two.”
Luke nodded, his jaw tense as he gritted his teeth. Something along the lines of dread coated his tongue. The sour taste did nothing to help the already growing doubt that the blond wouldn’t come back, but the more information he had, the better chance they had of starting over. The station had resources he didn’t on his own. “Call me if anything happens.” He took the five steps from the hallway to Trey’s bed, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead. Taking in the warmth of her forehead through his lips, he whispered against her skin. “I’m going to fix this, Trey. I can finally make you happy.”
****
Her babysitter had fallen fast asleep and Trey wouldn’t have asked for it any other way. Now she had control of the TV.
The tubes stretched as she moved her hand up and down, changing channels every few minutes. The pain from her injuries had receded with another morphine drip, but the drug made her dazed. She didn’t know what was supposed to be on the screen.
Her memories of Luke’s kiss—their kiss—had cut themselves into tiny pieces, like flashes. Unreal segments. Had he really kissed her? Had she kissed him back? Trey couldn’t remember.
And then a man appeared in the room.
“Hello, Trey.”
She tried to focus on his face, her vision shifting too abruptly. Trey didn’t recognize the British accent or know how he got in the room. Her lids were heavy, barely able to stay open, but she fought hard. “Who are you?”
He stepped closer, only his blond hair and black three piece suit clear in the haze. “I work for the Caminos.”
“No,” she moaned, trying to push herself upright. Her limbs refused to move, too weighed down by the drugs. The white walls shifted violently, her stomach turning with the movement.
“Yes,” the voice said. He’d stopped directly beside the bed, his blue eyes breaking through the fog in her brain. “And you know why I’m here.”
Trey tried to shake her head, to clear the morphine away. “I paid...” Her words were slurred in her own ears. “It’s not mine. I paid.”
“Not enough.”
Chapter Twelve
“What do you mean you don’t know!” Luke yelled. “Where could she have gone?”
“She was here, man. I mean, before...”
He took a step toward his partner, every muscle in his body tense. “Before what?”
Tucker wouldn’t meet his eyes, his shoulders sinking. “I fell asleep.”
Luke didn’t need to hear another word. He turned on his heel and headed into the hospital corridor. The walls passed in a blur, his legs carrying him too fast to register his surroundings.
“How are you going to find her?” Tucker’s footsteps echoed behind him as he ran out the front doors. “Where are you going to look?”
“I’ll sweep every inch of this damn town if I have to,” he said, nearly out of breath from running. Luke wrenched open the cruiser’s driver side door and threw himself inside.
Tucker did the same on the passenger side.
“There’s more to this than we thought.” Even Parkvista’s facial recognition software was advanced enough to identify Anders Stark. Luke thrust the rap sheet he’d printed off into Tucker’s hands. “I think he took her.” He enunciated his words by stabbing the report with his index finger.
“This is the guy that tried to give you a shave job?”
“Yeah. Anders Stark. Works for the Caminos as a consultant.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Hitman.”
“And you think he took her?” Tucker stared down at the man’s mug shot. “How is that even possible? I was right there!”
Luke had asked himself the same question. No matter how unreliable Tucker might be, he wasn’t deaf. “Trey might have been unconscious. They’ve been pumping pain meds into her for a week. She didn’t even have a chance to fight. ” He started the car, pausing. His lips creased into a thin line. “If he hurts her, I swear to God—”
“Ok, let’s say Blondie here took her,” Tucker interrupted. “Even though we don’t know that’s true. Where would he take her?”
Luke exhaled roughly. Wasn’t that the question of the day? Frustration tinted every word that left his mouth. “We’ve got nothing to go off of.”
Neither spoke for what seemed like an hour as Luke read and then reread the file in front of him. Something had to give him an idea of where Stark would take her.
“Where are we going?” Tucker fastened his seatbelt as the car jolted forward then made a hard right.
“I need to see the other victim’s files,” he said. He stepped on the gas. Who knew how long Stark would keep Trey alive? Luke tried to even his breathing. Christ, he didn’t want to be in love. His heart had pushed itself to the bottom of his chest cavity and then up into his throat over the course of two minutes as he pondered what Stark would do to get that money. Trey Aston would be the death of him, but he couldn’t let her die at the hands of a psychopath.
****
The morphine had worn off. Trey forced herself to keep her mouth shut, but it took effort while she fought against the restraints that kept her strapped to the table.
“You’ll get by without the pain killers.” Stark smiled down on her from the head of the table, his arms on either side of her head. “But I have a running bet going for how long.”
As he moved to one side of the table, Trey noted the warehouse where the Camino’s bully held her captive. She didn’t recognize it, which meant one of two things: either he’d taken her to one of the farms just outside of town or out of the county entirely.
“You owe The Family a lot of money.”
“I told you,” Trey said through gritted teeth. The pain had slowly become unbearable as though millions of fire ants decided to repeatedly bite her. “It wasn’t my debt.”
Stark smiled. “That may be the case, but either way, The Family will get their money. By the way, I was sorry to hear about dear-old-dad. I’d have normally gone for him first since he was the borrower. However, under the circumstances, you’ve inherited the debt. Next will be that deputy you seem so fond of.”
“I can get more money,” she said, her eyes wide. Fear trickled down her throat and settled in her chest. Trey fought against the restraints in vain. “Please, Luke has nothing to do with this. I can pay it again!”
“Do me a favor,” Stark pi
cked up a small knife from beside the table. “Try to stay conscious during this next part.”
****
The files didn’t help a damn bit.
Each of the surviving victims had recanted their statements to police and the closest one would take three hours to find. Luke didn’t have time to follow a lead blind. He had to find Trey now.
He slammed the file in front of him shut, running his hands over his buzzed scalp as he leaned back at his desk. Officers all over the station ran toward the door, but he couldn’t afford to lose his concentration. Luke reopened the files, forcing himself to concentrate. “I’m missing something,” he said through gritted teeth. He’d never felt so helpless in his life.
“Johnson!”
His head shot upward, searching for the source of the interruption. “Sir?”
“Didn’t you hear me?” the captain asked. “Get off your ass! We got a hostage situation at the credit union. The McCleary brothers are back in town.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Luke noted Reynolds holstering his service weapon as he walked toward them. “Still trying to find your whore, Johnson? Come on, let’s go do some real police work.”
Heat flared in the center of his chest and he stood abruptly. “A missing person is real police work, asshole.”
Reynolds stepped closer, practically chest-to-chest with him. “Not when it concerns a prostitute, Johnson.”
Before he knew it, rough hands pulled Luke back before he could pound the son of a bitch into the floor. He assumed Tucker had been the one to restrain him, but couldn’t be sure through the red haze descending over his vision.
The captain held Reynolds, shouting over the scuffle. “Reynolds, get your ass in the cruiser!” Getting enough strength to flip Reynolds around, he continued. “Now, I don’t care what the hell is going between you two, we have hostages to help.”
Luke reined himself back and the hands on his shoulders disappeared. “I’m not going.”
There hadn’t been a second thought. Those people at the bank, they didn’t need him. Trey did and he had to find her. She had no one else.
“Excuse me?” the captain asked. Reynolds shuffled out slowly, leaving Luke to confront his superior alone.
“Trey Aston is missing, presumably taken by—”
“We got hostages, Johnson.” The captain’s face screwed into an expression of confusion. “What about them, huh? Is she more important than the women and children in that bank with the McClearys?”
The memory of night of his proposal assaulted his mind. He’d been ready to give Trey everything he had, share everything, love her till the end of his days and protect her. Comfort her when she cried and make her smile as much as possible. None of that had changed, not even after finding the goodbye note on her pillow the next morning. He’d come to accept she’d needed space, needed to grow up in order to return his love. And he’d let her go. Now, however, she needed him more than he’d ever imagined. Their love might be complicated, perhaps even hell, but Trey had been everything he wanted in a woman: adventurous, caring, even intimidating. They had a past, maybe even a future if she cleaned up her act. She’d disappeared on him once, but he wouldn’t let it happen again. “She is to me.” Luke gathered the files from his desk along with his jacket from the back of the chair.
“Me, too,” Tucker said, taking a stand beside his partner.
Luke turned on him. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Neither of you do,” the captain explained. “Now, you both are going to walk out that door and get in your car. And if I don’t see you at the credit union in ten minutes,” he stepped into Luke, nearly as close as Reynolds had gotten, “don’t bother coming back.”
Luke inhaled slowly, his gaze level with his superior’s. Moving with careful deliberation so as not to alarm the officers still around the station, he set down his jacket and the files then unholstered his weapon.
“Johnson,” the captain warned, a hand reaching for his own weapon.
His free hand moved to the badge on his chest. Luke pulled it off, handing the weapon and the badge he’d worked so hard for to the man in front of him. “I think I’ll just save us the time.”
Tucker stepped forward, surrendering the same two items. “It’s been a pleasure, sir.”
“You’re really going to do this?”
Luke nodded. “Yes, sir.”
A smile pulled at the captain’s mouth. “Then what are you still doing here, son?”
“Understood, sir.” Heading toward the door, he didn’t know where he’d end up, only felt the need to be looking for her and not at a stack of files that promised more questions.
Footsteps followed close behind.
“Where are we going?” Tucker asked.
“He would have taken her somewhere secluded. So I’m starting with the farms.”
They walked through the front doors of the station and back into the parking lot.
“There’s over fifty farms out there.”
“Then we’ll split up.” His words were final. They’d already wasted an hour looking through paperwork and Luke wasn’t under any illusions that she might be alive. He was a cop and Stark was a killer. He knew how these things worked, but from the look the man had given him in the hospital, Stark would want to enjoy the foreplay first.
“Tell me where you want me,” Tucker said, his hands on his hips.
His partner’s commitment made Luke pause. “Thanks.” He slapped Tucker on the shoulder. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“I hear that a lot.”
Luke smiled. “We’ll take the North. It’s closest to the freeway and the quickest escape for Stark.” As the words left his mouth, Luke knew that’s where a pro would work. “We’ll each take half.”
“Then what?”
“Pray she’s alive.”
Chapter Thirteen
Her body hurt, but nothing compared to the holes left in her mouth where her molars used to be. They sat in a metal tray beside the table Stark had strapped her to. Bits of blood and tissue were still attached. She’d tried for dream lucidity, a place where she could escape the pain. All at once the anguish, the straps, and blinding halogen lights ended, but only when she’d been successful. The dream places were familiar, safe. Back in Luke’s apartment, before she’d abandoned him, they’d had movie night every Friday. He’d make a giant bowl of popcorn. They’d watch horror movies for the comedic decisions characters made and cuddle on the couch. On Saturdays, they’d spend nearly all day in bed, making love, eating.
Pure bliss.
All too soon, Stark smiled down on her, his alabaster face covered in a sheen of sweat. “You’re quite strong. I was sure I’d have you screaming by now.”
Trey coughed up more of the blood that had seeped down her throat, the salty taste sending a shiver throughout her body. Unable to turn her head, she used her tongue to dislodge the wad of saliva out the side of her mouth. She’d been through worse, but not much. “That’s one way to appreciate an abusive father.”
“Yes.” Stark laughed. “I guess that’s true.” He walked around the other side of the table, his eyes roaming over every inch of her. The movement of his eyes made her want to shower.
She took a careful inventory of her body, starting with her head. Her chest, arms and thighs had been sliced several times with a blade, but not bad enough to make her bleed out. Her fingers and toes were numb, but from the corner of her eye, she noted her index and middle fingers had ended up at an odd angel. Broken. The holes in her mouth ached the most, her tongue sliding over the slimy remnants of where her molars had been ripped out. He’d left her face alone to avoid her eyes swelling shut, explaining he wanted her to see everything.
Luke would suffer the same fate, he’d said, and the thought made her gag. She’d killed her father to save Luke’s life and realized only now, it’d been in vain. Tears ran down her face from lack of oxygen and she tried to turn her head to dislodge the bile i
n her stomach, but failed. The last bits of liquid followed the bloody saliva down into her hairline and for the first time since the morphine had worn off, she feared for her life. How would she survive this? How would she save Luke?
“I see I’m finally getting to you.” Stark’s face blurred, the tears making it hard to decipher what kept him occupied at her side. His hands seemed to work quickly and a sudden stab of pain in her forearm ripped a scream from her throat. She’d been too distracted by her thoughts of Luke to ready herself for the next attack, giving Stark exactly what he wanted. The sound of her personal betrayal left her ears ringing. She couldn’t breathe, the blood from her missing teeth clogged her throat and she tried to wretch again.
Nothing came up.
Her entire body shook uncontrollably, beads of sweat dripping into her hairline.
“You’re system is going into shock,” Stark explained.
“Go to hell.” The words came out slurred, the lights above dimming slowly. She closed her eyes just for a moment as her arms rattled against the cuffs, eager to let the darkness take her.
****
The scream came from the right.
Luke’s heart dropped into his stomach. He’d never heard such agony come from a human, but thanked God Trey had the strength to scream. He prayed he never had to hear that sound again. “I’ll find you, Trey,” he whispered to himself. “I’m coming.”
He had two buildings to choose from, neither of which gave him any sign of occupancy.
The tracks had been erased from the snow. Stark knew exactly what he was doing and Luke could only imagine how many victims were lost because of it. He would not lose Trey. Not again.
Personal gun drawn, eyes narrowed and his body ready for an attack, he stepped into the first warehouse. The dim lighting made it hard for his eyes to adjust, but he moved forward anyway. There were no more screams. No labored breathing or footsteps.
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