Immediately, my heart dropped into my stomach, and I yanked on the door again. When it wouldn’t budge, I took off back around the house and tried the front door, which I hadn’t even noticed was sitting slightly open. I pushed the door open and pulled out my phone, yelling Sara’s name. Carefully and slowly, I walked into the house, looking down at the floor. There was a bag of groceries lying on the ground, the contents spilled everywhere. I leaned down and dipped my finger in the red liquid on the ground and smelled it. It was wine, and inside the bag, there was a broken bottle lying on top. My heart started pounding a million miles a second, and I stood straight up, yelling out for Sara.
I ran down the hall, checking the living room and the kitchen, but there was no sign of her. I bolted back to the front of the house and took the staircase two steps at a time to the top. I was breathing heavily, still screaming out her name. She wasn’t in any of the rooms either. I shook my head and walked back downstairs, completely perplexed at what could have happened. Right inside the doorway, there was a large boot print that was obviously not hers, but that was the only evidence there was. I walked back out into the yard as sirens screeched down the street, cops pulling up outside. The men got out of their car with their guns pointed in my direction. I dropped my phone and put my hands in the air.
“Get down,” they screamed.
Before I knew it, cops were descending from everywhere, screaming for me to put my hands on my head and lie down in the yard. I had never seen anything like it, not even in New York. I had been on the streets long enough as a kid, though, that I knew to do exactly what they were saying, especially with so many trigger-happy small-town cops. I slowly dropped to my knees and lay down face-first in the yard, pulling my hands up and locking my fingers behind my head. They patted me down and prodded me with their nightsticks, checking to make sure I didn’t have any weapons on me. I kept my mouth shut at first, letting them do their jobs. They knew Sara and I were together, but I had no idea what prompted them to come here.
The captain came over and nodded to the others. They lifted me up off the ground and took my handcuffs off. I pulled my hands around and rubbed my wrists.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“I was supposed to meet the homeowner,” I said.
“Sara,” he said.
“Yes, Sara,” I replied. “We were supposed to have dinner, and I just got here, and she isn’t home. There are a bunch of groceries scattered over the floor, a broken bottle of red wine, and the door was cracked open. Why are you here?”
“We got a report of a kidnapping,” the captain said.
My heart dropped into my chest and my stomach churned. A kidnapping? Who in the hell kidnapped Sara? She had just gotten over everything had been going on with Janson. She didn’t have any other enemies in this town and definitely not someone who would abduct her from her home. Unless, not that I even wanted to think about it, one of Janson’s cronies was set out to do something to her for landing him in jail. It was farfetched, though. Most everyone felt freed by not having him around anymore. Just then, my phone rang, and I leaned down and picked it up from the ground. The captain nodded and walked toward the house.
“Alison,” I said, picking up the phone. “Have you heard from Sara?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s why I called the police.”
“You called the police?” I was confused.
“I got a text from Sara it said, ‘help Janson kidnap Route 2.’ But when I tried to text her back, it wouldn’t go through,” she said frantically. “I thought Janson was in jail. How could he get to her like that?”
“He must have gotten out,” I said. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How did this happen?”
“I don’t know, but we have to find her,” she said, her voice cracking. “He has abused her for years, and I don’t know what he’ll do now.”
“I know,” I said. “Look, I’m going to make a couple of calls. I’ll call you back, and if you hear anything else from her, call me immediately.”
“Okay,” she said.
I hung up with Alison and called the attorney general immediately. I told the secretary it was life or death, and from the tone of my voice, I assumed she believed me. She put me right through to the AG.
“Ryan, what’s going on?” he said.
“Janson has escaped,” I said. “He kidnapped my girlfriend, Sara. I need a statewide search immediately.”
“Dammit,” he said. “I’ll get things going as soon as I can, but this takes some time.”
“Hurry,” I said, hanging up the phone.
The AG wasn’t going to be able to move fast enough. By the time they got to her, Sara might be hurt or worse. I flipped through my phone and called the owner of the private security firm I’d used in New York City, asking for a referral for Oregon.
“Oregon,” he said. “I don’t know. Um, hold on, let me look through my contacts.”
I sat there for several minutes, tapping my foot and looking around at the cops milling around the yard looking for clues. At this rate, we’d find Sara in ten years. This was sensitive, and I knew Janson wasn’t going to go lightly on her.
“I’m going to connect you to my contact in Oregon,” he said. “They’ll be able to mobilize manpower for the search. They don’t have a huge unit, so you’ll have to head it up.”
“Fine,” I said.
“Hold on. I’ll put you through,” he said.
“Diamond Security,” the voice answered.
I went through the whole spiel with them letting them know what happened. The guy was on point, saying it would cost quite a bit. I told them I didn’t care about the money, and that was when he realized I was the guy bringing jobs and solar energy to Oregon. He agreed to send out his task force but told me that I would need to coordinate the team.
“That’s fine,” I said. “I have people here who know the area.”
“When do you need them?”
“Now, yesterday, as soon as possible,” I said. “I need them to meet me at the address in Bonanza in the next hour, or you and the rest of this damn state can kiss my money goodbye.”
I hung up the phone and growled, walking back and forth, pushing the hair out of my eyes. Sara was the most important person in the world to me, and there was no way I could let something like this happen to her. She was so innocent and sweet, and Janson had no mercy when he dealt with her. If I lost her, I didn’t know what I would do. I tried to focus on a strategy, but I could barely think straight. When the team arrived, it was only four guys, but luckily for me, they were all ex-special operations and were pretty seasoned when it came to these kinds of things. They were fully packing and dressed all in black. They were going to be my best hope of finding Sara, especially since the police department there in Bonanza wasn’t really trained to handle this kind of crisis.
“We have tactical gear in the van,” the head guy, Jeremy, said. “We can comb the area where her text said she was taken, and I’m sure we’ll be able to pick up a trail. From the background of the perp, it doesn’t seem he is too versed in being covert.”
“Not at all,” I said, looking up as Alison’s truck pulled to the curb.
“I brought some help,” she said, climbing out and looking back at several of the men from town. “They know the area, the layout, and are familiar with Janson and how he thinks.”
“Perfect,” Jeremy said. “Come with me.”
We walked around to the back of the van, and Jeremy pulled open the doors. We hopped inside and looked down at a black table bolted to the floor. It reminded me of the van I had gotten Sara, and my heart skipped a beat. Jeremy pulled out a map of Route 2, and the guys started making some guesses of where Janson might be headed. There was an old quarry and at the end, was the old lumber company that had been shut down for a couple of years. It didn’t feel right to me, though. It just didn’t seem like Janson’s MO. He wasn’t that planned.
I turned the map toward me and looked at the other roads
running through the area. I pushed my finger down to an intersection where Route 2 met Route 20. It ran perpendicular in an East-West direction. It didn’t look like there was much in that area, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have somewhere out there to take her. What if she hadn’t finished her text? What if we spent all our time chasing down an empty trail? We didn’t have that kind of time to fail.
“Look at this,” I said, showing the guys. “There’s another route on here, Route 20. What if she didn’t get to finish the text? What if she meant Route 20? What’s out there?”
“Nothing really,” one of the townspeople said. “I think there are one or two hunting cabins out there, but it’s just a through road, takes you out to the water. It’s old and country.”
“I think it’s worth a look,” I said. “We should have another party take that side.”
“We don’t have enough men for that,” Jeremy said. “We need to devote what we have to Route 2.”
“Fine,” I said. “You guys take Route 2, and I’ll head out to 20 and check it out.”
“Sounds good,” he said.
“I want you to call me every fifteen minutes with updates,” I said.
Jeremy nodded his head and closed the map. I jumped out of the back and into my truck, turning on my GPS and heading out to Route 20. I had to find her before it was too late.
Chapter 66
Sara
My face was pounding, and my head felt completely out of whack. Slowly, I lifted my head and tried to open my eyes. I tugged my arms up but they were bound to the hard, wooden chair I was sitting on, along with my ankles. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and my muscles were stiff from God knows how many hours of sitting there. I blinked my eyes over and over, wincing at the burning above my eyes. Janson had hit me. I remembered that, and there must have been a cut above my eye. When my eyes cleared, I could see Janson sitting across from me, drinking out of a bottle of whiskey.
“It’s about time you woke up,” he said, slurring his words and bobbing his head back and forth.
“You’re drunk,” I whispered with a disgusted face.
He shook his head back and forth, opening his eyes wide and taking in a deep breath. He put the bottle on the table and almost knocked it over as he stood up. The chair he was sitting in toppled to the floor behind him.
“I thought you would just sleep all day,” he said. “I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me. You always were a lazy bitch. But now that you’re awake, we can start the fun.”
He stumbled across the room and grabbed his gun off the table by the couch. He turned back to me and waved it through the air. I didn’t say a word, only wondering to myself how I could possibly deserve this waking nightmare I was in. I had never seen it coming, and he had gotten me before I had a chance to comprehend what happened. Janson walked back over to the bottle of whiskey and took another swig from the bottle, smacking his lips and letting out a loud breath. I shuddered at the smell, vowing never to touch whiskey again if I even got out of this whole thing alive. He looked down at me and squinted his eyes, putting the bottle on the table and walking around toward me.
I sat up straight in the chair and turned my face to the side as he leaned down close to me. I could smell the alcohol and sweat radiating from his body. The smell was terrible, and it made me want to throw up all over his damn cowboy boots. He smiled and chuckled, bringing his hand to my face and running his finger across my brow. He pushed on the cut, but I didn’t wince, just stared straight ahead, feeling his finger run down my neck and across my chest. He reached forward and ripped open my shirt, the first four buttons bouncing off onto the floor.
“Leave me alone,” I yelled out, following a loud scream for help.
“Shut up, you uppity bitch,” he yelled out.
I closed my eyes and shrugged my shoulders seeing his hand rear back. He slapped me hard and fast, the sting radiating through my face, down my neck and up into my brain. I couldn’t even catch my breath, it hurt so bad. My head fell backward and rolled from side to side. Everything was fuzzy, and I was literally seeing stars as I sat helplessly tied to the chair. I was so angry that if I could get loose, I would surely kill him where he stood, not that it would be hard with as absolutely wasted as he was.
When I came back to my senses, I could feel his hands on me again. I looked up at him as he tugged at my shirt, his gun in his holster and his feet swaying from side to side. I hated the feeling of his hands on me. It made me want to scream, but I knew all that would lead to another slap, and I wasn’t sure I could take any more.
“Goddammit,” he cursed, as my shirt got caught on the ropes.
“You know, it might be easier to get me naked if you untied the damn ropes,” I said.
“If you untied the ropes,” he said in a mocking tone. “Shut up, smart-ass. I’m in charge here.”
Just like I thought he would do, taking the idea for his own when he realized I was making a good point. He hated to be made to look like an idiot, and his response was to work whatever was said to his advantage. He was so predictable. He stumbled behind me and bent down, drunkenly struggling to untie me.
“I know you don’t think so,” he slurred. “But I’m a fucking catch. I was king of that town, could have had anything I wanted, do whatever I wanted. You had the chance to be part of that, to be by my side and be the queen of that town. I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to be with me. Hell, it’s not like there are any better guys in that godforsaken place. There’s old Roy, but he’s, well, old, and then there are a couple of other guys, but they’re all married. You didn’t have any other choices, and I was a damn good catch. You really fucked that up, you know? Did I ever tell you I’d watched you ever since we were in high school?”
“Stalking since you were a teen,” I said. “How romantic.”
“I wanted you,” he said, ignoring me. “Then, when we finally got together, I knew it was only a matter of time before we got hitched. Shit, someone needed to turn you into an honest woman, give you some children so you would have a proper job to do.”
“I have a job,” I growled.
“Yeah, right.” He laughed. “That pathetic excuse for a vet clinic you got? Or do you mean being that rich boy’s whore? You really need to get your head on straight, Sara. You’re thinking like a man when your place is as a woman. And if you think for five seconds that the little rich boy will come save you, you’re kidding yourself, especially when I’m done with you. No man for miles is going to want anything to do with your beaten-up whore ass. You’ll be lucky if I let you crawl back to me.”
“Never,” I growled.
“Sweetie,” he said drunkenly. “You might as well accept your fate now. You know you were made to be my property, and I’m going to give you a little taste of what you’ve been missing out on. I do what I want with my women, and you get the special show, the one where you don’t get up and walk away afterward.”
My heart started beating faster and faster in my chest. I looked around the room, trying to find anything I could use as a weapon. This was the hunting cabin he had talked about, but it was pretty much empty, just some furniture and a couple of floor lamps. His words were scaring the hell out of me, and that hadn’t happened for a while. He sounded like he was going to have his way with me and then either leave me there for dead or kill me himself. There was no way I could let that happen. I had a life ahead of me with my practice, and I had Ryan, and I wasn’t going to let Janson take that away from me. Finally, though, he got the ropes off me, and I was free from the restraints.
I sat there calmly for a moment, letting him wander back around in front of me. He looked down at me with a disgusting grin and reached forward, ripping my shirt open. I used the distraction to stand up and grab the gun he had shoved into his waistband. He stumbled back and started to growl at me. I pulled the gun up and pointed it straight at his chest.
“Don’t move,” I screamed. “I’ll fucking shoot you.”
He looked a
t me, confused for a moment, patting the place on his jeans where I had pulled the gun from. Then, he stood up tall and straight, laughing loudly at me. His face went blank, and he lunged at me.
“I mean it,” I screamed. “I will kill you where you stand.”
He just smiled and continued to walk forward, rubbing his grubby hands together. I knew right then that no matter how much I didn’t want to hurt anyone, I no longer had a choice. It was either him or me. I took in a deep breath and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. I panicked and looked down at the gun, trying over and over again.
“Safety’s on, dummy.” He laughed, reaching forward and slapping the gun right out of my hand. “Now you’re really gonna get it, honey.”
He grabbed his belt buckle and undid it, starting to pull his belt from around his waist. I backed up slowly until I hit the table. Suddenly, the door behind him burst open, and a figure shadowed by the lights came rushing in, tackling Janson to the ground. I gasped and moved away from them, unsure of where to go. I looked down at the floor and saw the gun sitting there. Immediately, I dove for it. I grabbed it and stood up, flipping it over, switching off the safety, and pointing it toward the struggle. I moved it back and forth, but there was no clean shot for me to take.
Something looked familiar about the man on the floor, and I drew my eyebrows together, stepping forward and squinting at them. My heart leaped back into my chest as Ryan rolled over on top of Janson and glanced over at me. Holy shit, it was Ryan. He had come to rescue me, just like I hoped he would, even though the situation had seemed bleak. Ryan straddled Janson and started pounding his fists into him. Janson was wasted, and all he could do was pretty much flop around. The man should have thought twice before finishing off a bottle of whiskey before attempting to do God knows what to me. He should have known he was never good enough, not to even force himself into my life.
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