by Marie Force
He left her apartment and summoned the elevator, dialing 911 on his cell phone. As the elevator deposited him on the top floor, Beck finished calling in the report to local police. He knocked on Travis’s door. His friend answered a minute later wearing only a pair of gym shorts, and Beck could tell he had gotten him out of bed. “Jessie’s missing.”
Jessie fought to stay calm as Spector dragged her through the dark to the south end of the North Point property where the smell of fire lingered. Knowing Peter had regular patrols of the property scheduled around the clock, she prayed someone would find her before Spector could harm her.
“How did you get in here?” she finally asked when she had regained the ability to speak.
“Took a long walk on the beach,” he said with an oily smile that made her skin crawl. “You and your sexy friend Liana McDermott were so cute out there today talking to the media about me. It was good of you to confirm you were right where your ‘bodyguard’ said you’d be.”
Jessie gasped. One of the men who’d brought her here had told him? That wasn’t possible! Artie had hired the top security firm in New York City to transport her. “They didn’t tell you. You’re making that up. They were professionals.”
“Everyone can be bought, my sweet.” His fingers dug into her neck as he steered her along the dark path.
“Where are you taking me?” Jessie asked, her heart pounding with fear and adrenaline.
“To our own secret hideaway where no one will bother us.”
“Peter will find us. He’s already looking for me,” Jessie said with more bravado than she felt. She had no idea if he even knew that she’d been taken or if he planned to check in with her after their argument.
“He’s been real effective at catching the vandals,” Spector said with a harsh laugh. “He doesn’t scare me.”
Jessie was reminded of the mindless fear of being attacked by her stepfather and vowed to get through whatever Spector had planned for her the same way she had gotten through the hell of her home life—by mentally removing herself from what was happening to her. She had perfected the art of slipping out of the moment and into a safe place where nothing could harm her. It had been years since she’d needed the safe place, but she took comfort in knowing it was still there.
She stumbled in the dark, and he dragged her roughly along with him, no doubt bruising her arms. Imagining Peter taking Spector apart piece by piece also brought comfort. He would find her. She had no doubt. He would find her.
“How do you know she’s missing?” Travis asked, running a hand through his hair in an effort to bring order to it.
“She’s not in the apartment or the club. They said she was over there an hour ago looking for me. No one’s seen her since.”
Tying a silk robe around her waist, Liana joined them. “What’s wrong?”
“Beck can’t find Jessie.”
Liana gasped.
“Cops are on their way,” Beck said. “And I have our people gathering in the conference room. I could use your help.”
“You have it,” Travis said.
“Thank you,” Beck said, his voice catching. “He has her. I know it.”
Liana reached for his hand. “Stay calm. She needs you to stay calm and do what you do best.”
Beck sucked in a deep breath as he nodded. “Yes.” He made a huge effort to pull himself together and focus on finding Jessie. “You’re right. I’ll see you over there?”
“We’ll be right there,” Travis said.
As he made his way to the clubhouse, Beck struggled to take Liana’s advice. The night was extra dark since clouds covered the moon, and Beck could only imagine how terrified Jessie must be. I promised her this wouldn’t happen, and then I left her alone for hours because I was mad with her. I may as well have delivered her right to Spector.
Pushing those thoughts aside lest he go mad with recriminations, Beck stood outside the main door to the club and watched flashing police lights come down the long entrance road for the second time that night.
The same sergeant from earlier emerged from the car along with a patrolman.
“Got some more trouble, Mr. Beck?”
Beck quickly filled them in, and tried not to panic when the sergeant radioed for additional back up.
“Normally, we require twenty-four hours on a missing adult, but since she’s had a history with Spector and you’ve seen him in the area, we’ll waive that,” the sergeant explained.
“I appreciate it. We have to find her before he can rape her.” As Beck said the words, his heart ached as he remembered what she’d gone through with her stepfather. “We have to find her.”
“We’ll do everything we can,” the sergeant assured him.
Hand-in-hand, Travis and Liana came running across the parking lot as Beck showed the cops inside to where most of the North Point security staff waited for them.
Within fifteen minutes, they had teamed up North Point staff with police to cover every inch of the property and a half-mile beyond the property lines.
“He had to have come in on foot,” Beck said. “There’s no way he got through our gate.”
“That works to our advantage,” Travis said. “He can’t get as far on foot.”
“He’s got a significant head start on us,” Beck reminded him, the cold fear settling in his gut as he grabbed a flashlight.
“You don’t know that,” Liana said. “He could’ve grabbed her right before you went looking for her.”
“That’s true,” the sergeant said.
“Where are you going?” Travis asked Beck.
“To look for her. I can’t just sit here and wait.”
“I’ll go with you,” Travis said, glancing at Liana.
She nodded in encouragement.
“You said she has a cell phone?” the sergeant asked.
“That’s right, but she’s not answering.”
“Does it have GPS capability?”
For the first time since he’d discovered her missing, Beck’s spirits lifted. “Jesus, how could I have forgotten that?”
“You’re not thinking with your head right now.” Travis rested a hand on Beck’s chest. “This is about the woman you love.” He turned to the cop. “Can we track it?”
“If it’s on, we should be able to get a reading. It’ll take an hour or so, but we’ll see what we can do.”
“Thanks,” Beck said, shoving a handgun into the back of his shorts.
“Let’s go,” Travis said, grabbing another flashlight. To Liana he said, “Call us if they get a signal.”
“I will,” she said, stopping him for a kiss. She squeezed Beck’s arm. “Be careful.”
Spector shoved Jessie into a small wooden shack where the scurry of bugs and rodents made her want to shriek. The smell of old fish and bait had her choking back a gag. He lit a candle, illuminating a grungy cot in the corner and two dilapidated wooden chairs.
The glow of the candle off his doughy face had Jessie stepping back in fear until she reached the far wall of the cabin. As she realized there was nowhere else to go, that the man she had feared for months had her all to himself, and that Peter probably wasn’t going to find her before Spector harmed her, Jessie began to cry.
“Oh, now, is that really necessary?” he said in a sickeningly sweet tone. “You and I should be old friends by now. None of this would’ve been necessary if you had just talked to me the way I asked you to. I asked nicely, didn’t I? I sent you nice letters asking you to have coffee with me. That’s all I wanted—some coffee, some conversation. Would that have been too much for you to give one of your biggest fans?”
“No,” she said softly.
“So why did you ignore me? Why did you make me come after you this way?”
“Because I don’t know you.”
“The police told you I did bad things to those other women, didn’t they? Well, they ignored me, too, so they had to be punished.” He took a step toward her. “Just like you do.”
“No,” Jessie said. “Don’t touch me.”
“Too good for me, Jessica Stone, the supermodel? Prancing around in your panties for all the world to see. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” He reached up to free the top two buttons on her blouse.
“Please,” she whispered, her legs trembling. “I’ll give you money. I’ll give you anything you want. Just don’t touch me.”
“Your money means nothing to me.” He took another step until he was so close she could feel his breath on her face. “That’s not what I want from you.”
She turned away from him and closed her eyes. If this had to happen, she didn’t have to look.
He unbuttoned her blouse and pushed it off her shoulders.
“Mmm,” he said as he fondled her breasts through her bra.
Jessie felt herself slipping away as she imagined they were Peter’s hands squeezing her nipples. He was her new safe place. A sense of peace came over her as she thought of him, of the life they had planned, the family they would have together. His baby could be growing inside her right this minute.
As if someone had slapped her face, that thought filled her with rage and snapped her out of the placid state of acceptance. In the past, she’d had no choice but to lie there and take it. But she wasn’t twelve years old and defenseless any more. She was a grown woman who knew how to fight back.
If Spector planned to rape her, he’d have to kill her.
Beck moved quickly down the boardwalk.
Travis had to jog to keep up with him. “Talk to me. What’re you thinking?”
“That if he rapes or kills her, I’ll have myself to blame.”
“How do you figure?”
“I let my stupid pride cloud my judgment. I left her alone for hours. Hours, Travis. What the hell was I hoping to prove?”
“That you’re human just like the rest of us, that you were pissed at what she did today—and with good reason.”
“So I had to go off and lick my wounds while a fucking psycho grabbed her?”
“I don’t know where you got the idea that you’re supposed to be more than a mortal man, Beck.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You blame yourself for everything—for the vandalism, for Jessie, for what happened to your partner all those years ago. I hate to break it to you, pal, but you’re not God.”
Fuming, Beck stopped and turned. “Easy for you to say when everything you touch turns to gold, while everything I touch turns to shit.”
“Is that what you think? Jesus Christ, Beck, I’ve worked my fucking ass off for years to get this place off the ground. I couldn’t control the people who tried to stop me any more than you could. I wish you’d quit holding yourself up to these impossible standards that no one could live up to. You’re in for a whole shit load of disappointment if you can’t admit you’re just as human as the next guy.”
Beck’s free hand rolled into a fist that he would’ve loved to plow into Travis’s sanctimonious face. “So you’re saying I’m a jerk because I feel bad about what happened with the vandals? That I’m a jerk because I feel bad that I left my fiancée alone and her psycho stalker snatched her?”
“No,” Travis said softly. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m telling you it’s not your fault, you idiot. None of it is your fault.” Travis sighed with frustration. “Does it ever occur to you that maybe Silvestri would’ve achieved his goal of shutting me down if not for everything you did to stop him? Does it occur to you that your partner still would’ve gotten shot even if you hadn’t gone to call for backup? Does it occur to you that Jessie could’ve been snatched off the streets of New York and no one who loved her would’ve known to look for her? You’re not God, Beck. You can’t control these things.”
As Travis’s words sunk in, Beck’s eyes filled with tears. “I left her alone, Trav, knowing that guy was out there. I left her alone because I was mad that she defied me, that she didn’t trust me to take care of her.”
“We’re going to find her, and when we do, the only thing she’s going to care about is that you found her.” He put his arm around Beck’s shoulders. “Come on. Let’s keep looking.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jessie bided her time. She’d stood silently compliant as he stripped her naked. Watching his every move, she noticed a tremor in his hands and a wild look in his eyes. He didn’t expect her to fight back, and that’s where he’d made his mistake.
His eyes never left her as he undressed himself.
She wanted to gag when his stumpy erection flopped free of saggy boxer shorts. It was all she could do not to tell him how pathetic he was next to what she’d become accustomed to. Thoughts of Peter kept her from losing it as she waited for her chance.
Spector tugged her toward the bed.
Jessie resisted.
Thrown off balance, he overcorrected.
She kicked him squarely in the balls.
Howling, he collapsed, and she bolted for the door.
His hand clamped around her ankle.
Jessie went down hard on the wooden floor. Something tore into her knee. The pain was vicious, and she fought back a wave of nausea.
“You bitch,” he growled.
She twisted her foot out of his grasp and hauled herself up. Her knee throbbed with pain as blood streamed down her leg. Using her good leg, she kicked him in the face. Without waiting to see if she’d succeeded in knocking him out, she made for the door.
“Help!” she screamed as she limped naked into the darkness. “Help me!”
“Do you hear that?” Travis asked.
“What?”
“Listen.”
Off in the distance, they heard Jessie’s cries for help.
“That’s her!” Beck said, sprinting toward the voice in the dark as he radioed for back up.
They thrashed through weeds. A branch slashed Beck’s cheek, and a hot stream of blood ran down his face. “Jessie! Jessie!”
“Peter!”
Aware of Travis following close behind him, Beck ran until his heart threatened to explode in his chest from exertion. “Where are you, baby?”
“Here!”
It was so dark he had to follow the sound of her voice to get to her. And then there she was. He could barely make out her naked, huddled form. He whipped his shirt over his head and helped her into it before he wrapped his arms around her. “I’ve got you.” He buried his face in her fragrant curls, feeling as if he could faint from the sheer relief. “I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”
Sobs shook her petite frame as she clung to him. “I knew you’d come.”
Swallowing a surge of nausea, he said, “Did he. . .”
“No. I kicked him in the balls before he could.”
“That’s my girl,” Beck said, filled with pride. “Where is he, honey?”
“There was a smelly shack.” She pointed. “That way.”
“The old fishing shack,” Travis said.
Beck knew of the place, about a half-mile south of the North Point property line.
“I hurt my knee,” she said, moving her hand to show him the wound.
Travis shined the light on it.
Jessie took one look at the ugly cut and passed out in Beck’s arms.
Beck glanced up at Travis. “Will you stay with her?”
“Beck, wait for the cops. Let them do it.”
“Will you stay with her or not?”
“Of course I will,” Travis said, dropping to his knees next to Jessie.
Beck transferred Jessie’s head to Travis’s lap and stood up.
“Don’t kill him,” Travis said. “Think of her, and do not kill him.”
With a long last glance at Jessie’s pale, beautiful, lifeless face, Beck stomped off through the woods. Even in the dark, he knew exactly where he was going. Running, it took him less than ten minutes to reach the cabin, and he marveled that Jessie had gotten so far on a badly injured leg. He tugged the gun from the back of his
shorts and kicked the door open. Spector lay on the floor in all his glory, weeping. Blood streamed from his nose, and his balls were grotesquely swollen
Beck swore with disappointment. He’d wanted the guy to put up a fight so he would have an excuse to beat the shit out of him. But rather than give in to that urge, he reached for his radio.
Beck paced in the emergency room hallway as he waited for the doctor. They had whisked Jessie away, telling him he had to wait out here because he wasn’t her family. He’d be rectifying that as soon as he could. He would be her family, and she would be his.
Travis and Liana arrived with a bag of clean clothes for Jessie.
Beck had grabbed a shirt from his office before jumping into the ambulance to accompany Jessie. It had taken six stitches to close the wound on his face.
“Any word?” Travis asked.
“Not yet. I don’t know what’s taking so long.”
Liana reached for Beck’s hand and urged him to sit next to her. “She’s safe, she’s alive, and she’s in good hands. What else matters?”
He nodded, knowing she was right.
Travis took a seat on the other side of Liana.
They waited for almost an hour before a harried nurse called Beck’s name.
He jumped up.
“Ms. Stone is asking for you.”
Beck followed her through a maze of hallways.
“They want to keep her for twenty-four hours, but she wants out of here.”
Beck laughed at Jessie’s feistiness. “If I promise to take excellent care of her, can I take her home?”
“Fight it out with the doctor.” She gestured him into a room where Jessie sat on the bed with her bandaged knee elevated on a pillow. Her cheeks were flushed, her blue eyes hot with temper. Beck had never loved her more.