“Since when are you and Chris pals?” Peter had a hard time picturing Chelsea of all people as being good with kids.
Chelsea plunked her phone onto the coffee table upside down. “If you must know, Chris covered for me once. I slept with Ken while I was with Zack, and⸻”
“Of course, you did.”
“Oh, hush. Chris found out but I convinced him to keep it quiet. I’m simply repaying a favor.”
“Let me get this straight. Chris kept a secret for you and in return you’re risking your life for him?”
“If Amy Evans can reinvent herself as a good person, why can’t I?” Chelsea snatched up her phone as it buzzed with an incoming text.
Peter shook his head. Chelsea had dated Zack right before he and Amy had started going out. But the whole time Chelsea and Zack were together, she had had a thing on the side with Alex. She couldn’t have been all that heartbroken, or surprised, when Zack moved on to someone better. It was amazing Zack had stuck with her as long as he had.
“Oh my God,” Chelsea said, her eyes alight with joy.
Peter sighed. “What did he say?”
“It worked!” She lifted her chin and smiled into space. “He wants to see me.” Her voice was dreamy and filled with awe.
Peter scowled. He distracted himself by calling Kimmy with an update. “What do you think she should say?”
Chelsea bounced in her armchair. “He says he knows where I am, and he’s going to come here!”
“Did you hear that?” Peter switched Kimmy to speaker phone. Computer keys clattered as she typed franticly on the other end.
“Got it. I would have suggested a more public location, but Ms. Brookes has made that impossible.”
“It’s not my fault,” Chelsea said.
“How the heck does he know where she is?” Peter’s skin prickled with increasing apprehension.
Kimmy ignored his question. “Peter, you need to get out of there. Make it quick before Alex realizes she’s not alone.”
“She can’t be alone with him!”
“Kimmy’s right.” Chelsea stunned him by taking her side. “It’ll be way easier to distract him with you out of the way.”
Peter hated where this was going, but it wasn’t the place of an ex-con to argue with the police. He slid off the bed, grabbed his backpack, and shot Chelsea a concerned look from the door. “Stay safe. Call me if you need help.”
“Thought you didn’t care.”
“I don’t.”
He slipped from the motel and wound up in a coffee shop across the street. It was on the dingier side with rough wooden tables and a single grimy window. He checked his phone out of boredom. No new texts from Nova.
His phone rang as he was stuffing it into his pocket. He glimpsed Kimmy’s picture and accepted the call. “Where are you?” she said.
“Coffee shop across the street. What’s going on?”
“Call Nova and convince her to release the students when I tell you we’re ready. Alex will get to Chelsea without being caught. We’re going to use the time he’s distracted to surround him and free his captives. You on board?”
“Of course.” Hope swooped in his stomach.
Three tension filled minutes passed with agonizing slowness. Peter stared vacantly at the people all around him, their quiet conversations a murmuring backdrop to his unease. He held his phone in an iron grip, poised to call Nova at a split second’s notice. “Do it,” Kimmy said, and the line went dead.
Peter punched call and held his breath as it rang. “Hello?” Nova whispered.
Peter pressed the phone to his ear and kept his voice low and calm. “Hey. I need you to be really brave and do something for me. You up for it?”
“Maybe. Alex is gone right now.”
Peter nodded. He had to be straight with her. “Alex won’t be back for a while, if ever. Now’s your chance to help Chris and the others. Let them go.”
“What if he comes back? He’d kill me!” The fear in her voice made him twitch with anger.
Peter crushed the phone in his fist as tension curdled in his stomach. Nova had a point. They needed a plan. What would Kimmy do? “Make it look like they jumped you. And make sure you escape with them.” He had to get her far away from Alex if she was going to switch sides.
“I’ll do it,” Nova blurted, determined and terrified.
“Be careful.” She had already hung up.
He stared out the window, his eyes locked on the motel. Kimmy better know what she was doing. They had placed more lives than ever in Alex’s line of fire, and if anything happened to Nova he would never, ever forgive himself.
Hey, Jenkins.
A chill ran through him. He’d recognize Alex’s voice anywhere. It haunted his worst nightmares like a siren that proclaimed everything was about to go terribly, horribly wrong. He swept his gaze around the coffee shop, searching for the psychopathic escapee.
I’m in your head, genius. After what Johnson tried to tell you about mind control, I would have thought you’d be more prepared. Come outside and play a while.
An unseen force yanked Peter to his feet and towed him from the café like a dog on a leash. Alex was lounging against a parked Mercedes with a revolver at his side. He beckoned him forward. Peter stumbled toward him, powerless to resist. But he had to resist. He grasped at that thought and clung to it like a life preserver. He gritted his teeth and stopped walking. His pulse pounded painfully against his brain. He closed his eyes to concentrate and searched his mind for the all-too-familiar presence. He grappled with it like a boxer in his final round.
Come now. Alex smirked. There’s nothing new for me to pry from your mind. I’m not here to interrogate you. I’m simply here to kill you.
Peter struggled to back up. His feet were solid, weighted bricks.
Alex climbed into the Mercedes and took aim through its open window. The normally busy street was eerily deserted. Peter’s last conscious thought before the bullet slammed into his chest was hoping Nova, Susan, and the others had made it out safely. At least his death would serve as the distraction that brought them freedom.
Twenty-six
ZACK SEARCHED FOR Amy for the better part of the morning and enlisted the help of Damien, Charles, and Jessie. No one had seen her since she had left Damien’s apartment the evening before. Anxiety clawed up his insides until his guts were red and raw. Amy had never reported all her movements to him. Far from it. But it wasn’t like her to vanish without an explanation, either.
“I think we should report her missing,” Damien suggested as if the idea spelled doom in giant block letters. He shot Charles a worried glance as the group congregated in Zack’s room.
Charles glowered back at Damien in an uncharacteristic display of malice. Zack blinked once and shrugged off his friends’ hostility. He had to focus on Amy. He had no time to wonder why emotions were running hotter than a Texas summer sun.
“Who’s missing?” Jackson strolled through the door with a backpack over one shoulder. Zack cocked his head. Potheads went to class?
Damien bristled like a rattlesnake. “His girlfriend.” Zack glanced from Damien to Jackson and raised a questioning brow. What was with these people and all their hidden rage?
Jackson paused halfway to his mini fridge. “Amy? How long has she been gone?”
“Since last night,” Zack said, anxiety constricting his chest. “The last we saw of her was around eight p.m.”
“I’m going to text Kimmy.” Charles set to work composing a lengthy message.
“Kimmy is our cop friend,” Zack explained for Jackson’s benefit. He shot Charles a doubtful look. “What’s she going to do from all the way across the country?”
Charles pressed his lips together. “Maybe she can send some colleagues out to look around.”
Damien shuttered. Zack shot him a look. This guy acted shadier than a converted mobster. Amy liked him though, and he had been helpful that morning. “Something wrong, Damien?”
“No.” Damien shifted uneasily. “I was just thinking of the pile of homework I need to deal with.”
Jackson snorted. “It’s the second day of class, and you’ve already got homework? What are you majoring in, rocket science?”
“Music.” Damien grew suddenly cold. “It’s about a million times more competitive than something as cliché as rocket science.”
“What did Kimmy say?” Zack asked with an anxious hum beneath his words.
Charles frowned down at his phone. “There’s not much to go on, and Amy hasn’t been missing long enough to warrant official concern.”
Jessie made a derisive noise in her throat. “How helpful.”
Charles’s phone buzzed. “But given Amy’s history, Kimmy is going to send her brother and a detective friend to campus to ask everyone a few questions. I assume her brother is a cop.” Charles threw Damien a satisfied smirk. Zack and Jessie exchanged a puzzled look. Charles and Damien were trading barbs like sworn enemies. What had inspired such hate? They had only known each other a couple days.
They trooped to the cafeteria for a gloomy cup of coffee and lunch. None of them were sleeping or eating well given the events of that week. Zack, himself, had laid awake for most of the night before, tossing and turning while he worried about his brother. Chris was experiencing exactly what Zack had felt two years ago and was likely feeling the same mixture of fear, frustration, and helplessness that he had. It was even worse for Susan, who must be reliving her worst nightmare. The last mess with Alex had really only lasted a day, and it had very nearly killed them all. Zack grew nauseous when he thought about how the week might end.
Zack got a text as he sat down at the table. He glimpsed Amy’s name and whooshed out a relieved breath. The next second, his stomach lurched as if he had left it at the top of a drop zone ride. Zack, I’m chilling here with your girlfriend. So far, I’m keeping her alive, but if you don’t turn yourself in soon, she’s gonna have to take your place. Zack’s chest constricted with horror. Why them? Why was this happening again?
“What’s wrong?” Damien shot him a look of concern. Zack handed him his phone. “Bastard,” Damien muttered under his breath.
“What is it?” Jackson and Jessie reached for his phone at the same time. Jackson read the message over Jessie’s shoulder.
“Well, if we didn’t have anything to report to the police before, we sure as hell do now,” Jessie said.
Zack stared into space. Where was Amy now? Tied up and alone? Helpless and raging about it? Being hurt, punished, tortured while he sat here powerless? His food tasted like cardboard. He tossed it in the compost on his way to meet Kimmy’s brother.
Jessie squeezed his arm. “Zack, she’ll be okay. She’s been through worse, and you know she’s a badass.”
Zack swallowed the emotion constricting his throat. “We don’t even know who’s got her. What if they’re working with Alex?”
“Don’t jump to the worst-case scenario.” Jessie looked away as she spoke, confirming Zack’s worst fears. Who else would have taken Amy? He shuttered as he recalled the horrors Amy and Susan had endured at the hands of Alex’s amateur gang, Assassin’s Honor. How much worse would Alex have gotten after serving time in prison? He had put Amy in the hospital for a week two years ago. What if this time he put her in a cemetery?
“This is so much more interesting than calculus.” Jackson whooped as a squad car cruised onto university grounds. He had been following them around since before lunch and hadn’t shown any sign of leaving.
Damien shot him a look of purest loathing. “This isn’t a movie. This is real life.”
“I know! That’s why it’s awesome!”
Zack strode to the squad car. “Are you here to investigate the disappearance of Amy Evans?”
“Yeah, Kimmy sent us,” the driver said. “I’m Detective Xander Pacherri, and this is Officer Jaxton Wolf. I understand you have concerns about the whereabouts of one of your friends?”
Detective Pacherri looked to be in his late twenties and carried himself with an air of entitled confidence. His sandy blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, and his observant leaf green eyes took in the scene with watchful intensity.
His partner, Officer Wolf, was built like a professional boxing champion and towered over the group from an even greater height than Peter. Zack found himself looking up and up, and Charles had to crane his neck to meet his eyes. He would have struck an imposing figure anywhere. In police uniform, he was downright disconcerting. Jessie caught Zack’s eye, jerked her head toward Officer Wolf, and mimed a dramatic swoon.
Zack shook hands with the officers and skipped straight to business. He described what little they knew about Amy’s disappearance and ended with the startling text he had received over lunch.
Officer Wolf rubbed his chin. “Sounds like this might be connected to Kimmy’s case in Toronto.”
“We’d better have a peek around campus,” Detective Pacherri said.
The pair set off toward Amy and Jessie’s dorm without so much as a backward glance. Zack suppressed a prickle of annoyance, frustration and fear swirling together in his gut. He wanted to go with them and hang around while they interviewed students.
Damien blew out his cheeks. “This’ll take a while. They have to get permission from school officials before they even begin. Then they’ll put out a statement asking anyone who may have seen Amy to come forward with information. It’s just a waiting game after that.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Charles pierced him with a look of deep mistrust. Damien met his gaze with scornful contempt.
“Do you two know each other?” Jessie was swiveling her gaze between them as if following a tennis match.
“No!” they chorused, appalled at the idea.
“We’re just rooting for opposite sides,” Charles explained cryptically.
“Opposite sides of what? You don’t even like sports!” Jessie bounced on her toes, dying to interrogate him. Zack shook his head. It was not the time or place.
“Seen Raquel lately?” He winked at Charles in an attempt to diffuse the tension.
“Raquel?” Jessie echoed, her emerald eyes sparking with anger at the mere mention of the other girl’s name.
Zack cringed, realizing his mistake a second too late. Jessie and Raquel hated each other because of Ken. He raked a hand through his hair. When had their lives gotten so messy?
The afternoon slid by on a slow-moving sea of anxiety. The group split up and went to class. Zack learned nothing and skipped his last lecture before dinner.
Jackson was flopped in bed when he returned to their room. The space was wonderfully free of the stench of pot. “Hey.” Zack crashed out on his mattress.
He woke from a restless nap to an insistent knock at their door. He got up to answer it and found Detective Pacherri in the hall. “We’ve got a lead,” he announced with great triumph.
Hope unfurled in Zack’s chest. “Go on.”
“A group of sorority girls saw Ms. Evans being carried through campus at around nine o’clock p.m.”
A rush of excitement accelerated Zack’s heart. “Did you get a description?”
“Not a good one. The girls say it was a young Caucasian man of average height. He wore a gray hoody and blue jeans. The youth claimed he was taking Amy back to her room, but according to my witnesses, he was walking in the opposite direction.”
“Do you think she was drugged?” Zack held his breath and dreaded the answer.
“The girls said Amy looked wasted. One recognized her from a party earlier this week and said she had gotten drunk then, as well. That’s why they were hesitant to report the encounter.”
“So, Amy was abducted from campus at nine p.m. last night, but we have no idea who did it or where they went?”
The detective nodded. Zack’s excitement crumbled into dust. “There’s not much else I can do here.” He handed him his card. “Call me if you think of anything that may be important to her case.�
� He made to walk away.
“Wait! I know someone with a grudge against Amy.”
The detective turned around, his interest piqued. “Is this person capable of harming her?”
“They have a history, and he matches your description.”
“Innocent until proven guilty,” the detective chided gently.
Zack struggled to look less like he was launching a witch hunt and arranged his features into those of a calm, concerned boyfriend. “Can you at least go talk to him? I’ll show you to his room.”
Twenty-seven
ALEX TUCKED HIS phone into his pocket with a wide, smug smile. Chelsea was as desperate as a truck stop whore. Who had managed to screw her up so completely? He chuckled softly. What did it matter? Her desperation was to his benefit.
He beckoned Nova with a finger. She shuffled to his side, her eyes tired and her lips set in a permanent pout. “What do you want this time?”
“I’m leaving for a bit. Will you keep it together while I’m gone?” He fixed her with a flinty stare.
Her eyes sparked with the briefest flash of hope before she fastened a lid on her dangerous emotions. “Guess so. How long will you be gone?” She spoke with an edge of boredom that failed to disguise her excitement.
He grabbed her by the throat and shook her like a ragdoll. “I can see your mind, sis. If a single one of the little brats puts so much as a pinky toe out of line, I’m holding you personally responsible.” She whimpered. He shook her again. “Got it?”
She jerked her head in a tightlipped nod. He set her back on her feet. “Why do you have to go?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“I’m curious.”
“Too bad.” He left her to wonder and worry. It would give her something to do. He stepped into the storage closet to tunnel to Chelsea unseen.
More powerful Darks than him were able to teleport from place to place, but Alex had not been blessed with this ability. He traveled by manipulating the earth with a vacuum-like force that propelled him underground. He could tunnel at speeds faster than the average car and stay out of sight while doing so.
Blood Moon's Servant: A Paranormal Thriller Page 17