“Where is he? Where’s Billy?” I growled searching the space for the man who always seemed to be around just when Brandy needed him. I hadn’t thought about how weird it was until then. He was a nice guy and her next-door neighbor, so I blew it off. Could he have done something to her? No, that’s not possible. The guy saved people for a living. He wouldn’t hurt her.
Billy was sitting on the curb next to a cop car pulling at his hair in frustration when I finally found him. “I tried. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. Where is she?”
“Hey, you tried. I will find her. I won’t stop until I do.” I hadn’t even noticed the cop come over to stand by me. I scrubbed a tired hand over my face.
“Mr. Collins?” he asked softly. “Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt her?”
It hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew who did this but I still felt desperate and helpless because I had no idea how to find her. “Her mother. Her mother did this.” The officer shook his head like that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
“You expect me to believe her mother did it? Do you know where her mother is?”
“She never should have been let out of prison in the first place after she tortured her for sixteen years,” I growled mostly to myself.
“What do you mean by that?” Billy stood from his spot on the curb.
“Brandy isn’t who we think she is. She’s Catherine Lane the girl whose mother locked her in a closet for sixteen years.” I could see the denial on Billy’s face in an instant. Anyone who’d been around Brandy would never believe that’d happened to her. She was so strong and beautiful. A shuddering breath left me as the weight of what was happening settled on my shoulders. It was like the car accident all over again. I couldn’t lose her too. We had to find her. No matter what, she had to be safe.
“You’re sure?” the officer asked scratching his head. Everyone had heard that story on the news and not one person figured it out. She had changed her appearance and her name so people wouldn’t constantly hound her to tell her story. It all made so much sense now. Her mom had come after her because of those damn tabloid magazines and E-News shows had hounded us for a while.
“Damn it. I should have known something was up after the first break in. The officer said that it wasn’t random. Someone had intentionally broke-in.”
“Wait, what? It was intentional?” I was about to lose my shit. She lied, so I wouldn’t freak out about the break-in or about her going home to her apartment. She knew this whole time something like this might happen, and she did it anyway. “We have to find her. Right now.”
*****
We didn’t find her that night. It was like there was no trace of her anywhere. No one had seen the late model blue sedan with no plates that Billy had described to the police. It was like she disappeared into thin air.
I’d searched all night but there was just too much ground to cover especially when I didn’t have a clue which way they’d gone. Six in the morning the police put an APB out and went to the media with the news of Brandy’s abduction. They plastered Kimberly Lane’s picture up on every news station in the state and even on the internet. I couldn’t believe we hadn’t found her yet. They had the secret witness hotline up and running and there were all kinds of crazy calls with sightings of her in strange places. The detectives explained that things like that happened when people went missing like this. I hated it. Why couldn’t the psychos just leave it alone? I only wanted the tips I could use. The ones that would lead me to her. I needed her. I needed to be the one to tell her it would be okay to tell her that I would die before anything else ever happened to her. She wasn’t staying in her apartment anymore even if I had to chain her ass to my bed. I’d do it.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Brandy
I didn’t understand what was happening. The man who’d never been anything but nice and protective of me since he moved in next door was leering at me. He had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. “Screaming won’t do you any good darlin’ so why don’t you save your energy while we have a little chat?” he warned. I molded my back to the wall as he leaned toward me to remove the duct tape from my mouth. I let out a small squeak as it felt like a layer of skin had gone with it. “Good girl.”
“Why?” My voice sounded pathetic even to my own ears. It wasn’t until he glanced around the room that I saw them. All the walls were covered in old newspapers. The most disturbing thing wasn’t the newspapers themselves but the subject. Every single one of them were me. He walked over to one of the newspapers and stroked a finger lovingly over my sixteen-year-old face.
“My parents committed me when I was seventeen. This woman came in not long after the stories started happening. The only entertainment I had was the daily paper.” He had a far-away look in his eyes. “The woman went a little crazy when she saw your face on the newspaper. She ripped it out of my hand and shredded it in all her haste to get rid of it. I was pissed. She had no right to do that to you, Catherine. I watched the papers until one day you stopped being on them and I missed you so much. I promised myself that I would get better and then come find you. We belong together, don’t you see it, Catherine? Don’t you?”
“I can’t believe I never saw how truly unhinged you are,” I shook my head sadly. Finding out he’d been in the nut house with my mother made sense considering I was tied up in some crazy room probably in the middle of the desert.
“Unhinged?” he barked at me. His eyes had never been angry toward me only kind. “I would kill for you. I have killed for you.” The roar caused me to flinch away. My mind whirled with who he might have killed. I prayed that it wasn’t Pete. God no, it couldn’t be Pete.
“I never asked you to do that. Wh-who?” I stuttered on the word. I waited for him to tell me with bated breath.
Please not Pete.
Please not Pete.
Please not Pete.
I chanted in my head as I waited. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t him, yet.” My eyes bulged out of fear for Pete. I’d do whatever I could to protect him from this psychopath. “See, I know you weren’t ready for me to get rid of him yet. Your mother on the other hand, I knew you’d be happy to find out that I’d rid the world of that woman.”
“Wait, what?” It didn’t make sense. They said she skipped out on parole. A single tear, the only tear that I would ever cry for that woman slipped down my cheek before I sniffed and looked up at the man before me who’d been so protective. He’d tricked me.
“When Pete attacked you, were you breaking into my apartment?” It all made so much sense. The second time, he hadn’t been counting on me getting a dog or that she’d been in bed with me. “Coco wasn’t just freaking out that night. She knew it was you.” I couldn’t believe I’d been so blind. I really was an idiot. Billy grinned nodding his head in triumph. He knew that he’d won, well I wasn’t letting him get away with it. I’d play him at his own game.
“I did it for you. Pete was clouding your judgement. He can’t possibly love you the way I do, Catherine.” Those words shot an arrow through my heart. For a psycho, he was methodical in his torture. I couldn’t believe I’d thought my mother was behind everything. She wasn’t crazy enough to pull something like this off. The thought stung so soon after finding out he’d murdered her thinking it would make me love him. I should have known it wasn’t her. I should have, but the torment started so soon after my dad told me what was happening. Dad, I wondered if he knew I was missing. The thought nearly had me crying again but I held it together just barely.
“Awww, darlin’, it’s okay. Everything will be fine just as soon as the heat dies down and I can get you someplace far away.” He reached for me and it took everything in me not to recoil from his touch. “I’ve gotta head back to Vegas, I promised I’d help search for you,” he chuckled before leaving the room. I heard three distinct clicks and realized just how many locks there were in place. Even if I got my hands and legs free, I would never make it out of the windowle
ss room.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Pete
“Mr. Lane?” I walked up to the man I was sure was Brandy’s father. “I’m Pete. I’m dating your daughter.”
“Ahh, yes, Mr. Collins, I know who you are.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re dating my daughter? The police showed me a text message that says differently.”
“I don’t believe she wrote that,” I shook my head. I had to believe it wasn’t her and that she still loved me like she’d just confessed that evening. “Her mother is just psycho enough to have done it after she’d subdued her. She could have sent it.”
“I would be inclined to agree with you if the local police hadn’t found her body washed up in the creek yesterday.” He shook his head like he didn’t know how to feel about Kimberly’s death. “She was murdered. They think she’s been there for weeks. She had something tying her down but with the weather being so dry this summer it dried it up and a little girl found her on the bank.”
My head started shaking immediately. If it wasn’t her then who could it have been? “She’s dead.” It was a statement not a question. I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. Who the hell would want to hurt her?
“The police got a court order for all her patient files to see if any of them have obsessive tendencies. We’ll find her.” He clapped me on the back. “I found her once, I can do it again.”
“I hope so,” I said just as my phone started ringing. I looked down and saw Eliza’s number and hit decline. I didn’t have time for her stupid bullshit. Greg’s number lit up my phone immediately. I knew it was her but figured if she was blowing up my phone it was probably important. “What?”
“Jesus, good to hear you’re doing well enough to bite my head off when I’m calling to help you.”
“How can you possibly help me?” I rolled my eyes. I was bouncing on the balls of my feet with the need to run, to do something anything.
“I saw a blue sedan with no license plate sitting abandoned on the way to Mount Charleston.” She sounded excited to be able to help. I got the directions to the car bouncing on the balls of my feet for a completely different reason now.
“Thank you, Liza. I gotta go.” Hanging up the phone, I looked over at Chuck with a smile on my face. “We have a lead. C’mon.”
I was moving toward my car before I even finished my sentence. “Wait son, don’t you think we should tell the police?”
“We can call them on the way.”
“They are right inside,” he huffed.
“I’m not wasting time looking for detective what’s his name. Every second counts.”
“Fine, but let’s take the rental. You need to be able to watch the road. You know this place better than me and know where to look.” I didn’t argue with that. I still got a little uncomfortable when driving.
Mount Charleston is about an hour outside the city. The desert gives way to cooler temperatures even in the boiling summer heat of Vegas. There was a long stretch of road to get there. I did what I said I would do and called detective whoever with the tip I got. He wasn’t happy that we were on our way to investigate, but I didn’t give a shit.
A half an hour into the drive, I spotted it. There was a tarp that blended in with the desert landscape over it and another car pulled up next to it. Billy hopped out looking like he was going to pull the tarp off it, but I stopped him. “Don’t touch anything,” I yelled hopping out of the car. “The police are on their way to investigate it.”
“I was out looking for her and came across this car. I think it’s the one I saw when they grabbed her.” He ducked to look under the tarp without touching it, looking for something. It wasn’t until then that I realized there was something off with him. He looked jumpy and I saw black poking out of the back of his pants. I didn’t think that he’d noticed Chuck in the rental car yet. I was hoping to distract him until the cops got there. Sticking my hands in my pockets, I turned to look at the road and my head exploded with pain. I collapsed to the ground looking at Chuck with pleading eyes. Don’t, don’t, don’t let him see you, I thought before everything went black.
Chapter Forty
Brandy
It had been hours since he’d left. I was still struggling against the damn duct tape. It was useless. I let out a frustrated scream just as Billy came flying through the door pulling at his hair looking more crazed than usual.
“Shit, shit, shit. We gotta move. We need to go.” He was pacing like a wild animal in a cage and it was scaring me even more than usual.
“Go? Go where?” No, no, no. He can’t move me. I realized it could only mean one thing if he was freaking out like this. “Pete,” it was a gentle whisper but had Billy’s head snapping over to mine and an angry glint in his eyes. He stomped his way over to me and wrapped his hand around my throat cutting off my air supply. I choked and gargled as he roared.
“He’s not coming. I made sure of it. Do not say his name again. He is gone. You will never see him again.” I was so helpless sitting there with his hand around my throat and arms and legs taped. White spots dotted my vision as I struggled for air.
Finally, Billy snapped out of his rant and released my throat. He stumbled back away from me and molded his back to the wall holding his head in his hands. I sucked in heaving lungfuls of air. It sucked because I couldn’t even bring my hands up to my aching throat or even move. I could hear him sobbing and banging his head against the door. I hoped he gave himself brain damage. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” he kept chanting over and over.
Looking over at him, I noticed something. It wasn’t him making that noise. It was something else. “Help,” I screamed. “I’m in here.”
Billy snapped to attention. “Quiet,” he whispered fiercely, but the damage had already been done. Billy cut the tape from my legs and I kicked out at him, but he was able to dodge it quickly. “Be good. We have to run. If I try to carry you, you’ll just slow me down.”
“I’m not running anywhere with you,” I screamed again. His fist flew out faster than I ever would have thought it could and connected with my nose. The crunch was sickening but not as bad as the waterfall of blood that poured from it. Tears sprang to my eyes as I cried out. My head was pounding so hard it was like a physical sound. My vision went dark around the edges as something loud assaulted my ears.
“Drop the gun you son of a bitch.” I heard a man’s thundering voice just as Billy snatched me from the bed digging something cold and metallic into my temple.
Oh, my God. He’s gonna kill me.
The man at the door was a police officer. He had his gun held high and aimed at Billy. I prayed to anyone that would listen that he didn’t make him shoot me.
“We have the place surrounded. Let the girl go. There’s nowhere to run.” As if on cue, something smashed through one of what I had thought were walls, but he must have covered the windows with those damn newspaper articles of me. I hadn’t been in a windowless room the whole time. If I’d been able to get the tape off, I may have been able to escape. “C’mon. You don’t want to die, do you? If you shoot her, I will shoot you. Without even flinching. Drop the gun.”
There was a moment of hesitation on his part before I felt the smooth metal lift away from my head and quicker than I could blink, a loud shot cut through the air and a heavy body fell on me. My nose screamed in pain as it hit the floor and I couldn’t tell who was shot. There was blood everywhere gushing around me. It wasn’t until someone rolled him off me that I realized I wasn’t the one shot.
I turned my head to look at Billy, but the officer stopped me. “You don’t want to see that, miss.” He shook his head sadly. The officer found something and used it to cut the tape from my wrists. I didn’t even feel the sting of it ripping at my skin. I was numb. I couldn’t believe how close I’d come to death. I rubbed my wrists. There was no feeling in my fingers. “Pete?”
“We found him in the trunk of this guy’s car. He was banging on the inside pretty hard. Paramedics are
taking a look at his head. He was pistol-whipped and thrown in the trunk.” I breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t killed him like he implied.
“Can I see him?” The officer nodded and helped me to my feet. My legs nearly gave out on me from disuse and the officer steadied me keeping a hand on my arm until some of the feeling came back. I smiled gratefully and let him lead me outside.
I hadn’t been expecting the cool breeze that slid across my face or the number of trees that surrounded the tiny cabin. How far away did he take me? “Brandy.” I heard Pete yell and watched as he batted at the hands tugging at him to sit down. He rushed to me and just before he started to crush me into a hug he looked down at my battered face and neck and cursed. “Where is he? I’ll fucking tear him apart,” he growled.
“Dead,” the word was hollow. I didn’t feel anything except Pete’s warm touch on my cheek as he turned my eyes up to his.
“I’m so sorry I let you down. I should have fought harder. I should have…” I covered his lips with my tingling fingers.
“It’s over. I just want to go home.” I wrapped my arms around his middle resting my cheek on his chest being sure not to bump my nose. “I just want to go home.”
Chapter Forty-One
Pete
When I saw what he did to her, rage unlike anything I’d ever felt before tore through me. I wasn’t just pissed at the asshole who did it though. I was pissed at myself for letting her go.
When the police found me in the trunk, it didn’t feel real. They had the place surrounded and were going in. It wouldn’t feel real until I saw her. I held her in my arms knowing that she was safe but at the same time almost not believing it. “You’re not going back to the apartment, ever.”
“I don’t want to go back there.” The shudder that ran through her only made me want to pull her in closer to me. It wasn’t at all possible but the need was still there.
Addicted (Sin City Gym Book 2) Page 12
