by Ashlee Price
Tyler has just gotten out of the hospital after being shot, and he has only one thing on his mind. He has to find Dr. Camilla. She was there when he woke up after surgery, but she never visited during the three weeks that he was there recovering. Now that he’s out, all he can think about is finding her.
When he can’t get her on the phone, he goes to her office and asks around. No one has seen her in weeks. She’s supposedly taken some time off for her mental health, but it doesn’t feel right. Something is wrong, and he isn’t going to stop until he finds her.
Nothing makes sense, until Tyler starts looking into the patient that she was seeing, Zane. The man has a criminal record a mile long, and Tyler has a feeling that Zane knows something about where Camilla is. He can’t prove it, but he’s sure that if he finds Zane, he’ll find Camilla.
Chapter 1 – Tyler
“I think you’re going to be okay, Tyler. Your recovery is going quite well, and I know that you’ve been dying for this day.”
“I’m just ready to get back to it. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
“Just make sure that you rest up. I don’t want you back in here because you’re doing too much.”
I grinned and then winced a little. I was sure that I wasn’t going to be doing too much. I still hurt too much. Pain was a good reminder to slow down, and I was feeling it firsthand today. There was nothing that I wanted to do more than get out of the hospital, but the idea of what all was ahead of me was overwhelming.
Signing off on the paperwork that he put in front of me, I grimaced at the bill and heard him chuckle. “Come on, you’re not worried about the price, are you?”
“No, you guys saved my life. I would have paid more.”
The doctor just shook his head. He’d seen and heard it all before. The weeks that I’d stayed in that bed were going to be a part of my life that I never forgot, but to him it was just another patient in his docket. I would never forget Dr. Franks, though. I knew that it was because of him that I was even here. He’d been with me from the very beginning, and if I was a more emotional man, I would have hugged him and thanked him properly. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t.
“Thanks, Doc.”
“No problem, Tyler. I’m just glad to see you doing better. There was a while when we didn’t know.”
“I know. Me too. I feel like I got a whole new lease on life.”
“Then don’t waste it.”
I told him that I wouldn’t, and I didn’t plan to. Being in that bed for so long had given me a lot of time to think about everything that I was doing in my life. I wasn’t going to say that I liked what I’d learned, but I was thankful for the lesson. I’d been living a life that wasn’t my own. It didn’t have to do with Maya, though the marriage was a glaring failure, but so many other aspects. My job was something that my father had pushed me into, and even the car I drove was because Ivy had liked the way we looked in it. When I really started to think, I realized that I wanted to change everything.
The driver was new. I’d lost a few of my staff while I was in the hospital. I knew that it was just the tip of the iceberg, and I absolutely dreaded the idea of going back to work to find out what needed to be fixed. I had no false hopes that everything had been running the way it was supposed to. There would be problems that had come up, and I was going to have to make sure that I was there to put the fires out.
I took the phone out of my pocket and decided to call Camilla again. I’d been trying her since I woke up and she was gone from the hospital. I’d thought that she would come back, but she never had. Instead I’d spent time with my soon-to-be ex-wife and spent even more time thinking about the future. If the bullet had been a bit more to one side or the other, I might not be here. That weighed heavily on my head and cemented the idea that life was short.
When she didn’t answer, I threw the phone to the floor. I’d called and called, left so many messages that I was sure I was going into stalker territory. She wasn’t answering and hadn’t even let it ring for some time. Now it just rung once and went right to voicemail. After a few minutes of stewing, I called her cellphone one more time before I sighed loudly to myself.
Rolling the divider screen down, I asked the driver to take me to her office. I didn’t know the address, and he didn’t know where I was talking about, so I had him drive around in the vicinity while I called my mother about it. I knew that she would have the address, and sure enough she did.
“Are you okay, Tyler? I wanted to come get you, but I had to go to a meeting.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re out. Are you going to come by for dinner? Your father is going to be here.”
“No, I don’t think that we’re going to have those dinners anymore. It was weird enough when we started them up again. You and dad aren’t together, and Maya and I are getting divorced.”
“What do you mean?”
“She wants a divorce, and I agree with her. We’re unhappy and I’m sick of pretending. I don’t know how you and dad can stand each other after everything that you’ve been through. You won’t have to pretend to like each other anymore. It’s exhausting.”
“Well, your father and I have always cared about each other. I know that we’ll never really be together again, but I liked the dinners. It helped me feel closer to you, and I really liked Maya. Are you sure that you can’t work it out?”
“She’s getting married to another man, so I think that ship has sailed. It’s the right thing to do.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t know. There’s a woman that I think I’ve fallen for.”
She was silent for a time, and I wondered what was going through her mind. I was usually so careful with my words, but that was another thing that was going to change. I just wasn’t going to do that anymore. I wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything for anyone anymore.
“Well, you’re going to do what you want. At least now you’ve learned to follow your heart. I’ll be down there this evening, okay?”
I wanted to tell her not to come, but she’d been a constant visitor, and that had made my hospital stay a little more tolerable. “I’ll see you later.”
The car stopped in front of the building that I’d been going to for therapy. It seemed different now. Now that I’d been shot there and everything in my life had changed.
“I’ll be right back out, Case. I just need to check something.”
The driver nodded and waited for me behind the wheel. I walked a little slower, but I made it to the receptionist area eventually. I waited for the redhead to get off the phone before I asked about Camilla.
“She hasn’t been to work in about three weeks. I think she called in or emailed us about taking some time off.”
I couldn’t believe what she was telling me, and I had to wonder if that was just the story for me. So I called a few minutes after I left, trying to get an appointment with her as a new client, but I was told the same thing. Dr. Camilla was taking some time off, and no one had seen her in weeks. That seemed strange to me. Where would she have gone?
Chapter 2 – Camilla
“Come on, Camilla. You’ve been sleeping long enough.”
I felt a splash of water on my face that was so freezing cold it made me jump. I’d been partially awake when I started to hear Zane ranting and yelling, but now I was up and looking at him. I tried to stand up, but found a chain around my waist that wouldn’t let me stand up completely.
“What is going on?”
“What’s going on? Well, Camilla, I told you to stay away from Tyler, but you just wouldn’t. You never did listen very well, did you?”
“Tyler, he was shot…”
“Yeah, I know. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but you made me. Just like Janice. You made me do it, and now I want you to pay attention so I don’t have to do anything like that again.”
I didn’t know who Janice was, but it was clear by my surroundings and bindings that Zane had gone o
ff the deep end. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat back down on the cold concrete floor and tried to close my eyes again. Squeezing them shut, I was sure that when I opened them, everything would be back to normal and all of this would be a dream.
Opening them back up, I found that I was wrong. This wasn’t a dream at all. It wasn’t a nightmare. This was real life.
***
“Come, Camilla. This is getting old. It’s been almost a week since you ate anything. What’s gotten into you?”
I looked at my captor and I wanted to scream. He asked the question as if he genuinely didn’t know what was wrong with me. In his eyes, he’d given me everything that I wanted. But the way I saw it, he was refusing me the one thing I needed. I needed my freedom, and Zane wasn’t going to give it to me. He knew that if I had a choice, I would leave. He wanted me to stay, that much was clear, and he was willing to go to any length to keep me. This wasn’t love, this was obsession, and I was ready to just give up.
“I want to go home, Zane. I’ve been here for weeks! What do you think? That I’m just going to go along with this and have nothing to say? Do you really think that I can just let this happen?”
“No, but you can make the best out of the situation. I think you told me that one time a long time ago.”
That was before I knew he was crazy. I had thought everyone had a chance of coming out of it, no matter what traumatic event had changed them, but Zane needed more help than I could give him. I’d talked to him for hours and days upon days, and nothing was going to change his mind. He saw what he was doing as love, and there was nothing that I could say to change his mind. I had tried, but it was no use.
So I was ready to just give up. I didn’t want to live like this anymore. With everything that I’d endured as a child at the hands of my uncle, I was not going to go on like this. Life was just too painful. I didn’t even get hungry anymore. That part of it had passed, and even though I hoped that he would let me go when he realized that I wasn’t going to eat anymore, I knew that he might not. I had to be prepared to go all the way with it, and I liked to think that I was. I liked to think that I was strong and I was going to be able to get through this, but if not, I was okay with that too.
“I don’t remember what I told you. It was a long time ago, Zane. I just know that I’m not eating, so you can waste your time bringing it or you can just leave me alone.”
“If you don’t do what I say…”
“You’ll do what?” I lifted my hand, which was chained to a bed mounted to the cement floor. I was in a warehouse full of old computers. There was never anyone but me and him there, no visitors and no chance to get away. I didn’t know where I was, but there was nothing else that he could do to me that he hadn’t already done in the last few weeks.
“If you don’t care about yourself, maybe you care about the people that are close to you?”
He was grasping at straws, and I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t have anyone that I cared about. My childhood and family were a tragedy, so none of it really mattered, not like he’d expected. My answer made him mad and he threw the food that he’d tried to offer me. It had smelled better than I would ever admit, but I was stubborn and this was the only power that I had left.
“I don’t have anyone that I care about to hurt. You don’t know enough about me, Zane, or you would know that.”
The man was getting thinner and there were bags under his eyes. As a doctor, I put that down to the stress he was under. He looked like he might crack at any time. I didn’t really want to help him, though. I’d spent all of my life wanting to help everyone, but now I’d finally found one person I just didn’t care to help at all. Zane was just going to have to do what he needed to do, because I wasn’t going to play his game anymore.
“What about Tyler?”
There was a hint of fear in me, but I didn’t let Zane see it. “What about him? You failed the first time, and I’m quite sure that he won’t give you another opportunity.”
“He just got out of the hospital a couple of days ago. I’m sure that I could get close to him if I wanted.”
“Why? He means nothing to me.”
“You kissed him!”
“Yes, one time, and it meant nothing. I’ve told you that since you overheard it all. You didn’t listen then, and you aren’t listening now. He means nothing to me.”
I wanted Zane to believe me. When I’d found out that it was one of his friends that had shot Tyler, the guilt was overwhelming. I couldn’t think about him doing it again, so I had to believe my words, more than he did. I had to believe that no one else would be hurt because of me.
“I think you’re bluffing.”
“You can think what you want, Zane, but you’re not going to get your way. I’ll never love you, and soon I won’t be here to torment.”
“You don’t understand anything, Camilla. You’ll love me again. You loved me before, and I can make you love me again.”
I moved enough for him to hear the metal grating together on the chains. “This isn’t love.”
Chapter 3 – Tyler
“What do you have for me, Billy?”
“Well, not a lot right now. No one seems to know what happened to her.”
“So no one has seen her?”
“Not that I’ve found. I’ve talked to all of the people at Camilla’s job. It’s like the doctor just disappeared.”
“What about her house?”
“I checked, and there was nothing that signaled a struggle. But there were also no clothes gone, and there were several suitcases unused in the closet.”
“So…”
“So it doesn’t look like she’s gone anywhere, Tyler. Her credit cards are unused, and there are no transportation tickets in her name. Your doctor is gone, and there’s been no digital trace of her since the night that you saw her in the hospital. You’re actually the last person who talked to her as far as I can gather.”
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. Billy was always good about coming through for me. He’d never found nothing before, and I didn’t like the idea of this being the first time. This was the assignment that mattered the most, and I really needed him to find her.
“So nothing?”
“Not on Dr. Camilla.”
“What about this Zane character?”
The older man sighed and leaned back in the chair. The office door was closed and I still worried that someone was going to overhear our conversation.
“Well, that’s a whole other matter, Tyler. This guy is a real piece of work and he has the criminal record to back it up. Are you sure she was involved with him?”
I nodded my head once. I still could see the fear in Camilla’s eyes when she’d told me about him. “He was stalking her after she tried to break up an affair they were having.”
“And she was his doctor?”
“Yes.” I felt defensive and I didn’t like the implications he was making, like it was somehow her fault. While I’d thought about it over and over again, if Zane had done something to her, it could already be too late, and I didn’t want anyone talking bad about her.
“Just asking. It just seems like a doctor would know better, or see him for what he really was. He was on trial years ago for the murder of his girlfriend. The charges were dropped for one reason or another, but after getting to know this guy’s background, I would say that he did it. I wouldn’t like to think about her with him. It might not end well.”
He was not helping my nerves. I knew that it wasn’t any good, and I didn’t need to see an arrest record to know that. From the picture that I’d pulled up on the internet I knew that there was something off about him. I was biased, of course; knowing that he was with Camilla was enough of a reason for me to not like him. I didn’t need facts to make me feel that way.
“So where is he?”
“Well, he’s a little harder to track down. He doesn’t work in an office, but works remotely for his company. I’ve been in touch with them,
but they are insisting on a warrant, which I can’t get unless you want me to get the cops involved.”
“I don’t. They will just hold things up. Do you have any ideas about where he might be?”
“He has a couple of properties registered to him, so he could be at one of them. I haven’t checked them out yet. I wanted to see what you wanted to do.”
“Zane has Camilla, and I know that for sure. Do what you have to do, but check out the places that are away from people. I have a feeling that he has her somewhere where he thinks no one can find her.”
“Boss, you need to be realistic. She’s been gone for weeks. The chances of her coming back are…”
I stopped him before he could finish. I knew what he was going to say, but I didn’t want to hear it. I knew what the stats were and I didn’t want to think about what had probably happened to her. I had to think of her being okay and I had to think of her alive. I wasn’t ready to admit that she was gone. I just couldn’t do it.
“That’s why we have to find her. He was obsessed with her, that much I know for sure, and when a man feels that something that he needs to survive is going to leave or be taken away, he’s going to hold onto it for dear life. He hasn’t killed her, but I would bet all the money that I have that she’s somewhere locked up.”
“Why not get the cops involved, then?”
“They will just bungle it all up, and I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to her. Right now he doesn’t know that I’m looking for him. We’re going to need that advantage.”
***
It was three o’clock in the morning when the phone rang. I remember thinking that it better be good. It was. It was the call I’d been waiting for.
“We found him.”
“And?”
“She could be there, but I didn’t watch that long. I can’t get in there by myself without him seeing me. I thought I would check with you and see how you want to proceed.”
“Are you sure he’s there?”
“Yeah, he’s in there.”
“No idea about her?”
