by WL Knightly
He put his hand in front of Sarah to keep her behind him and stayed close to the wall.
When there wasn’t any sound, he stepped into the room and did a sweep. “Is anyone here? Put your hands up and come out so I can see you.”
“I don’t think there’s anyone here,” she whispered.
“Shh.” He put his finger to her lips. “Stay put.” He wanted her to stay outside, but she reached into the satchel and pulled out a gun instead.
“I’m good. Cop blood, remember?”
Ethan didn’t know what to say but wished she’d just sit outside and wait. If she shot someone, he didn’t know how he was going to explain it.
But instead of arguing, he slowly went into the other rooms and checked them while she took the kitchen and bathroom. “All clear,” she said.
He peeked into the master bathroom and gave a glance at the walk-in closet where a few of Cassie’s things still remained hanging. Whoever had been there had come and gone.
“Someone was here,” she said, looking around at the mess. “Though you can hardly tell.”
“I’ll call the manager to be sure. Why don’t you start in the front, and I’ll take the back? Check everything.”
He went to the master bedroom, and while he was busy looking under the mattress, he heard a sound from the closet.
Before he could trade his phone for his gun, a large, dark body charged out and tackled him like a football player. Ethan felt his feet go out from under him and his back slammed against the floor, knocking the wind out of him.
He didn’t have time to scuffle because the man was on his feet and running, and all he knew to do was call out for Sarah. He was headed right for her.
That was when he heard the gunfire.
Chapter 21
Sarah
Sarah was in the kitchen when she saw the blur charge past her, and when she stepped out, thinking it was Ethan, the perpetrator pulled a gun and fired it back at her.
The bullet didn’t strike anywhere near her, hitting the wall that connected to the bathroom. It was like he hadn’t even tried to hit her, and by the time she got her gun to fire back, he was gone.
“Sarah!” Ethan screamed. “Sarah!”
“I’m not hit,” she said. “I’m okay.” She decided she should have checked herself before making that declaration and took the time to glance down at her body. “He aimed at the wall.”
“Did you see him?” he asked, charging to the door with his gun out.
“No, he was wearing a mask.”
“I’m going to see if I can tell which way he went.” Ethan stepped out of the apartment into the parking lot, and she followed. There were a few people who stood gawking with wide eyes. “Did you see where he went?” he asked a young man.
“No, I just stepped out of my house. What the fuck is going on around here, man?” He looked down at Ethan’s gun and stepped back. “Yo, man, I don’t want any trouble.”
“FBI,” said Ethan, flashing his badge. He turned to the others who didn’t seem to want to be bothered. “Did anyone see a car? Anything?”
The people shrugged and all agreed they hadn’t seen anything as they went back to their business.
“Yo, are you here about Cassie?” asked the young man.
“Yeah, do you know her?”
“She was my neighbor for a while. I heard about what happened to her. That video should be shut down.”
“I agree,” said Sarah.
Ethan glanced her way but gave the man his attention. “Did you see who that was? Or do you think you know who it might be?”
“Nah, I didn’t know her like that. I work all the time, man. And when I’d sleep, she’d be making all kinds of noise, if you know what I mean. Hell, I can’t blame anybody. You know what I’m saying? I’d be hitting that too, but my ass didn’t need to be paying for it by dragging ass at work all day.”
“Did she bother anyone else around here?”
“She didn’t stay around too much. You’d have to ask them.” He stepped back into his house and shut the door.
Ethan went into Cassie’s apartment and kicked the pile of junk on the floor. “Dammit!” He glanced back at her. “Are you sure you’re fine?”
“I’m good. It’s okay,” she said, knowing how frustrated it must be. She was still shaking from what happened. “We should have checked better.”
“It was a dumb mistake, and I’m sorry. I looked in that closet. He must have been hiding behind something.”
“Hey, it was a long night.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, not accepting that as his personal excuse. “If anything had happened to you…” He shook his head, and she could tell by the look on his face he didn’t like the idea of it one bit.
“We should get back to work unless you want to call it a day and try back later?”
“No, let’s see if he left us anything,” said Ethan. “I’m not giving him another chance to come back.”
After another more thorough sweep, where they went as far as to check all of the nooks and crannies where no grown man could possibly fit, they determined the place was truly all clear and went about their search.
She worked in the kitchen, pulling out all of the drawers and checking under them. Habits died hard, and if something worked, people tended to stick to it. She still had a diary from high school tucked under one of hers, and now and then, when she needed to find herself, she pulled it out and read it.
“Nothing in here,” she said as she pulled out the last of them. She checked for any dead spaces in the cabinets and made sure the bottoms didn’t pull up. She removed the grates and checked in the ducts. She even looked in the toilet tank, but there wasn’t anything in there.
“Any luck?” he asked, giving her a sideward look as she put the toilet tank lid back in place.
“No.”
“You really think of some of the strangest places,” he said with a chuckle.
“You have to be creative. I think I’m going to check the light fixtures next. I just need to find something to stand on.” She went to the bedroom and found a chair, but Ethan took it from her.
“I’ll do it. If you think it’s worth a peek.”
“Top to bottom,” she said with a shrug. “At least we’ll know we were thorough.” She went back to the other room to go about searching but didn’t find anything. She even checked to see if there was anything under the rug or a piece of carpet that might come up in a corner.
Ethan walked out of the bedroom. “Anything?” he asked.
“No. Do you think that guy found the pages before us?”
“If they existed at all anymore, it’s possible. But she could have destroyed them, burned them maybe. I did find this, though.” He held up a small SD card. “Maybe there is something on this.”
“It’s probably just some vacation photos. Where did you find it?”
He gave her a look. “In the light fixture.”
“The light fixture, huh? Imagine that. And I can’t think of any vacation photos you’d need to hide that well.”
“Depends on the vacation,” he said. “And I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what’s on here.”
Sarah smiled. “Your place or mine?”
After returning to his room, he called up room service for a late lunch. Sarah booted up his laptop and situated herself in the middle of his bed.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, crossing her bare feet. “This is just way more comfortable than that couch.”
“I call that doll furniture,” he said with a chuckle. “Have you ever noticed how most hotel room furniture is such a small scale? At least the rooms I stay in. I feel like a giant on it.” He walked over and sat on the bed next to her. “This is much better.”
“Do you want to do the honors, or should I?” She held the SD card, and he gave her a nudge.
“Go ahead. The honor always falls to the lady.”
She pushed it into the side of the computer
and held her breath as she waited for the content to show up.
When it did, she was relieved to see photos of what seemed, oddly enough, like an innocent vacation. There were photos of her dressed in pink ski gear holding a snowboard and another of her on a lift. She looked happy enough, and the photos were harmless for sure.
There were a few photos of some of her friends, and she saw a photo of Cassie and Roald, though there was only one. “He was there. Do you think this is the lodge they were talking about?”
“It could be. But what’s so secretive? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Let’s keep looking,” she said. “There are hundreds.”
She kept going through the photos and came across a few of Cassie flashing her breasts. Ethan was gentleman enough to turn his head until she got past them, but that wasn’t the worst of what they found.
At one point, there was a dark photo from a strange angle that seemed to be taken on the sly. It was a woman sitting on the arm of a chair wearing a mask that only showed her eyes, which had a lost look. Meanwhile, the man next to her was laughing it up with friends.
It took a moment to see the woman was on a leash.
“What the hell?” she said. “Is that a dog leash?”
“Some people do roleplay,” said Ethan, frowning. “They show dominance and control over their pets. Others like being humiliated, and so they are put to task in front of an audience.”
“Well, aren’t you full of surprises?”
In one of the photos, there was a girl with her body bound. She had a ball-gag in her mouth and a row of red streaks across her bare breasts. She had been forced to straddle some sort of device, and her feet were bound at the ankles.
“Is that Cassie?” said Ethan, taking a better look over her shoulder. She glanced over to see his expression as the heat of embarrassment made her cheeks burn.
He didn’t seem to take any pleasure in what he saw.
“I don’t think so,” she said, looking away. “This is a bit hard to see.” She pushed the computer toward him. “You take over for a while.”
“It’s not any easier for me. But you have to put what you see aside and realize that this is a human being under someone else’s control. If Cassie saw fit to hide it, maybe she did so for a reason. Maybe these people aren’t compliant.”
“Maybe she just got off on it. You’ve heard the neighbor’s complaints. He could hear her all the way in his house.” She shook her head in disgust. “I’m not sure any of this is helping.”
Ethan’s eyes widened, and she couldn’t quite read the expression on his face. “Are you okay?” she asked. “What is it?” She knew she probably didn’t want to see the photograph any more than he did, but when she turned the computer, there amongst a few other girls was a face she hadn’t seen in ages. “Oh my god, Starr Asher.”
She was kneeling in a row with three other women, and all Sarah wanted to know was when the photo had been taken.
“Is there a time stamp?”
“I’m sure there is,” he said, changing the way the photos were viewed. “This says April, but I would guess that the photos were taken a lot earlier than that. The dates are limited to the month. Which means the photo could have either been taken just before or just after Starr Asher came up missing.”
“Can someone narrow it down to a specific day?” She knew there had to be a way. Even if this was after, it might lead to more information about Starr and what happened. The most important thing was finding answers for her family.
“Yeah. I can find someone who can do that.”
Sarah couldn’t contain her excitement. “I can’t believe this. What if Starr’s alive? We have to find out? I know the family will want to know.”
“You can’t tell anyone,” Ethan snapped. “Not until we know for sure. I know you’re close to them, and they were going to be your family, but this is important. This is the kind of information that could destroy an investigation. The family could blow it by trying to take matters into their own hands.”
“Okay,” she said, feeling like she had done something wrong. “I was just thinking out loud. I didn’t intend on telling anyone.”
“Look at this,” he said, pointing to the photo. “Who would want to know that the person they love is stuck somewhere like this and they can’t do anything about it?”
“I get it, okay?” He was starting to scare her. The sudden anger in his eyes made her wonder if he was stable.
“I think I should go.” She started to move off of the bed, but Ethan grabbed her arm and held her before she could manage to get up.
She turned to protest, but before she could utter a word, he captured her lips and kissed her with enough passion to curl her toes.
As much as she wanted to go, she couldn’t help but want more, and before she knew it, he was making advances that had kicked everything into high gear.
Sarah hadn’t even been sure she wanted to take things in this direction until it happened, and now she wasn’t going to miss the chance of seeing where it would go.
Ethan held the back of her neck as he kissed down her front and slipped his hand between her legs. She mimicked his movement and rubbed his tight bulge that was suddenly pressing against his zipper.
He moved up, and as they kissed, he laid her on her back and kissed his way down to her navel, where he worked the buttons on her jeans down and slipped them over her hips.
As he sat up to free her legs, he looked down at her and met her eyes with a smoldering gaze that warmed her all over.
He left her panties on at first, teasing her with his fingers through the fabric. “You’re ready for this, aren’t you?” he asked, looking into her eyes.
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’m so turned on.”
He slipped two fingers inside of her and began to stroke her with one hand as he released his cock from his pants with the other.
“Do you have protection?” she blurted, hoping that it didn’t have to end before it truly began. She was so worked up that it was going to be hard to back down.
Ethan stilled, and after a moment, he pulled away and arranged his pants. “Fuck.” He took a deep breath and looked away from her, but she could tell he was disappointed.
“We could go to the drug store. There’s one on every corner.” She didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. She was sure they could get the moment back when they returned. She hadn’t had anyone since she’d been with Thomas and felt if she could be with anyone again, Ethan was a good way to get back on that horse.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, but this was a mistake.”
She couldn’t believe the words that came out of his mouth. “Oh, I see.” She sat up and reached for her jeans as he turned away. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have stopped me when I wanted to go.” She hadn’t minded her tone and didn’t care how harsh she came across.
Ethan paced the room. “It’s not that I want to fight with you, Sarah, or make you feel bad. On the contrary, I really like you. I like being around you.”
“Yeah, I could tell. If it’s about the whole safe sex thing, I’m sorry, but I’ve only been with one other person, and I never do it without.”
“It’s not that. It’s not you. It’s my problem.” He closed his eyes, and she could see them turning red with anger.
“You seemed like you didn’t have any problems five seconds ago.”
“I just didn’t want you to go away mad again!” he snapped, raking a hand through his hair. “Maybe it’s not a good idea we’re together anyway. We should keep it professional.”
“Did the photos turn you on or something? Because that’s not me.” She was trying to understand where the sudden burst of sexual attraction had come from if it was something he felt he needed to stop.
“No!” he said, looking as if that were the biggest insult of them all. “It’s complicated but nothing to do with that.”
“Sorry, but you have been acting different since you saw them,
and now this. It was just odd timing, I guess.”
“Jesus, Sarah. Give me some credit. It’s not that I don’t want to.”
“Are you married? Do you have someone else in your life?”
“No!”
“I don’t understand you. But I should go before I say anything else I’ll regret.” She knew they had a job to do, and if she was going to come anywhere near the case again, she was going to have to get away from him and give him some time to cool off.
“I don’t want this to change anything,” he said as she reached for the doorknob.
“Too late, Ethan. It’s not like I can pretend this never happened.” She straightened her clothes one last time and left his room.
When she hit the elevator, she jabbed the button and glanced back to his door, expecting him to come after her. When the elevator door opened, she stepped inside, upset that he hadn’t.
By the time she entered the lobby, she could feel a warm tear on her face, but she quickly wiped it away, remembering her vow to never allow another man to make her cry.
She was only with Ethan for the story anyway, and if that was how it had to be, so be it. All that mattered was finding the person who killed Cassie and getting the whole story.
Chapter 22
Thomas
Finding an evening away from Lana was easy since all Thomas had to do was tell her he had to work. But getting her to stop texting was a bit more of a challenge. As he sent a warning that he had to silence his phone because of a job, he watched out the dark tint of his car as Max Loftin made another deal on the corner.
It would be easy to bust the man and put him away for the rest of his life, but it wouldn’t do much to serve Thomas’s purpose.
As Max went into the strip bar on the corner, which was aptly named Bottom’s Up, Thomas found a place to park, knowing he would be a while. Learning Max’s habits was important, and finding a pattern was going to make taking him down a hell of a lot easier when the time was right.
