Prologue
Now I have what I need.
The wait is over, and I’m ready.
Ready to seek revenge.
Yet a duel rages inside me, tormenting me.
How could everyone have forgotten me? Left me to rot in hell? How? How? How?
No.
Won’t go there.
Must be strong.
If only I could split off the weak part of me, leave it to putrefy in a swamp somewhere.
I must fight.
I must fight, and I must win.
Chapter One
Bryce
Silence on the other end of the line.
“Did you hear us?” I asked. “About the cufflink?”
Nothing. Maybe her battery had gone dead. If it had… Was someone listening in? Had someone…?
My heart hammered into itself, my chest heaving. “Marjorie? Sweetheart?”
“Sis,” Joe said, his tone panicked. “What’s going on?”
“Marj! Marj!” Franticness strangled me like a noose of fire.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Did she say where she was?” Joe asked.
“No. I just assumed she was home. But now I’m not sure.”
“Fuck,” Joe said, pulling out his phone. “Keep that line open. I’m calling the cops.”
“Marj!” I shouted again into the phone. “Marjorie! Talk to me! Damn it!”
“The cops are on the way,” Joe said. “Keep that line open, whatever you do.”
He didn’t have to make the demand. No way was I severing my only line to the woman I loved.
No fucking way.
“We’re coming, baby,” I said into the phone, hoping she could still hear me. “We’re coming for you. I love you, Marjorie. Be strong. I love you.”
“Fuck,” Joe said. “Holy fuck.”
I didn’t reply. Worry for Marj consumed my whole body. I literally shook from head to toe. I’d never been so frightened in my life.
“We’ll find her,” Joe said. “We have to. We found Ruby, remember?”
Yes, the Steels had found Ruby. They’d pull out every source and more to find their little sister.
But…
What if it wasn’t enough?
Vivid scenes exploded through my mind.
Marjorie falling, lying on the sidewalk hurt.
Marjorie being hit from behind and then dragged off somewhere.
Marjorie being drugged with chloroform, like Ruby had been…
My muscles tensed, and I rubbed at my forehead.
“Easy,” Joe said.
“I love her. She’s everything to me.”
“I know. If I had any doubts before, which I didn’t, they’d be gone now. Calm down, man. You’re quivering.”
I nodded, drawing in a deep breath.
Not a good time to lose it, not when the woman I loved needed me more than ever.
I silently thanked God that my mother and Henry were safe and out of the way in Florida. Then I turned to Joe.
“She was with Colin in the park. Do you think he had anything to do with this?”
Joe shook his head. “Colin wouldn’t hurt Marj. His father, on the other hand…”
Joe didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. If Colin was right, and his father had sold him to my father as a plaything to rape and torture… Well, then, he was capable of just about anything.
In his own way, he was as bad as my father had been.
I looked around. This was Steel country, the beautiful western slopes of Colorado. Snow Creek was a friendly small town. Psychotic creeps didn’t exist in friendly small towns.
Except that they did.
My father and Larry Wade had proven that a hundred times over.
Granted, Ted Morse was from Denver. How he’d even gotten wind of my father was still a mystery to all of us, as was how he’d found out about Justin Valente, the poor kid Joe and I had invited along to one of our weekend campouts with my father.
Justin had never returned from that trip.
Joe was talking on his phone again. I lifted my eyebrows when he ended the call.
“No sign of her in the park. I say you and I get over there pronto and check things out ourselves. I texted Ryan and Ruby. I’d like her to join us if she can. In the meantime, we’re going.”
I nodded.
We couldn’t get there fast enough.
I’d gotten control over my shivers, but the inside of my body still felt like a cold cavern with pointed icicles prickling me all over.
Marjorie.
We’d just found each other, decided to be together despite all the other crap surrounding us.
I couldn’t lose her now. I just couldn’t.
“Do you have Colin Morse’s number?” I asked Joe. “He might know something. He was the last person to see her.”
“I don’t. Jade probably has it.”
“Shit.” I raked my fingers through my hair. “Someone has to tell Jade.”
“That needs to come from Tal,” Joe said. “With her pregnancy and all… Fuck!”
Two blues hovered around the park.
“Maybe the cops can get it,” I said.
“Probably.” Joe approached them.
I stayed at the bench where Marjorie and Colin had presumably been talking.
Nothing.
Fucking nothing.
Not even a dark-brown hair to indicate she’d been there.
“Damn it!” I said out loud.
“Hey.”
I turned. Ryan Steel and his wife stood next to me. Ryan’s eyes were heavy-lidded and troubled, and Ruby’s blue eyes held sadness as well, but she was a pro. She got straight to work, her hands gloved.
“You sure this was the bench where she met Colin?”
“I have no idea, but it’s the one closest to town, and I assumed she was in town when she called me. Reception is never great in this park.”
“I don’t think she was in town,” Ruby said. “If she were, someone would have seen something. This park is usually dead weekdays during working hours. I’m betting she was still here.”
Of course. That made sense. Why hadn’t Joe and I thought of it?
I exhaled.
Because we were fucked up in the head with worry and fear.
Ruby eyed everything, leaving nothing to chance. She got down on her hands and knees and regarded the grass under the bench, threaded her hands through the thin carpeting of blades. I watched every move she made, my insides knotted, hoping she’d come up with something.
She didn’t.
“Odd.” She shook her head. “Or not so odd. If we’re dealing with seasoned pros, they’d know not to leave clues. Or they’d leave blatant plants like they did outside the playground where Dale saw the stranger twice now.”
“Damn,” I said again. “Now what?”
“Now we look around. We ask questions. The cops are already downtown checking to see if anyone saw Marjorie. Do you have any idea where she might have gone in town?”
“She’s got a new trainer at the gym,” I said. “And she likes the smoothie place.”
“I’m going to go ask some questions in town, then,” Ruby said. “You two can come along if you want.”