“I’ll go with you.” Ryan took her hand.
I felt like I was being tugged in two different directions. “I’ll stay with Joe,” I finally said. After all, Ryan loved Marj as much as Joe did, and he and Ruby didn’t need me breathing down their necks.
Joe finished talking to the cops and returned to me. “Anything?”
“Ruby didn’t see any clues. She and Ryan headed into town to see if anyone saw Marj or Colin there. Did you uncover Colin’s number?”
“Yeah. I got it, but he’s not answering.”
“Of course he isn’t,” I said. “Either he has Marj—”
“I honestly don’t think so,” Joe interjected.
“I don’t either. Which makes me think whoever has Marj also has Colin.” I shook my head. “This has my father’s stench all over it.”
“Your father is dead, Bryce. I saw it with my own eyes.”
“I know. But he’s haunting us. In the form of Ted Morse.”
Chapter Two
Marjorie
Darkness all around me.
Movement too. Jiggling movement.
And nausea.
Overwhelming nausea.
Then…the fear set in.
A scream rose in my throat, tearing through my vocal cords, and then…
Nothing. Nothing but suppressed gagging.
I was gagged. My mouth had been taped shut.
The nausea again, bile creeping up my throat like clawing acid.
I attempted a swallow.
I couldn’t puke. If I puked, I’d suffocate.
Though I had no frame of reference, I sensed I wasn’t alone. Someone else was with me. The presence of another body.
Fear. Dark fear. Panic.
God, the panic!
Marjorie, calm down. If you panic and throw up, you’ll die.
No, I would not die. Not when I had so much to live for now. My family, including my new niece or nephew growing in my best friend.
Dale and Donny.
My brothers and sisters-in-law.
Henry and Evelyn.
And Bryce.
My wonderful Bryce.
A low groan vibrated next to me. I felt it more than heard it. It could have come from an animal, but if an animal were trapped with me, it would be moving in chaos. Maybe it was drugged.
No, not an animal. I felt sure of it. A person. A person was here with me.
I moved against whatever bound me. Though I couldn’t see, I felt my wrists tied together in front of me. Also my ankles.
I breathed in deeply through my nose.
Air! Need air!
Calm down. Calm down. Don’t panic, or you’ll fucking die!
I was enclosed, so I needed to conserve air. If I panicked, I’d use more.
I wasn’t claustrophobic.
But I also didn’t know where the hell I was.
Once, in college, Jade and I had gone to a sensory-deprivation tank before finals. The advertisement had said that forty-five minutes in the tank was equal to five hours of sleep.
We were closed in, couldn’t move.
And I’d never been more relaxed.
I closed my eyes against the darkness, trying to force my mind to go back to that place, that feeling of peace I’d had while being closed in, suspended in salty water.
But I wasn’t suspended. I wasn’t buoyant.
I was trapped, tied up, gagged, and in some type of moving vehicle.
God, the darkness!
A trunk. Was I in the trunk of a car? With no ventilation? The exhaust fumes would kill me. But I had to breathe. Had to fucking breathe.
Go back, Marj. Go back. How did this happen?
Bryce. I’d been talking on my phone to Bryce and Joe. I’d just seen Colin in the park, and he’d told me… God, he’d told me…
His father had sold him to Tom Simpson. Or so he thought. He was going to get me the documentation. He left. I called Bryce, and then—
Nothing.
Not until now.
Not until this hell.
Another scream lodged in my throat, unable to penetrate the gag in my mouth. I coughed, gasping.
Get hold of yourself! You need to stay calm!
How? How was I supposed to do that?
Think of happiness. Think of something that brings you joy. Anything. Anything.
Bryce.
Bryce loved me. I loved him.
He’d been on the other end of the phone when whatever happened had happened. He’d know something wasn’t right. He’d come for me. He and my brothers would have a posse looking for me in no time.
In no time…
No time…
Don’t go there. I have all the time in the world.
All the time in the world.
All the time in the world…
I jolted against something hard. Whatever it was let out an oof.
Yes, another person was here with me. At least I knew it wasn’t Bryce or Joe. They’d been at the ranch when this had happened. Still, knowing another person was here gave me some comfort and helped stave off the panic.
But who was it?
Colin? He’d just left the park when this occurred.
He was the most likely, but things never turned out to be the most likely.
Orange warmth punched my eyes.
Sunlight. I was blindfolded. How hadn’t I realized it? Easy. I was in the dark, and I didn’t stop to think about my eyes adjusting.
Again, I tried screaming, only to choke against the dirty gag in my mouth. Again, the nausea, the clawing acid.
And again, I had to stop it.
Movement. But I didn’t move. The balance of the trunk shifted. Someone had removed the other person.
I stayed still. Easy enough since I was bound, but I was determined not to make this any easier on my captor, whoever he was.
Dead weight.
I’d be dead weight.
Within seconds, I was lifted from the confined space. I groaned as I was thrown against a hard body. My head bounced against a bony shoulder as we moved along.
A scream tried to force its way out of my throat once more, leading to more choking and gasping.
Air! I was outside now. I could tell because of the light streaming through my blindfold. Plenty of air around, I knew, but still I gasped.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Calm down.
Calm down.
How was I supposed to calm down when I’d been kidnapped? Taken? Abducted?
Was this the norm for my family now?
I needed something to focus on.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The rhythmic movement of the person carrying me.
Focus. Focus.
Then the orange warmth disappeared, and I was again left in darkness.
Gently—gently?—whoever carried me set me down on something soft.
“I’m so sorry about this,” said a voice—a familiar voice, though I couldn’t place it.
First the tape was removed from my mouth and I spit out the gag. All those screams that had been suppressed came out with a vengeance.
“Get away from me! Help me! Help me!”
“I’m not your enemy, Marjorie.”
He removed the blindfold.
A blurry image slowly began to clarify. My mind was fuzzy, but I knew this person. This man.
“Dominic?”
“Yeah. It’s me. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you.”
“Are you responsible for taking my mother? Where the hell is she, Dominic? You’ve taken a mentally ill woman against her will. You’ve taken me against my will!”