“What if we’re not in time?” Panic made it difficult to breathe.
“Think positive,” he said.
“You don’t know Robert like I do.” Ginny shivered. “He’s cold and calculating. He gets pleasure out of inflicting pain.”
“I’m beginning to realize just how depraved he is,” Griff said in a voice tinged with disgust. “And I want to see him pay for what he did to you and Joy and every other woman he hurt.”
“We need to do something. Robert has been playing games with me because he knew my weaknesses. I have to find out his and turn the tables on him.”
Griff’s brows shot up. “That’s a good idea. What do you know about him?”
She searched her memory banks, filtering through the facade he’d presented and the few details he’d accidentally revealed. Were any of them true?
“Not much,” she admitted. “Except that he lost his mother when he was young.”
“Did he say what happened to her?”
She shook her head. “He refused to talk about it. Just said that she was gone and that his father raised him alone. He taught him everything he knew.” A shudder coursed through her, but she stiffened her spine. “I thought he was referring to business, but what if he meant other things?”
“Like how he treated women,” Griff filled in. “Oftentimes abused children become abusers.”
“True,” Ginny said. “The counselor I worked with after I escaped Robert gave me a ton of material to help me understand how an abuser chooses his victims. Predators are experts at reading others’ weaknesses to use against them.”
“He’s violent and lacks self-control,” Griff said. “What if he saw his father behave aggressively with his mother or with another woman?” Griff hesitated. “And the fire. Maybe...”
“Maybe what?”
“Perhaps his father liked to set fires, too,” Griff said. “Or Robert could have been infatuated with fires as a child. If so, there might be a record of him starting fires as a child or as a juvenile.”
He snagged his phone again. “I’ll call Liam and suggest that he investigate that angle.”
Ginny said a silent prayer they’d find something to use against him.
* * *
MITZI WAS SWEET. And so pretty. He’d watched her ever since he’d come to this hole-in-the-wall town.
But she wasn’t Reese.
Sometimes he hated Reese. Wished he’d never met her. That she hadn’t seduced him and made him love her. Made him want her so badly that he couldn’t look at another woman without comparing her to his beloved.
Joy certainly hadn’t measured up. Sure, she’d accepted his advances. Had let him crawl into her bed. She’d enjoyed his gifts and attention. But there had been a desperation about her that disgusted him. As if she knew she wasn’t beautiful or smart enough. Her body was full of imperfections. Her face a little too made up and fake just like her personality.
She’d liked his money. He’d noticed that right away.
In the beginning, Reese had been impressed with his gifts, too. But after a couple of months, she’d said she didn’t want them. Didn’t want the fancy dinners or dresses he chose for her. She’d even given him back the diamond necklace and the blood-red ruby ring. When he’d offered to sweep her away to Europe for a romantic getaway for a month, she’d balked and declared she didn’t want to be away from her sister that long.
Laughter bubbled in his throat. He’d fixed that, now hadn’t he?
Mitzi looked up at him with wide, tear-stained eyes. Her sob caught in the gag he’d stuffed in her mouth. Her body shook with fear.
He sat down beside her where she lay tied on the bed and stroked her hair away from her face. The strands were damp from tears. And there was the missing chunk where he’d cut off a piece to send to Reese.
It wouldn’t matter if her hair was long and pretty and perfect though. Not where she was going.
Chapter Eighteen
Ginny paced in front of the fireplace while Griff texted Liam about more information on Robert Bouldercrest.
As he hung up, he rolled his shoulders to alleviate his tension. He still reeked of smoke and soot from working the fire at Mitzi’s Café.
The clock read four in the morning.
“Why don’t you try to rest,” he told Ginny. “Jacob has people searching for Mitzi. There’s nothing else we can do until we get a lead or find more information on Bouldercrest.”
“Maybe I could make a plea on the news, offer to exchange myself in return for Mitzi’s safety,” Ginny said with an urgency to her voice that made panic zing through him.
He shook his head, vying for calm when he wanted to shout, “Hell no.”
“That’s not going to happen, Ginny. Even if we set up a meet and exchange, you can’t trust that he won’t kill her.”
Her face turned ashen, making him regret his harsh words. But he couldn’t retract them because they were true. He certainly didn’t intend to let Ginny offer herself up like some sacrificial lamb. Too many things could go wrong.
“I just feel so helpless,” she cried. “Mitzi’s with that maniac because of me and I’m just sitting here doing nothing.”
Emotions overcame her and she sank onto the couch again and dropped her face into her hands. Her body trembled.
Unable to help himself, he crossed the room to her, sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms. “I know it’s terrifying, but you’re not alone now.” He rubbed slow circles across her back, and she leaned into him and pressed her hand against his chest.
She was so small and delicate that he dropped a kiss against her hair and whispered soft assurances that everything would work out. She nestled against him and he closed his arms around her, praying he could deliver on his promises.
The warmth of the fire seemed to cocoon them into a more relaxed state, the sound of the crackling wood in the fireplace comforting. Her erratic breathing finally steadied, and she lifted her head and looked into his eyes. Griff’s breath lodged in his throat.
In spite of the fear pounding in his chest, fear that mirrored hers, tension simmered between them. The kind of tension that stirred his desires and made him itch to be closer to her.
She placed her hand against his cheek, and he angled his head and studied her. The last thing he wanted to do was to frighten her or make demands upon her.
The tiniest inkling of sexual awareness flickered in her eyes, then they filled with longing and encouragement, and she parted her lips. He slowly leaned toward her. She leaned in at the same time, but he still hovered within an inch of her lips, determined to give her every opportunity to pull away if she wanted.