Duke pulled into the empty space close to the entrance of my building.
I shook my head like a wet dog, willing Grace to come out of the shadows. But by the time Duke parked, I’d had no such luck.
He looked into Grace’s Subaru then at me.
I pulled on my hair, feeling numb from head to toe.
“Why is her car door open?” Duke asked. “Is that Grace’s cell in your hands?” A muscle ticked in his jaw, a knowing look—a lethal one that I knew all too well—darkening his features.
I stared at him like a zombie, unable to open my mouth to form words.
“Speak.” His command felt like a knife to the throat.
“I think… I think…” I closed my eyes briefly. “She’s been kidnapped.” I swayed on my feet as the building across the street blurred in and out.
“FranandGrace?” His features twisted, eyes wide, fists clenched.
“We don’t know that Fran has been kidnapped.” I held out Grace’s cell. “Pretty sure Grace was, though.”
He spun around and slapped a hand on the hood of Grace’s car and shouted the wordfuckat the top of his lungs.
“She was in the lobby, on the phone with Ted. Then she came out to her car for her battery charger for her cell. I fucked up.” I pulled on my hair again. “What the fuck is happening?”
My worst nightmares were coming true. I couldn’t lose both my daughter and the woman I wanted to marry. I wouldn’t survive.
He held his head as he turned to face me, fury evident in his eyes. “We need to call Ted.”
“Fuck the cops,” I fired back. “There’s too much red tape. We don’t have time.”
His nostrils flared. “We don’t have the resources.”
“Jeremy Pitt does.” A Russian mob boss could make shit happen.
“I agree, but Ted will move fucking mountains. Grace is family to him. He knows as many thugs or more in this city as Jeremy.”
As he was convincing himself to engage the cops, I was staring at a traffic camera. Hope bloomed like a spring flower on a warm summer day.
Halle-fucking-lujah.I pointed at the camera that had a direct line of sight from one block to the next, in particular the spot where I’d found Grace’s phone.
Duke followed my finger and sighed. “That’s another reason we need Ted.”
He didn’t waste any time in calling Detective Ted Hughes. He walked down to the corner with his phone to his ear, his voice fading.
Meanwhile, I stood in the fresh night air, knowing Grace’s disappearance was related to her past. But where did Fran fit in—if at all? Fran could be safe somewhere. Maybe her phone died. Maybe she did lose track of time. Or maybe she had gotten into a car accident and was in one of the twenty-five hospitals in the Boston area.
Those were scenarios I was hoping for because the way my thought process was heading wasn’t good for my beautiful, innocent daughter, especially if the person who’d taken Grace had also kidnapped Fran.
“Brian, Ted wants us down at the station.” Duke’s baritone voice cut through the fog in my head.
“Fran’s and Grace’s disappearances aren’t a coincidence, are they?” I asked.
“I doubt it. I hate to admit it, but Grace was right. They found a way to snag her.”
“It’s my fault.”
“Don’t take on that guilt like I did,” he said. “You’re dealing with your daughter too. And as fucked up as this will sound, Grace has been training for this day for the last ten years.”
No one should have to prepare to relive their agonizing past.
