“Fuck you! You sons of bitches think everything’s a damn game. And it’s not.”
“No one on my squad thinks what we do is a game,” I responded. “You would’ve figured that out if you’d stayed with the department long enough.”
“I was there long enough,” he huffed. “No, I’m done talking with you. How about this? You’re no longer running the show. None of you fools at Rescue Four are running anything. It’s up to you to figure out where I am with this bitch. You better hope you make it in time. And if I see one cop or hear one siren, she’s dead.”
With a click, the line went silent. I squeezed my phone, forcing myself to not toss it across the room. I needed it in case he decided to call back.
I pressed my palm to my temple and paced, trying to figure out my next move. Carter had access to men who would be able to assist in this type of situation, but when I called him, it went straight to voicemail.
“Fuck.” My entire squad was at a fire across town. Who knew how long it would be before they’d be able to get back to me? But I sent Carter a quick text anyway.
“What’s his motivation?”
My father’s words from months earlier came flooding back.
“Hallease, I need your help,” I demanded as I circled Jocelyn’s desk.
“W-we need to call the police.”
“No police. Not yet,” I insisted. “We can’t have them fucking this up. But I can call for some help. I called the other two men I knew I could rely on. “Dad, I need you and Cameron.” I ran down what the situation was and, in less than five minutes, my father and brother were on their way to Jocelyn’s office.
“My father is a former detective and my brother, Cameron was an EMT in the military. They’ll be here real soon, okay?” I assured, Hallease. “I just need the password to log into the databases that Jocelyn uses for background checks. I need to look up Benjamin James records before he turned thirteen.”
Hallease gave me the information.
“Okay, continue holding this to your head,” I ordered, pressing my shirt to her wound. The bleeding had slowed and she was looking a little more alert, but you could never be too safe with a head wound.
I circled the desk and began searching for the information I needed. “Bingo,” I said minutes later.
“What’d you find?” Hallease asked.
“There was a fire,” I said. “His younger brother was killed. He must blame us for his little brother’s death.”
I cursed as the picture of who this monster was became clearer.
Chapter 35
Jocelyn
How coulda day that started so wonderfully have turned into this shit show?
I kept wondering about the range of emotions I’d run through in the few hours since I’d risen out of bed that morning. There’d been total elation and love as I’d rolled over and became enveloped by Don’s scent. Even though he’d worked an overnight shift, his smell had lingered in my bedsheets and pillows.
Then there was the gushiness of letting myself feel entirely in love. The freedom that came with knowing he loved me.
The feeling was indescribable.
That love had been replaced by fear and panic when a typical day at the office turned into a nightmare.
My heart squeezed in my chest when I remembered Hallease’s lifeless body lying on the floor of my lobby.
“There. That’s out of the way. You better hope your boyfriend makes it in time,” Benjamin said as he entered the dingy living room with an evil grin on his face. He’d brought me to a dilapidated apartment complex. There were stacks of newspapers and magazines. A putrid mix of urine and gasoline permeated the air.
I was in a wooden chair in a corner of the room, far from the door. He’d bound my wrists to the back of the chair. He’d also taped my legs to either side of the chair’s legs.
He’d left the door of the apartment open while he went out into the hallway to call Don. I’d heard the entire conversation since he’d placed his phone on speaker.
“Do you have anything to say?” he asked. Then he waved the gun in the air as he approached. “Oh, let me help.” He ripped off the tape he’d placed over my mouth. “That should be better.”
