A sound of bitter amusement echoes. “Yes.”
I’m not in a room. I’m lying in a kind of nook off the dark walkway. His legs are a few inches from me. If I could knock him down and out, I might be able to find the keys to unlock my wrists. His well-worn black running shoes move in front of me, and he nudges the top of my head with his toe. Then he rests his foot on my skull and presses.
Disgusting and humiliating.
I want tokillhim.
Moving my hands up to protect the top of my head, I force myself to keep my voice low. “I understand that—”
“I didn’t want you here,” he says, tapping his foot against the back of my head.
As I reach up to grab his leg, he steps down hard on my back, slamming my chest to the ground so my arms can’t reach. A second later, he smacks the back of my head with the flashlight so hard I cry out.
“If you cause trouble,anytrouble at all, I will kill you immediately.”
The sharp pain in my scalp is intense. I rub my fingers over it, trying to get it to die down.
“Donotcall her name again. Don’t shout period.”
That makes me wonder whether my voice could be heard above ground. Are there pipes or vents? There must be for air to get down here.
His feet move several inches from my head. “You shouldn’t be at GU. Provoke me, and I’ll make you wish you were never born.”
From the corner of my eye, I see his feet turn. With the light pointing away, I risk a glance up, just with my eyes. There’s a long corridor. I think in the distance I can see a wood door on the right.
As he walks away, I try to study the back of him. He’s lean and medium height with dark hair that’s clipped very short. Not Ralston or the dean. Maybe Leighton Miller, Smith-Hall, or that editor of Erik’s. He’s nearly got a brush cut, I think.
As he moves too far for me to see any more details, the light fades.
My fingers return to the metal plate. It’s relatively sharp. If I can work it loose from the ground, it will make a good weapon.
41
ERIK
Shane is coming unglued. So am I, but my panic is silent.
They’ve been lost for hours now. It’s grown dark.
“How could this happen?” Shane bangs the heel of his hand against his thigh. “He can’t just take her in broad daylight when I’m a thousand feet away. I was right fucking here.”
We have everyone scouring every inch of the campus.
“We’ll find them,” Declan says grimly. “Come on. Let’s focus. The FBI is going room to room in the student union. Let’s look for an opening to the tunnels near there.”
Shane stares in the direction of the SU building. “I never should’ve let her go anywhere with just Arya. They both should’ve stayed home today. Why the fuck did I let her go out?”
My head turns toward the business administration building, and I walk to Reynolds who’s standing nearby.
Leaning down, I say, “Let’s think this through. The signals are dead now on both phones, but Arya’s was onafterthey’d gone missing. He’s smart, Reynolds. He wouldn’t want a girl’s phone to lead the police to him. Healwaysturns them off. In the past, the last tower a missing girl’s phone pinged off was the one closest to where the rose was found. No roses this time, so maybe this was unplanned?” I pause, running through details in my head. There has to be something I know about this case that’ll help me find them. “Even if it was a crime of opportunity, I doubt he’d forget about the phones. He turned Avery’s off. And you know what? Maybe he turns his personal phone off, too. Because if you’re going to commit a crime, you don’t want your phone to show that you were exactly where it happened.”
“But he would only worry about that if he doesn’t belong on campus, right?” she says softly.
“Right, but when he’s about to strike, would he want his phone to ring or light up at the wrong moment?”
Her eyes widen. “No, you’re right. If he’s clever, he wouldn’t have his phone with him. Or it would be off.”
“And by that logic, his phone would be powered off right when he took them.” I pause. “The student union in daytime is crowded. The paths around it are never empty. And everyone knows Arya. He could not have walked them across campus without someone noticing who was with her. And she wouldn’t have allowed herself to be frog-marched quietly behind a fucking hedge or whatever. She would’ve drawn attention.” Rubbing the back of my neck, I glance around the area. “The only way he took her away quietly is if she was unconscious.” I’m talking more to myself than to Reynolds, but it helps to talk it through. There’s so much adrenaline pumping through me it’s hard to stay focused.
