Folding his arms across his chest, he smirks a wicked grin at me as if he’s won.
“You’re a fucking psycho.” I pant, still trying to zone into the moment. My head is all fuzzy and I feel all out of whack.
Finally, I look down at my shirt, only to realize I’m not soaked by water. It’s blood on my clothes that’s made me damp. He must’ve hit me over the head pretty hard which explains why I feel so woozy. “I…I think I need a hospital.” I breathe, feeling faint.
“Nah, you’re fine.” He huffs. “Just forgot you were a bleeder.” He reaches out to brush my head, and I instinctively jerk back out of his reach. I might be out of it, but I’m not stupid.
He reaches out again, squeezing my cheeks so hard in his hand, it makes my teeth pinch the inside of my mouth. I try to wiggle free, but it’s no use. With my hands bound like this, I can’t pull back any further. He holds me still as he dabs at my head with a wet cloth. “Everything would’ve been so much simpler if you had justlistenedto me.” He shakes his head, folding the now red stained cloth in two, and dabbing my head again.
I swallow deeply, trying to provide my throat with any type of relief. “You did this all on your own.” I grit out.
His eye twitches as his fist tightens around the cloth, pulling it back. Throwing the cloth on the ground, his hands clench into fists. He’s agitated. And I know that doesn’t bode well for me. “Here’s what we’re gonna do.” He fists my hair in his hand. Pulling my head back to look up at him, I wince from the shooting pain. “We’re running out of time so I’m going to make this quick. First, I’m going to give you a choice. And for your sake, I sure hope you pick the right one,” he says waving his finger in my face. “And you’re gonna listen to me. If it’s the last thing you do.” He whips his hand off of me and marches to the light in the middle.
Sucking in a breath, I close my eyes, not wanting to see when the room goes dark.
Darkness. Loneliness. I know it all too well.
A deep pit in my stomach settles as I hear him march out of the room.
Panic starts to climb through me as I realize how much trouble I’m in. I hang my head as sorrow fills my chest, I sit there and come to terms with the fact that this just might be his final break.
I may not walk away from this after tonight.
I may never get to see Elijah’s face again.
And that…thathurts the most.
37
Elijah
“I’m going to need you to calm down,” Detective Jameson says, raising her hand.
Police officers roam up and down the floors, trying to search for evidence and clues that can lead us in the right destination.
My eyes widen at her audacity. “How can you tell me to calm down when Tobias isn’t here? Every single second we sit here, is a second he’s alone with that lunatic.”
Gwen squeezes my arm, trying to get me to lower my voice, but I can’t. I won’t. “This whole time, Tobias has been silently going through all of this and now…” My breath stutters. “Now Derrick has him and…and I can’t remain calm about this.”
“I know. I understand. Trust us when we say, no one feels more guilty than we do.”
“So prove it.Please.” I beg. “We need to find him.”
Jameson sighs heavily, giving me a curt nod. Sitting down in the arm chair beside me as she looks at Gwen and I.
Jameson pulls out her phone, scrolling through the app for the map.
“We’ve been making calls to the surrounding motels in the area ever since you told us about the missing documents. We got no hits…” She circles her finger around our town, making it clear that wherever they are, it won’t be close.
My stomach sinks. “Oh…”
“Which led us to believe he’s gotten further out of this area than we thought. Somehow he must have gotten cash which made it possible for him to acquire a vehicle with false license plates. Once we learned this, we were able to scan the surrounding area withJude Thorne’sname and....we got a match.” She taps on the screen and shows me a small motel on the outskirts of town. “He stayed here for a couple nights in October before moving here—” she taps again, further north. “He’s been jumping. Not staying anywhere for too long and always paying with cash so there’s no paper trail.”
My brain races through the information. “Okay, so what does that mean? He could be jumping again?”
She winces. “That’s the thing—since late September, the trail’s gone cold.” She slips the phone back into her pocket.
My heart races. “No, that can’t be it. That can’t be all we have.”
