“You need to wake up, sir. We don’t have much time.”
“I can’t see anything.”
“We’re in the dark. The only light is from under the door right now. Give it a minute. Your eyes will adjust a little bit.”
He shook his head to try and clear it. Immediately, he regretted that choice. His head swam, and the lack of visuals to anchor him made the darkness all that much more disorienting. Instead, he latched onto the voices.
“Kennedy? Is that you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you okay?”
“Scared. Thirsty and hungry, but yes, I’m okay.”
He tried to place the male voice. “Ryker? Is that you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s me. My knee is a hot mess, but I’ll live.”
Now that he was more awake, he could hear the pain in the boy’s voice. This didn’t make any sense. Ryker was here? With Kennedy? He’d been so sure that Ryker was their bad guy.
The darkness around them was starting to coalesce into dark-gray blobs. Plastic totes, crates, and assorted boxes were stacked around them in organized chaos. A bookshelf materialized across from him, filled with an array of dishes and glassware. Several pieces of furniture, shrouded in sheets, were backed against another wall. “We’re in the theatre props room,” he realized. “How long have we been here?”
Ryker replied, “Hard to tell. He took my phone, not that it would do me much good with my hands tied. I haven’t been able to see a clock. This room is so insulated, we can’t hear any bells, but I don’t think I’ve been here very long though. You and Kennedy were both here when I was brought in.”
“I was taken Saturday night on my way home from work,” Kennedy told him.
His brain was still foggy, but a thought was trying its damndest to poke through the murky clouds preventing him from thinking at full capacity. Something he should have connected before. He must have been hit over the head.
Ryker said, “And he brought me here between seventh and eighth period. Told me he’d found Kennedy and needed help getting her out of here. My dumb ass should have known better. He would never ask for my help. Not where Kennedy was concerned.”
Lucas felt his stomach sink. “Who would never ask for your help?”
It was coming back. The appointment with Dr. Sealy. The voice calling to him as he started to cross the parking lot. Him turning, with a smile, to greet the voice. Stepping back toward the building to give him a hand because he was having a problem. Walking two steps past him, and then an explosion of pain.
“Judah,” Kennedy said with a sniffle. “It was Judah.”
PARALLEL LINES
ELYXANDRE
Ezra was runningfull-out across the lawn, with the officer Quint had sent to find him two steps behind. When they arrived at the squad car, both were out of breath, and Ezra was trying to force words out.
“It’s not… Ryker,” he panted out.
“Ezra?” she asked.
Quint reached into the cooler in the trunk of the vehicle and pulled out a bottled water for both of the runners. “Take a breath, kid. Drink some water. Five seconds won’t change anything.”
Ezra grabbed the bottle from him, guzzled half of it, and then wiped his mouth on his arm. “It’s not Ryker. He doesn’t have Kennedy. It’s Judah!”
“Judah Lawson?” she asked. Why would her boyfriend kidnap her and Lucas? “Why do you think he has Kennedy and Dr. Vaughn?”
“After we talked today, I realized that you and Dad kept asking about Ryker. But Ryker couldn’t have taken Kennedy because he was at the study zoo, and he couldn’t have takenDad because he was in classes all day. My mind just wouldn’t stop thinking about it. That’s when I realized that Judah never showed up Saturday night, and he wasn’t in any of our classes today. I didn’t think much of it at the time, figuring that if Kennedy couldn’t get out for study zoo, then he probably wouldn’t come. But what if he took her?”
“But why would he do that, Ezra? Do you think they ran away together?” Elyxandre frowned.
“No. They only had a few more weeks until Kennedy turned eighteen. It wouldn’t make sense to run away now.”
