“Oh, I didn’t know you were ready for that.”
“I am. At least, I think I’m ready. I hope she’s ready.” He rubbed at the back of his neck, wincing as pain from the heat made itself known. “I love her, and I want her in my life. I just don’t know if it’s time.”
“Talk to her. Find out where she stands on the issue.”
Link nodded. “I can’t wait to see her.”
“Well, you’re lucky to find such a great woman. I’m happy for you.”
He nodded and noticed the plane started to drop in altitude. "I guess we're close."
“Yeah, get ready for landing.”
Link settled in for the landing. He would shower, then drag Ansley to bed and show her how much he missed her.
He grabbed his pack when the plane stopped rolling and headed out to the tarmac. Excitement filled him, knowing he was less than an hour away from holding Ansley.
When he caught up with his personal phone, he saw he had multiple texts and calls. He was going to look at the texts from Ansley when he saw one from his neighbor, Ken. It demanded he call now with about twenty exclamation marks.
Link held his breath as he dialed Ken, wondering if this was one of the man's hallucination-fueled crash-outs or if there was a problem.
“Ken, it’s Link.”
“He has her. I noticed too late. I tried to stop him, but he had something metal. Knocked out two teeth.”
The world around Link seemed to shrink down to a pinpoint, and he gasped for air, feeling like he’d been shoved into the ocean with weights tied around his ankles. He was going down, and he had no way to claw his way out. Ansley needed him, and he had no idea where she was.
Chapter 43
Ansley blinked open her eyes,then slammed them shut. Blinding light seemed to pierce the back of her skull, making her wish she hadn't regained consciousness.
“Open those eyes. It’s time for you to make your statement.”
Who was that? Then she remembered the break-in and Pete hitting her. A groan escaped her lips as pain slid down her spine.
Pete was hell bent on revenge. She didn’t want to die. No matter what she said to the bastard, he wouldn’t listen. She hadn’t killed Craig. His brother had been an idiot and tried to walk on the slippery railing on the pier and paid the ultimate price.
Slowly, she cracked open her eyes, trying to see anything other than the blinding lights shining directly at her.
“That’s it. Open those eyes. We need to get this rolling.”
Focusing on the man in front of her was difficult. Had he cracked her skull? She tried to reach up to feel her head, but her wrists were still cuffed and seemed to be connected to the chair he'd put her in.
No way would she say anything he wanted her to. The bastard wanted her to say that she had killed Craig. But shehadn’t. She wouldn’t do anything he asked. He was going to kill her anyway, so why should she give in?
"I'm starting the live video, and you're going to do what I tell you to do."
She blinked at him, thinking he was an idiot. No way would she tell a lie about what happened only to have him kill her. The man was deranged, and she wasn't going to give in to his insanity.
Her vision cleared a little, and she saw him adjusting his phone that was on some sort of stand. He looked pleased with himself, but he was fucking stupid. Maybe she just needed to keep him on the hook for a while until someone realized this dangerous idiot had her in chains and wanted to kill her.
She wouldn’t hope for a rescue, but she wouldn't piss away her shot. If the idiot wanted to live-stream her, she would drag this out as long as possible.
The guys gathered around Link,listening to the phone call. Ken said the police were looking for her, but they hadn’t found her yet.
“Damn, what can we do?” Chase asked.
Pressure expanded in Link’s head, making the ache painfully sharp. “We need to figure out what the hell he has planned.”
