“I don’t think so.” A shudder shakes my body. “I woke up in the trunk of his car, first. Then in a room down here. My clothes were still on. It didn’t feel like he’d done anything.”
“Where are your clothes, then?” Webb asks.
“He made me change,” I reply. “Into my costume. For the performance. But he didn’t hurt me. Not yet. He threatened to shoot me, though. If I didn’t act the role. And at the end—” My voice cracks.
“The role? And what about the end?”
I shudder again. “The play. He was putting on a performance. But he kidnapped everyone. Said he’d kill us if we didn’t play along. And…”
Webb hugs me closer. “And?”
“It was supposed to be a tragedy. And if your character dies in the play, then… that’s it. You die. That’s why Hector got shot. He refused to stab Paul. But then Jesse had to do it instead, since he was the understudy. And my role… I was supposed to die at the end. If you hadn’t gotten here…”
A low growl sounds in Webb’s chest. His expression is murderous as he glances in Dario’s direction. “He was going tokillyou?”
“He was going to makemedo it,” I correct. “Since that’s how the play ends. But if I refused… yes, I think he would have. And then my understudy would have to take over.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Webb grits through a clenched jaw. “I’m going to fuckingkillhim.”
“Memphis is on his way in,” Tyler calls over. “He’s got the medi-kit. And the paramedics and police are en route. Not sure how long it’ll take for them to get here, though.”
Anger darkens Webb’s gaze. “Long enough for me to get someprivatetime with that fucker, I’d bet.”
“We need to question him,” Tyler says in a pacifying tone. “We can’t just kill him straight off. As much as we’d like to.”
While the idea of killing Dario doesn’t bother me much, I don’t want Webb putting himself in a situation where he could get into trouble. So I tug on his arm to get his attention. “Don’t leave me.” A wobble shakes my voice. “Please?”
The anger in his expression shifts to concern in a blink. “Of course I won’t, sweetheart.” His gaze moves over me again. “But are you sure you’re not hurt? We have a medi-kit, and Memphis—he flew us here—was a medic. So we?—”
“I’m not hurt,” I interrupt. “I just… I need you. I was so scared…”
His face crumples. “Noelle.” Then he hugs me to him again. “I’m so sorry. I should never have left you.”
“It’s not your fault.” Closing my eyes, I press my lips to his neck, feeling the fresh prick of tears behind my eyes at the sheer relief of his nearness. “I just want to go home. With you.”
His arms tighten around me. A heavy breath rustles my hair. “We’ll be home soon. I promise.”
CHAPTER 19
2 MonthsLater
WEBB
“Wasn’t the performance just incredible?”
Noelle swings our clasped hands as we walk, and there’s a happy bounce to her step. She looks up at me, her cheeks pink from the crisp autumn chill and her eyes bright with excitement.
My heart squeezes.
Not for the first time, and I’m certain not the last, I send up a silent thanks to whoever kept Noelle safe during those terrible hours when she was in captivity.
So many things could have happened to her—things I feared before we got there, and things that still haunt me in my dreams. But in some stroke of luck? fate? karma? Noelle escaped from the experience relatively unscathed.
Well, aside from the bruise on her forehead, the abrasions on her wrists, and the lingering effects of the drug Dario gave her. Which aren’t nothing, not even close—I still want to bust into that asshole’s prison cell and throttle the life out of himwhenever I think about what he did—but it could have been so much worse.
She could have ended up in the ICU, like Hector and Paul, where it was touch and go for a couple of days before they stabilized.
She could have been one of the fourteen unfortunate victims who were killed and buried in shallow graves on Accetta’s property; hopeful actors who responded to his fake casting calls and ended up drugged and kidnapped instead.
