He throws me over his shoulder like I’m little more than a burlap sack, the bite of his shoulder in my diaphragm knocking the wind out of me. He strolls to the shack and throws open the door, then carries me into the darkness. Flipping a switch turns on a single bare lightbulb hanging from a wire overhead.
The shack is filthy. There’s an ancient piece of machinery in the corner, which this place must have been built to housein the first place. It clearly doesn’t work anymore. There’s a metal tube against the wall, and that’s where Andy drops me on the floor. He pulls a pair of handcuffs from his jacket pocket and locks me into them behind the pipe, even though I’m already bound up with tape.
“There we go,” Andy says, standing back as if to admire his work. “Right where you belong.”
I glare at him, wishing I could speak, but it might be for the best that I can’t or else he might kill me even quicker. I can’t die yet. I still haven’t told Rupert that I love him.
I’m holding onto hope, because if I don’t… I have nothing.
rupert
Kellen guides me to the grocery using his satnav. When I screech into the lot, the car is still parked at the far end. It’s untouched, and not ten feet away stands an abandoned trolley full of groceries in Kellen’s reusable bags.
Peony. She was here, and she must have been dragged off against her will to leave something like this behind.
“Christ’s sake!” I get out of the car without even thinking of who might be around to see me. My vision has gone red, my thoughts consumed by what might have befallen her. I look all around the car park for any clue, and I spot some security cameras attached to the building.
Shit. They’ve seen me. Here I am, standing in broad daylight where any camera could capture me. What then? Will my face be all over the news?
Wait. If the cameras are watching me, then…
“Kellen,” I snap. “Management. We need to get access to that footage.” I point at the camera.
“I think the police would have to come with a warrant,” Kellen says, hesitant.
I’m not waiting around for the police to intervene, not while Peony’s in immediate danger. If the culprit is who I think it is—her demon of an ex-boyfriend—he could be capable of anything. An image of Peony, dead on the ground, invades my mind. My vision tunnels. I have to stop that from happening.
I straighten my back, knowing what I must do now. I’ve kept my existence a secret for more than a decade, and I’m about to throw my anonymity out the window.
But it will be worth it if it means I can find Peony.
“Then I’ll be the fucking warrant,” I say.
I stride past Kellen and Ignacio, toward the entrance to the store. Kellen runs up beside me.
“What are you doing?” he hisses. “They’ll see you.”
I lift my head resolutely. “I’m counting on it.”
It’s like dominoes that have been waiting to fall for years finally start toppling. A woman walking in the door of the store sees me, freezes, and then screams. I stride past her, the doors opening for me automatically, and head to one of the cash registers. More people have noticed me, and some are shouting while others simply stare. The cashier, thankfully, is one of the second kind.
“Can I, um, help you, um…” He looks me over from head to toe, his eyes getting even bigger. “…sir?”
“Management,” I bark out. “I need management.”
The customer waiting to be checked out is too busy recording me with her mobile camera to be much perturbed by the cashier leaving. He sprints away before ducking into ahall, and I follow with Kellen and Ignacio in tow. Up ahead, the cashier raps on a door.
“Steve! There’s something here you have to see!”
The door opens, and an older man emerges with deep frown lines.
“What do you want? I’m in the middle of?—”
He stops cold when he sees me, his mouth falling open.
“I need to see your CCTV,” I say in my deepest, most threatening voice. “Now.”
twenty-seven
