The sheriff nods grimly. “We’ll set up the command center in my office. Call your people.”
I don’t miss a second and alert Derrick and Logan. “Done.”
“You’re coming with us,” Walker tells Quinn, who’s shivering, looking close to fainting. He sighs and puts an arm around her middle, taking her to the car.
The harsh fluorescent light in the cramped interrogation room burns my brain as my grip on the metal chair turns my knuckles white. My patience is running on fumes.I’d rather scour the wilderness for Eliza than listen to the hollow sound of Quinn’s frantic back and forth on the worn linoleum.
She’s pale as a sheet, wringing her hands.
“She told me she kept misplacing stuff in her house,” she says hoarsely. “The last time it happened, she noticed the paint was chipped near the doorknob. She thought she’d ruined it when she left in a hurry with her tools. So many projects popped up in the last month, she couldn’t remember where she’d put things.”
“Why the hell didn’t she tell me this?” My fist slams on the scuffed table, making Quinn flinch. She was in danger all this time and never said a word. Rage and worry burn through me.
“Watch it, Rawlings.” The sheriff gives me a death stare before returning his gaze to her.
“What if…” Her eyes fill with tears, and she bites hard on her lower lip to stop it from trembling.
Walker stares at her and does a weird half-reach to comfort her, then slides the tissue box nearer.
“How didn’t I see it?” She lowers her face into her palms, slowly shaking her head. “I brought him into our life.”
I was so happy to be back near Eliza, doing my best to convince her to give me another chance, that I failed to ask my team to do a background check on the new people in her life.
I should have protected her. She didn’t tell me about feeling paranoid. She wanted to be independent and self-reliant so badly it put her in danger.
Logan’s name on my phone screen launches me out of the door into the secure room behind the one-way mirror.
“We have a short list of people who own that type of truck. Something interesting jumped out in connection to one of the names. You’ll want to see this.”
I put him on speaker to check what he sent me. Dread drops to the pit of my stomach.
Eliza’s sealed file.
“She might be in more danger than we thought. Tell your sheriff to round up his CIs while we comb the group’s known whereabouts.”
My heart sinks reading her file. It’s the painfully detailed story of her childhood after she was abandoned. What Eliza already told me is only the tip of the iceberg of what she went through.
The faded note from her mother, written hastily on the back of an envelope, is an eye-opener. Now it all makes sense.
Chapter Forty-Seven
ELIZA
My lids are heavy as I struggle to clear my head. Slowly I regain my senses but pulling out of the darkness in my mind is like getting out of a pit of quicksand. With my eyes cracked open I notice the room is unlit, scattered rays of light coming through ripped strips of newspaper covering the windows.
Tremors run through my body while I fight off the need to spill the contents of my stomach on the concrete floor. My head is pounding. When I try to rub my temples to soothe the pain, I realize my hands are tied behind my back and my legs are bound to the rickety chair.
What does he want from me? My heart is beating furiously behind my ribcage, almost breaking its way out of my body. Carter sleeping peacefully and his safe embrace are a distant memory, and I cling to it so I won’t fall apart.
The screech of a rusty door behind me freezes the blood in my veins. Several steps echo in the empty room and when a pair of dirty boots stops in front of my chair, I’m afraid to look up.
“Hello, little fox. I’ve been waiting a very long time to find you.”
I screw my eyes shut in a useless attempt to shut reality out, but a rough hand clasps my chin.
“Open your eyes, girl. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Terror blazes through me and my nose stings with unshed tears. I’ve watched enough TV to know that seeing your kidnapper’s face is close to a death sentence.
