“W-what did you do to Joe?”
The look of sympathy the man gave her was clearly not genuine. “I’m sorry. Good ’ole Joe didn’t make it.”
Tears filled her eyes instantly. “You k-killed him?”
“Me? Nah.” The man shook his head. “But, I’m sure the fire I set did.”
Fire?Oh, God. Poor Joe. Tears slid down both cheeks as Lexi’s chest began to heave to the rhythm of her rapid breaths. “Tell me what you want,” she blurted out. “Tell me what you need and...m-maybe...maybe I can help you.”
The man laughed, his demeanor changing on a dime. “Oh, don’t worry. You’re already helping me.”
He walked closer to her then, stopping just before he reached the chair. With a shockingly gentle touch, he swiped some hair from her face. Lexi tried to move away from him, but it was impossible given the way she was bound.
“It’s time he finally learned what it feels like.”
“Who? What are you talking about?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Lexi opened her mouth to ask something else. She wasn’t sure what, but if she could keep him talking, she thought maybe she could buy herself some time to think of a way out of this mess. She never got the chance.
Before she could even make a sound, the same hand that had been so gentle just seconds earlier flew toward her face. The blow snapped her head to the side, and she immediately tasted blood.
If she thought her head hurt before, that was nothing compared to now. “P-please,” she started to beg, but it was too late.
The man was on a mission. Apparently his goal was to beat her until she lost consciousness again. Mission accomplished.
****
“Try her phone again.”
The other members of the team looked up at him, but no one moved. Grant Hill stood stoically behind the couch, looking over D’s shoulder as he typed away on his fancy-assed keyboard. Mac and Coop had each taken a seat in the two recliners Trevor had, and Jake was coming back in from filling his coffee mug for the third time in the past two hours.
The moment they realized Lexi was missing, Jake had called the others in. He’d suggested they set everything up at the office, but Trevor had insisted on coming back here, to his apartment.
For the past few days, this had been Lexi’s home. He knew it was a long shot, but if she somehow managed to escape from whoever had taken her, he wanted to be here, just in case.
“I said, try her phone again.”
Sitting on Trevor’s couch with the coffee table pulled in closely, Derek glanced at the three monitors he’d been using to try and track her down. “Her phone’s off. Like I told you before, I can’t get a signal if it’s not—”
Out of patience, Trevor yelled, “Try the fucking phone again!”
Everyone in the room remained silent. Everyone except Jake.
“I know you’re upset, Trevor. Trust me, I get it. But you need to try to stay calm.”
Trevor looked at his friend as if he’d lost his damn mind. “Are you serious right now?You’retelling me to be calm? What, like you were when Liv was taken?” His friend flinched. Trevor knew it was a low blow, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. “It’s been over five hours, Jake. You know what can happen in that time.”
“Yes, but we don’t know anything yet.”
“Oh, we know plenty. We know someone besides Robert Lockwood tried to abduct Lexi from her house the other night, and that same bastard has her now. We know whoever it is burned the fucking diner down to the ground, nearly killing Joe in the process. We know I was so stuck on the fact that Lockwood was our guy, this whole time, I didn’t open my fucking eyes to the possibility that it could be someone else. She’s out there somewhere right now, waiting for me to find her, except I can’t, because I don’t have a fucking clue where to start. So don’t stand there and tell me to calm down!” By the time he was done, Trevor was yelling at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing off his apartment walls.
“We all thought it was Lockwood, Trev,” Derek jumped in.
“He’s right,” Coop agreed. “I know I haven’t been as active with this whole thing as Derek, but he and Jake have kept Mac, Grant, and I updated with what’s been going on. With the way he acted toward her at the diner, then the flat tire, and what happened at the grocery store that night, it seemed like a logical conclusion to make. We were all on the same page as you with this one, Trevor. We all missed it.”
“Yeah? Well I’m the one who was supposed to protect her. I’m the one who let this guy come in right under my nose and take her away from me. I’m the one who never told her...” He stopped himself short.
