Page 109 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Stalker

Fuck that. I was going with him. I ran after him. “Sheriff, let me ride with you.”

He shook his head. “Not going to happen. I’m not even taking the mayor. I’m definitely not taking the victim’s boyfriend. Sorry, man.”

Without thinking, I reached out and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. He was a big, well-built guy, but I was, too, and adrenaline was on my side. “What does your department need?” I asked.

“What the hell are you talking about? Let go of me!” He jerked himself out of my grip and motioned for his officers to take care of me. They each grabbed one of my arms and started trying to pull me back to his office.

I fought them, desperate. “Do you need new cars?” I hollered out. “A new K-9 unit? A new building?”

He stopped walking and turned to stare at me. “Are you serious?”

“I’ll give you anything your department needs,” I said frantically. “Just take me with you.”

He scratched his head, eyes narrowed on me. “We could use an upgrade of ourcomputer system.”

“Done. That’s my specialty, anyway. I’ll have a state-of-the-art system installed.”

“Let him ride,” Sheriff Richards said to his deputies. They released me immediately. “But don’t get in our way,” he said to me, his brown eyes piercing.

I nodded. He was clueless. Of course I’d get in their way. As soon as they parked their car, I’d break down the doors to get to Daisy. I didn’t have to wait for a fucking search warrant like they did. Nothing would hold me back.

***

We pulled up to an old farmhouse with a dirt driveway and no neighbors around for miles. It had taken us a while to get here, and the sun had been up for a while now. On the way, we’d gotten a call from Old Man Dinardo that Ivan had shown up for work like everything was normal.

An officer intercepted him, and we listened while he was questioned in case he gave any clues as to where Daisy was.

He insisted he didn’t know what they were talking about. He said he’d dropped Daisy off at her mother’s house the night before and hadn’t heard from her since.

The sheriff had his phone on speaker while we listened to some of the questioning.

Sheriff Richards held a finger to his lips, gave me a pointed look, and then took the phone off mute.

It was probably good he had, because everything in me wanted to scream he was a liar and beg him to tell us where Daisy was.

“You’re telling me,” the officer’s voice came through loud and clear, “that you drove that girl hours out of town on a night where you knew you had to work in the morning?”

“Fuck, yeah,” a deep voice responded. Ivan. “Have you seen that girl? I’d do about anything she asked for a blowjob like the one she gave me when I got her to her mom’s place. Girl can suck cock like a fucking pro,” he said in a smug voice.

I felt my face turning red with anger. I wanted to find this guy and beat his face in. If he’d made Daisy do anything,anything at all, I would kill him. Yep. For the first time in my life, I felt sure I could kill a man with no regrets.

“Her mother says she hasn’t seen Daisy in months,” the officer said, ignoring the words coming out of Ivan’s filthy mouth. “And she’s out of town, anyway. She wasn’t even at home last night. We talked to her sisters, who are at her house in Crosston, and they haven’t seen her, either.”

“Uh, that’s strange.” Ivan sounded nervous for the first time. “That’s where I dropped her off.”

“Nope. She’s not there. You want to tell me the truth now?”

Ivan asked for a lawyer and clammed up.

We rode the rest of the way in grim silence.

Now, as the police car rolled to a stop outside what looked to be a dilapidated old farmhouse, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. He’d taken Daisy here. I could feel it in my bones. But had he hurt her? Did he rape her? Kill her?

I couldn’t let my mind go through all the horrible scenarios, or I wouldn’t be any good at helping find her.

I watched as the sheriff and the three officers he’d brought with him knocked on the door and waited. I looked out the window at the seemingly endless fields that stretched out from both sides of the house. They’d been left to go fallow; dead and decaying stalks blew in the gentle fall breeze.

I lurched from the car and ran around the side of the house. If I found another door, I was kicking it in. I didn’t have to follow any rules.