“Or you’ll what?”
He gives me a sickly smile. “Or I won’t need you anymore.”
I let out a breath. That stupid damn painting. Why did I ever take it in the first place. “If I tell you where it is will you let me go?”
He shrugs. But let’s face it, I’m telling him anyway. I don’t even want the thing.
“It’s in the locked storage room at the back of the store.”
“Shit.” He grimaces. “I was so close.”
“Now will you let me go?”
“No. Not until I have what I want. You’re coming with me to the shop.”
“But I don’t have the keys.”
“It’s okay. I already broke in.” Of course he did. Theanti-locksmith strikes again. “Now can you shut up for five minutes, please?” he grunts. “I’m gonna lock this door and then we’re going to drive to the shop and you’re gonna give me back what you stole from me.”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. Just slams the door shut, before I hear it lock.
A minute later, the engine starts up again.
Dammit. I need to think of a plan. And I have no idea what it could be. All I know is that Zach might be lying on his floor, bleeding out, with nobody knowing where he is.
And it’s all my fault.
ZACH
“Any news?” I ask Asher ten minutes later, because I’m dying inside. Where the hell is she? Where has he taken her?
I try to stand, but Skyler pushes me back down and I don’t have the strength to resist her. I’m still feeling sick and dizzy. And my eyes are shot. I can barely see five feet in front of me.
“You really need to get to the hospital,” Skyler murmurs, dabbing at the drying blood on my temple with an antiseptic wipe she found in the first aid box in the kitchen cupboard. It stings like hell, but I don’t flinch. My body might be here, slumped in the armchair that Asher and Wyatt managed to drag me into, but all I can think about is Sadie.
Is she hurt? She must be so scared. I can still smell her perfume on my shirt. It makes the room tilt even more.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m fine,” I lie, even though my head feels like it’s cracked in two. “We need to focus on finding Sadie.”
Wyatt hunkers down in front of me. “Can you see okay?” he murmurs. I grimace at him. I don’t want to talk about my eyes right now. But the movement makes my stomach heave.
“I didn’t seehim,” I say softly. “So no.”
Skyler’s hand stills against my skin. “Is there something wrong with your vision?” she asks, frowning. She looks at Hudson. “Is there a doctor here we can call?”
I shake my head, because fuck, they’re not taking this seriously. “Let’s find Sadie, then I promise I’ll go to the hospital,” I rasp.
“Asher’s got his team sweeping the entire hotel and the grounds,” Wyatt tells me. “Every exit, every room, every camera feed.” He runs a hand through his hair. “He’s tearing the place apart. We’ll find her.”
My apartment is full of my family, all bustling around, making cups of tea and looking scared. Hudson is on the phone with the Coast Guard, Francie and Eden are comforting Romy who’s convulsing with tears, and West and Asher are leaning over his laptop, Asher talking into the phone that’s lodged between his ear and his shoulder.
He looks up at me, his face unreadable. “What type of phone does Sadie use?” he asks me.
“She has an iPhone,” I say. “Do you think you can track her?”
He lets out a low breath. “They just found an iPhone in the parking lot. Red case, a crack on the front.”
My chest feels so tight I’m not sure I can breathe. “That’s hers,” I say. So much for tracking her. “Shit.”
