Absolute Zero (55 page)

“You’re not to touch her, you dumb bitch. Get up,” he took a step toward her causing her to scramble away from him.

“You Ok? Sorry about that. I’ll get her back for you…” Rand said before he gave Anne a wink.

The clattering from the other side of the room was deafening as Shelby shook her cage violently.

“You shut up or you’re next,” he yelled over the racket before grabbing the woman by the hair and dragging her toward the steps.

Anne could hear Angie’s alternating whimpers and sobbed apologies from up above until a door slammed, causing her eyes to connect with a suddenly calm Shelby.

“She’s not coming back,” she whispered to Shelby before attempting to sit up. For such a little thing, Angie sure packed some power behind her backhand; that was for sure. Anne touched her face gingerly, knowing a bruise was starting to form. It almost
had
to, her face hurt that bad.

She watch Shelby touch the side of her own face, making small mewling sounds as she continued to stare at Anne.

“Let’s see if we can get out of here. I don’t know how long we have, but…” Anne turned and knelt on the jagged floor, her body turned away from Shelby. Her fingers felt for and touched the area where the eyehook was imbedded into the stone wall. She gave a few tugs but only managed to make her wrists scream in pain from the effort. Her eyes darted around the basement and other than the cage; there really wasn’t much in the room. Not that it would have done her any good. Even the chains binding her to the wall were only four or five feet long at the most.

Tears formed in her eyes and she sat down with a dejected thump as she blew out a breath.

“Huh…” her fingers dabbed at the corners of her eyes. “I never cry. I feel like bawling my eyes out right now, I’m so frustrated,” she stated. “I can’t do this. Not by myself. I need your help, Shelby. Can you understand me? Can you nod your head or blink or something?”

Shelby only stared back at her blankly.

“If he does what I think he’s going to do it would be two against one, now. He’s big, but I think we could take him. What do you think?” Anne asked, not really expecting an answer.

“Keeeehhhhhh,” Shelby breathed out.

“Key? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Keeeeyaaaaallllll”

“Keeyal? What is that? What is…?” Anne mumbled as she watched the other woman’s mouth.

Shelby’s head jerked from side to side in an almost frustrated shake of her head.

“Kiiiiii,” she blew out an agitated breath. “Kiiiiiiiilll…”

“Kill? You want me to kill him?”

Again her head shook back and forth and her small hands hit the side of her head as a groan escaped her lips.

“Meh. Meh,” she grunted out as her fingers wrapped around the cage and she pressed her face against the metal.

“Kill…me? You want me to kill you?”

“Kiiilll meh,” she gave the cage a couple shakes.

“I can’t do that. I
won’t
do that,” Anne stated. “We’ll get out of this.
We will
. Did you know that half the town is named for you? It’s true! And your big house on the hill? It’s still yours. We’ll get out of here and you can live there. You loved that house. Shay told me. Everyone will be so surprised when you come back,” Anne rambled. It was hard to decipher if her encouraging words meant anything to Shelby.

Ian will be so surprised when you come back
…

The thought struck her and her face went from gently encouraging to frowning.

Shelby moaned something incomprehensible drawing her attention once again. When she looked up to Anne, tears were streaming down her face.

*****

“It went straight to voicemail. His phone is turned off,” Shay stated before pulling her phone from her ear and fixing Ian with a stare. “What the hell is going on?” she asked in a shaky whisper.

“I don’t know. I think she’s with him, though. Has he been acting strange lately? Anything that you noticed?”

“No…I mean, I thought he was having an affair, but he told me…”

“What?” Ian encouraged impatiently.

“He was going to surprise me. He said he was buying a boat. I found an EZ pass statement in the garbage. It lists out the exits he passes through. He was going to Downingtown. I guess that’s where the boat seller is, maybe? I don’t know, I believed him. I
still
believe him. Ian, he’s a good man. Maybe Anne went for a run. She likes to run…”

“Her purse is gone. Her car is in the driveway. The last person she talked to besides me was Rand. She’s not out on a run, Shay. Something is going on.”

He grabbed his own phone and pressed in numbers before he placed it next to his ear.

“Is there anything you can think of in Downingtown? Anything else?” he asked as the phone began to ring in his ear.

“No. Well, no…his grandpa’s house, but he sold that a couple of years ago after he died,” she answered.

“Sgt. Merkel,” he could hear after the third ring causing his attention to shift.

“Frank? This is Ian again. I need another favor…” he started.

“24 hours, Ian…” he started before he cut him off.

“I
know
, Frank. I just want to know if you can check an EZ pass account. And…maybe help me look into a property in Downingtown.”

“I’m not a real estate agent…” the other man stated, causing Ian’s hand to grip the phone tightly.

“That’s not what I meant. Shay, do you have the address?” His eyes snapped to hers. They were glistening with unshed tears.

“I…think so…maybe…”

“Go find it,” he barked out before gentling his voice. “Please,” he added in a softer tone.

“What are you up to now?” he could hear through the phone.

“I don’t know, maybe nothing, but it’s all I’ve got right now. Can you by chance track a cell phone signal? Even if the phone’s turned off?”

“Ok, Ian. I can’t do
that
. Not yet. I have to have reasonable cause to track someone’s cell phone,” he answered in a serious tone.

“But you can do it,” he supplied.

“It can be done. You file the missing person report after 24 hours and we’ll see.”

“Here it is,” Shay held up a small book as she entered the room. Ready?” She looked up at Ian before he gave a firm nod.

*****

“I’m blubbering like a baby, I’m sorry. Please stop crying. I’ll stop if you stop,” Anne stated as she lay on the ground, her head turned toward Shelby.

A low moan was her only response.

“We’re going to get out of this, I promise. Look,” she reached over and held up her shoe. “Check out this heel. If you distract him, I’ll beat the crap out of him with this. What do you think?” Anne asked.

She didn’t look impressed. In fact, her expression was completely blank other than the tears that flowed from her cheeks.

“It’s worth a try. That’s about all I have unless we strangle him but I’m pretty sure the two of us don’t add up to what he weighs put together. I should’ve paid more attention in self- defense class,” she stated on a loud sigh.

She turned her face to stare at the worn wood beams crisscrossing the ceiling. Rand had to have been gone for what seemed like at least two hours, maybe even more. He would want to administer the solution as soon as he returned, she was sure.

Her mind drifted to Ian as a fresh wave of tears escaped her eyes and trailed down to the musty blanket beneath her head. Her last words to him were rotten. Hopefully he still cared enough to look into her disappearance. That was at least one thing working in her favor. Rand seemed to have no idea of their relationship. He probably assumed she would disappear and no one would care. He was wrong.
Hopefully
he was wrong.

*****

“Downingtown. Or at least he exited at Downingtown this morning. No re-entry.” Ian’s eyes focused on Shay as he listened.

“And the house?”

“Still in his name. Never sold,” Frank answered.

“See? There’s something up…”

“I’ll agree. I’ve already contacted the State Police in that area. They’re going to check it out.”

“When? Now?”

“I don’t know Ian. This isn’t a high priority…”

“Maybe not to
you
,” he gritted out before calming his voice. “Thank you, Frank.”

“No problem. Just sit tight, I’ll call you as soon as I hear something,” he said.

Sit tight?
I don’t think so.

“Ah…sure. Thanks again,” he replied absently before ending the call and fastening his eyes on Shay once again.

“He lied,” he said simply before standing up.

“Wha…? I don’t understand,” Shay started before he interrupted her.

“He never sold that house and he’s not in Jersey. He exited in Downingtown this morning,” he added.

“Maybe the boat…?” he could hear as he turned toward the front hallway.

A disgusted breath escaped him as he continued to walk toward the front door. “I don’t think it’s the boat,” he said under his breath.

“Where are you going?” he could hear behind him as he opened the front door.

“Downingtown,” he replied without hesitation.

*****

She must have fallen asleep at some point because the sound of the door slamming somewhere up above her caused her eyes to flutter open and scan the room.

Her eyes passed over then focused on Shelby. She had her fingers curled over the chain link at the front of the cage, staring back at her. A low moan ended in something close to a feral growl as she gave the cage a quick shake.

“Shhhh. Don’t,” Anne pushed up and sat while she shook her head in Shelby’s direction. “Be nice, remember? Nice and calm…” she pleaded softly, her words causing Shelby to remove her fingers from the cage.

“Ladies, I’m home!”  Both sets of eyes shifted toward the stairs, waiting for the inevitable.

“Miss me?” He asked in an annoyingly jovial voice as he walked toward the cage. He was holding a black medical bag. It was on the tip of Anne’s tongue to ask about Angie but his words cut her off.

“You ready?”

“No,” Anne retorted immediately.

“You sure about that?” He pulled a small object from the inside of his coat and held it up.

A gun. A revolver similar to the one Sam used…

Anne froze at the sight.

“So what do we need to do, here?” he asked in a friendly enough voice.

Anne took a few deep breaths before opening her mouth. “I don’t know,” she shook her head. “Typically I would perform some testing and scan prior to administering something like this. I don’t suppose you have an MRI machine upstairs or maybe an EEG machine hidden…up your ass or something,” she blurted out in a frustrated rush.

“Serious, Anne. What do we need to do?”

“Well…I suppose the first thing you should do is shave the area. Do you have a local anesthetic? Anything that will help with pain? Nothing too strong though,” she stated more to herself than him. “I just…wish I knew how this reacts with…I just don’t know, Rand! Why are you doing this? I don’t understand. This isn’t going to turn her back into the person she was before. She’s too far gone.” She stated irritably.

“You don’t think I know that? I just want to…I want to touch her again. I want her…” he shook his head, cutting off his words.

“Just sedate her, why do we have to do
this
?”

“I have! It’s not the same. I
have
sedated her but I don’t like having sex with a practically comatose person. Do you?”

“
No
. Because I’m not
crazy
…” she muttered hotly.

“You don’t know anything about it. You don’t! She loves me. She’s still in there, I know she is. I just want her back,” he shifted his eyes to Shelby.

“She’s not coming back, Rand. She’s not the person you knew before. Whatever went on between the two of you…I don’t know,” she breathed out, “but it won’t ever be the same. You need to accept that. She needs to be in a place where they can at least try and help her live a half decent life. You can’t do that for her. If you loved her, if you
truly
loved her, you would do that for her,” Anne stated softly.

He continued to stare at the woman in the cage. Shelby refused to meet his eyes; she was staring at Anne instead.

He was silent for a moment.

“You’re right. I should put her in a home…” he muttered quietly causing Anne to sit up a bit straighter.

“If I loved her, I would do that…” he added, causing Anne’s head to nod encouragingly.

“I don’t know why I did this,” he covered his face with his hands, his shoulders began to shake. Anne watched him break down with a mixture of hope and apprehension.

It all seemed too easy.

Hope turned to dread as his face was revealed once again, he was laughing, not crying.