Nightmares from Within (21 page)

I didn’t want us to be over. I wanted to hold her and comfort her when she needed me, but I’d been a jackass and now she wouldn’t even let me touch her. Standing inches apart from her and not being able to feel her skin against mine was like a death in itself. I had to get her back.

She might have been determined when she said she was done with me but what she didn’t know was that I was just as determined. It was going to take a
lot
of work but I was going to get her back. I hadn’t known her for very long, but I already knew I couldn’t function without her.

Taylor

“Benny, have you talked to Cassie?” I asked, growing more panicked with every passing minute. I’d texted her as soon as I woke up but she didn’t answer. Thinking she was probably still asleep, I gave her a while longer before calling. All I got was voicemail.

Panic was clawing at me as I waited for her to call me back. I tried not to lose it but the clock was ticking and every minute my phone didn’t ring was another minute that the terror crept closer.

“No doll, I sure haven’t, but she may still be in bed. You know how that girl likes her late nights.”

Benny didn’t know the reason for my worry and I didn’t want to dump it all on her. “But isn’t she scheduled to work today?”

Benny glanced at the clock then back to me. “It’s only 9:00. She’s not late for another thirty minutes.”

I couldn’t wait thirty minutes. I was pissed at myself that I’d waited this long already. Shooting Benny a tight smile, I headed back toward the office and pulled my cell phone from the front pocket of my apron. I dialed the only person I could think of that could help me.

Jordan

“Taylor?” The picture I’d taken of her one evening when we were at her apartment popped up on my phone. She had been laughing at something and I remembered thinking that she was the most beautiful when her guard was down.

Seeing her calling filled me with hope. That was until she spoke and I heard the panic laced in her voice.

“Something’s wrong,” she replied frantically.

My whole body went on alert at her words. Sitting at his desk across from me, Stevens became instantly aware of the tension filling me. “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”

“I can’t get a hold of Cassie. She’s not picking up her cell or returning my texts.”

“Calm down, baby,” I said soothingly. “Maybe her phone’s just on silent.”

“No. No, she wouldn’t do that,” Taylor insisted. “She knows she’s in trouble. I didn’t go into detail with her but she knows I saw something bad happen to her and she wouldn’t put her phone on silent. I check in with her all the time. She’d been expecting to hear from me this morning.”

“Okay, it’s all right. Just wait a minute and I’ll make a call. Can you do that?”

She let out a relieved sigh on the other end of the phone. “Yeah. I’ll wait.”

I sat my cell down and grabbed the desk phone to put in a call to the officer I had sitting on Cassie’s house.

“Matthews.”

“Hey, it’s Donovan. You still at Sinclair’s house?”

“Yeah man, been here all night, everything’s been quiet. Nice girl through. She brought me out a cup of coffee around midnight, tasted like shit but it was a sweet gesture nonetheless.”

“All right. Listen, I’m heading over now. Be there in fifteen.”

I hung up with Matthews and put my cell back to my ear. “Taylor, my guy said everything’s straight over at Cassie’s house but I’m going to go check it out for myself. I’ll call you as soon as I know something, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much, Jordan.”

“Don’t thank me, baby. I’m sure everything’s just fine. I’ll talk to you in a few.”

I slid my finger across the phone to disconnect and grabbed my keys off my desk. Stevens was on my tail. “That about Taylor’s friend? The one with the stalker?”

I wasn’t exactly proud of myself for making up a stalker in order to get cops on Cassie but it wasn’t like I could just tell people ‘Hey, my girlfriend has visions and saw her best friend being killed by The Poet’. I had to come up with something plausible so I went with a stalker. Thank Christ I didn’t say that it was an ex-boyfriend or something. I could only imagine what kind of shit storm that would stir up if something did happen to her.

“Yeah,” I replied. “She hasn’t been answering any of her calls. Taylor’s kind of freaking out right now.”

“Matthews say everything was on the up and up?”

“Yep, but I’d still feel better if I saw for myself.”

“I’m with ya man.” We headed out of the station and to the car.

Fifteen minutes later, I pulled up behind Matthews’ Accord and saw him leaning against the driver side door. “I went and knocked after you called.” I could see on his face that he was as concerned as I was. “No answer. I didn’t see anyone going in or out last night but there was no movement when I knocked a few minutes ago.”

The three of us headed up the narrow sidewalk to Cassie’s front porch. Taylor was right, something was definitely wrong. I could feel it. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and adrenaline started coursing through my veins.

“Shit man, I got a bad feeling about this,” Stevens said from behind me.

That made two of us.

“Seattle police,” I called as I knocked heavily on the door.

Nothing.

I banged harder on the door hoping that she was asleep, or maybe in the shower. Still…I got nothing.

I looked over my shoulder at Stevens whose hand was resting on the butt of the gun at his hip. My gaze shot to Matthews and he gave me a small nod. It was completely against protocol but we needed to get into that house. All three of us knew that.

I took a step back and rushed the door, shoving my right shoulder into it as hard as I could. It didn’t budge.

After two more attempts, the aging wood around the doorframe finally gave way with a loud groan and the door flew open.

“Son of a bitch!” Matthews called from behind me once I’d righted myself.

We’d barely made it two steps across the threshold before we were met with complete chaos.

The house was a wreck. Furniture was overturned, glass was broken, pictures were knocked off the walls and from the mantle above the fireplace. There had been a struggle…a big one.

We made our way from the living room into the kitchen where the backdoor that led to the alley behind the row house sat open.

“Jesus Christ,” Stevens muttered.

“I swear, Donovan. I never heard a damn thing. I was out front all night and never suspected a goddamn thing had gone down.”

I turned to Matthews and saw the distress etched into the lines on his face. “It’s not your fault. Go radio it in. We need to get moving on this. Christ knows how long she’s been missing.”

He nodded his head and started for the front of the house. “I’m on it.”

Taylor

I’d been nervously pacing the length of the office in the back of Benny’s Diner for an hour after my call to Jordan, while simultaneously blowing up his phone. Every call went straight to voicemail. Benny came back to check on me a few times, but when she’d been unsuccessful at calming me down she just went back out front.

I’d finally decided I couldn’t wait any longer so I grabbed my purse and rushed toward the front door when it swung open and Jordan and his partner Barry Stevens walked through.

The stoic expression on both men’s faces knocked the breath out from my lungs; it caused my steps to falter.

“Where is she?” I whispered, feeling the tears building up in my eyes.

Jordan stepped closer and reached for my arms, trying to pull me in the direction of the office. “Why don’t we go talk in the back?”

I jerked my arm from his hold and stepped up to him so that we were practically chest to chest. “Where is she?” I demanded so loud that most of the diner turned to see what the commotion was.

I felt soft hands land on my shoulders and turned to see Benny standing behind me. “Come on, doll. Let’s not do this out here.”

I allowed her to turn me and lead me away from the customers’ prying eyes. I could hear the sounds of Jordan and Stevens following behind us but my thoughts were too chaotic to concentrate on their words. This wasn’t right. I’d embraced the visions and had done everything in my power to stop them from happening. This wasn’t right!

I entered the office and turned to look at them. No one said anything for what felt like an eternity. I saw a look pass between Benny and Jordan before she placed a hand on Stevens’ forearm to get his attention. “Why don’t I get you some breakfast? It’s on the house.”

I watched numbly as the two of them walked out the door and closed it softly behind them. When I turned back to Jordan, he was wringing his hands in front of him and I could see the ticking in his jaw from how tightly he was clenching it.

“Where is she?” I asked again, barely recognizing my voice. The tears I was trying desperately to hold back made it difficult to talk and my words came out raspy and broken.

“We don’t know,” he whispered.

With those three words my knees gave out, and if Jordan hadn’t been standing so close, I had no doubt I’d have ended up on the floor. He pulled me to his chest and wrapped his arms around me as he backed both of us up and lowered onto a chair. He pulled me into his lap and stroked my hair soothingly. “We’ll find her, Taylor. I swear. Forensics is combing every fucking inch of that house. If he left anything behind…anything at all, we’ll find it. I’ll get Cassie back.”

Before I could respond, the office door flew open and Daniel stood before us looking more disheveled than I’d ever seen him.

“Taylor –” was all he was able to get out before I cut him off.

“I did everything you said. I stopped ignoring the visions. I did everything I could to keep her safe,” I insisted.

“I know,” he said morosely. “You did all you could. It’s just that…after you do your job it’s out of your hands.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t accept that.

I wouldn’t.

I turned back to Jordan and started telling him everything I knew. “There are stairs,” I started. “He keeps them in a dark room. I never got a look at it with any of the other visions except for the one with Cassie…” I stopped and squeezed my eyes shut as the memories of that horrible nightmare came spilling back. “I think it’s a basement or something. The walls were concrete…or cinderblock. There are stairs outside the room but they looked unfinished, you know…like the carpet or something had been torn up. I think they led up to a house but I don’t know where. And a door! There’s a heavy metal door. It’s industrial or something…I don’t know.”

Frustration poured through me when I couldn’t think of something more helpful.

“It’s okay, baby,” Jordan said, as he took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s okay, just take a breath.”

I did as he said and sucked in a deep breath. When I felt a little calmer I opened my eyes and gave Jordan what I felt was the most important pieces of information.

“She’s going to fight.”

He shook his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

I felt a tear run down my cheek and brushed it away with the back of my hand. “I saw her fighting him, Jordan. In my vision. She fights for her life harder than any of them did. She’s so strong but that’s going to set him off. You don’t have much time.”