Taking Heart (22 page)

“I should probably get us some food.” His breath was foul, sickeningly sweet, and she fought the urge to gag. “Why don't you stay here and I'll bring us back something?”

He didn't give her the opportunity to argue as he grabbed her by her bruised wrists and shoved her back toward the bed, reaching for the narrow rope and looping it over her hand.

“No,” she cried out. If she let him tie her again, escape was impossible unless someone heard her. “I'll stay, I swear,” she lied, trying to pry his fingers from her wrist with her free hand.

“I'm not a fool, Julia,” he scolded. “But I promise, I won't be gone long.” He tightened the knot, and she felt the tears well in her eyes. She didn't want to cry in front of him, but when the first tear slipped down her cheek as he cinched the second rope, he paused to watch. She could see his confidence waver as he reached out a single finger to touch the wetness before he reined in his compassion. “I'll be back soon, so stop it.”

She tried to open her mouth to protest when she felt tape being slapped over her lips again. She yelled against it but it only muffled, and he smiled at her sadistically before he clicked on the television, turned up the sound, disappeared out the door, and left her alone in the room with her panic again.

J
ULIA STARED UP
at the ceiling, unblinking. She'd clawed her way through a panic attack once he left and now lay on the bed, still drenched in sweat, chilled, with her throat raw. It had taken a while to come out of it, but she had no real sense of time. She knew she'd been lying there, staring at the ceiling long enough to count the water spots six times, and there were over thirty of them over the bed alone.

Once the suffocating fear had taken hold, she'd grasped at any reality she could find, fighting and scraping her way through the fog of terror. She tried to think about her sister and brother, of Bailey, her dogs. Tango must be frantic. But each thought would disappear like the sun behind a thunder cloud under the pressure of her fear. The one thought that remained constant was Dylan. The deep, raspy quality of his voice, the way he would look at her with his eyes dark and liquid, the feel of his hands on her skin. She wondered if he realized she was missing. It had to be past time for them to have met to work the dogs.

She heard the scrape of a key working in the door, filing the information into the back of her mind that this wasn't a modern motel with key cards. She let her body go still, trying to appear as if her mind had slipped into the depths of fear.

“Dinner is here,” Evan called cheerfully. “I—”

He paused as he neared the bed, dropping the food on the desk near the door. “Julia?”

She remained still, her eyes trying to focus as she willed herself to remain in her catatonic ruse. Evan hurried to one side and untied her wrist.
Wait.
She willed herself to remain patient. She didn't want to waste this one chance at escape. It had to be the perfect opportunity, one where she could hit him hard and run. Evan finished untying her left wrist, but she remained lifeless, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.

“Julia, sweetheart, I brought dinner.”

He bent over and put his face just above hers, close enough that she could feel his breath on her cheek, and pulled the tape from her mouth. Her eyes flicked to meet his. Evan sucked in a breath of surprise as her arms came down over the back of his neck, making him fall against her. She brought up her knees, quick and hard, connecting with the side of his head before kicking him as hard as she could away from him. Julia leapt up from the bed and ran for the door, stumbling over him as he reached out for her ankle.

She barely managed to kick her foot free when her hands landed against the door. She fumbled for the knob, twisting and jerking at it, but the door would open only a few inches. Julia looked back over her shoulder to see him rising with a hand at the side of his head, over his ear. When he pulled it back, it came away with blood on his palm. Murderous rage lit his eyes. She finally realized that he'd locked the chain, and she flipped it, releasing the door.

Just as she jerked the door open, could feel the cool evening air as it rushed into the dank room, her face was pressed against the metal door as it slammed shut again. Dizzy stars spun behind her eyes, and she could barely remain standing as he raised a hand, laying it against the door. His body pressed up against the back of her, her cheek cold against the metal.

“That was stupid.” Bits of spit landed on her cheek as he moved his face only inches from hers. “I thought you learned the last time.”

Evan released her and she slid to the floor with a cry of pain. He jerked her up from the carpet by her hair and threw her at the bed. “Face it, Julia, you are never leaving me. You have always been mine and you will always be mine. Nothing is going to change that.” He stormed toward her and grasped her wrist, hauling her toward the corner of the bed so he could tie her again.

“No!” She thrashed on the mattress, striking out wherever she could in order to stop him. She couldn't lose this one chance, because once he tied her back up, she knew he wasn't letting her loose again and she'd be helpless to stop whatever he had planned. And she had no doubt he would inflict as much pain as possible.

Julia managed to hit his injured temple, and fresh blood ran down his face, falling on her shirt. She was able to raise her knee between them as he struggled to hold her down. Her heel came in contact with his sternum, and she kicked with every bit of strength she could muster. Evan stumbled backward, falling to the floor. He lay still. She didn't wait to see if he was conscious as she spun to her side and began untying her wrist. He could be dead for all she cared. She had to get out of this room and find a phone.

D
YLAN PULLED INTO
the parking lot of the Sak 'N Save as his phone vibrated on the seat. Gage shot him a worried glance. “It's a text.”

“Well?” Dylan didn't have time to waste on small talk. His mind was racing with possible places Evan might have taken Julia. But he didn't know the town well enough to locate the local dives, and Gage had only spent his time in town working.

“It's a picture.” Gage turned the phone for Dylan to see. Evan stood in front of an old-fashioned, drive-up burger joint holding a bag of food. It could have been taken anytime, but Dylan knew better. Evan was giving him the first clue as to his whereabouts. Or at least where he'd been.

Dylan spun the tires as he backed out of the parking spot and pulled back onto the highway, heading straight for the fast-food restaurant in the picture. If Evan had been there in the past twenty-four hours, he would find him.

“Dylan, what are you planning on doing? This isn't the military. You can't just pull out a gun and shoot your way out of this.”

“I don't need a gun,” he reminded his brother. “Right now, my only concern is to find Julia, make sure she's okay, and get her the hell away from that madman. What happens after that . . . ”

Gage shot him a wary glance from the corner of his eye. “Have you thought about the fact that—”

“Don't even say it.” Dylan clenched his teeth. He wouldn't even consider any alternative to him finding Julia unharmed.

“But—”

Dylan slammed on the brakes, making the car skid on the gravel shoulder, and glared at his brother. “Don't! I
will
find her and she
will
be okay.”

“And then what?”

Dylan knew what his brother was getting at. Leaving Julia had been the stupidest mistake he'd ever made, and now she was missing. It was his fault. His useless sense of chivalry and honor hadn't protected her. He may have hurt her far worse by leaving her than he ever would have if he'd just stayed. She'd never asked him to be perfect. She'd accepted him, scarred and broken, and knew better than anyone else the struggles his PTSD would offer in the future. But he'd been so certain he knew better than she did.

Gage pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Chase, we have a lead. I know we should have told you we were leaving, but you need to meet us at the Fre-Z-Burger. Bring Gracie.”

Dylan shot an inquiring look at his brother.

“Gracie found Julia's hat, and this is what they've been training her for. She led us to where the car was parked. Why not put her to the test? It's better than nothing.”

Pressing the gas pedal to the floor, Dylan gunned the Camaro down the highway. He would find Julia, and when he did, nothing was ever going to convince him to leave her side again.

J
ULIA SAW
E
VAN
moving as she unlatched the door and ran out. She wasn't wasting any time to look back. She ran as fast as she could down the row of motel rooms, past the cars sleeping in the parking lot toward the front office, where a vacancy sign blazed. If she could just get inside and find a phone, she could call Dylan, or Chase.

“Get back here!”

Julia looked back over her shoulder and saw Evan in the doorway of the room he'd rented, five doors away from her. There wasn't enough space between them. She could see a burly man through the front window of the office as she bolted for his door. She waved as she got closer, trying to attract his attention, even though he was looking right at her.

“Help! Hey!” She saw the man walk toward the door and thought he'd open it, rescue her from Evan, who was now limping toward the office as quickly as his injury would allow. Suddenly, the lights in the office were turned off and the man flipped the Open sign, locking the door behind him. “Hey! Wait!”

Julia reached the door as the man turned his back on her. “Help!”

She pounded her fists on the door. It rattled, shaking from the force, but he ignored her and walked into a back room, as if she was nothing more than a ghost. Julia looked at Evan.

His lips pulled back into a grimace as he continued to limp toward her. “I plan ahead, sweetheart. And I pay well.”

Julia wasn't going to give up now, not when she'd tasted freedom. There was a road that ran in front of the motel. Someone was bound to drive by at some point. She hurried toward it, but both directions were deserted, with nothing more than woods on each side. It looked familiar, but she doubted her intuition. As she waffled on a decision, Evan was quickly closing the distance between them.

She had no other choice. She would rather chance the woods in the dusk with places to hide than be in the open, in plain sight of the man lumbering down the road with murder in his eyes. She dashed through the trees, tripping over roots and barely righting herself. Julia looked around her, trying to get her bearings. She could hear water rushing through Hangtown Creek nearby, but Evan would expect her to move toward it since it led directly into town and the park. Julia didn't think she could outrun him the entire way. She looked up at the pines surrounding her. Most of them were stripped clean of low branches by the power company to avoid downed power lines during the coming storms. She spotted a fallen log, half-rotted and split over a stump. Across from it, she could make out a stream that must run toward the American River.

Quickly, she turned her back on the water and ran toward the log. If she could just get under it, she'd be completely hidden from his view.

Within moments, she heard Evan as he snapped branches underfoot, not even bothering to sneak up on her. “Oh, Julia, I know you're still here.”

She felt a chill skitter up her spine, goosebumps breaking out of her skin. A field mouse moved in the log next to her, shuffling through the empty hole and spider webs that decorated the innards of the decaying tree. She tried to calm her breathing, to slow her racing heart, even as panic threatened.

Cowgirl up, Julia. Don't lose your wits. You need them more than ever right now.

“Sweetheart, if you come out now, I'll let you live. You can watch me tear your boyfriend limb from limb.”

Julia wondered how insane Evan must be to think he was offering her any sort of incentive. Did he think she would come out to defend Dylan, or believe his lies and think he wouldn't kill them both if he had the opportunity?

“Julia?” His voice held a singsongy quality as it rose and fell, just above her hiding spot. She froze, a spider crawling over her hand in an effort to get away. Julia bit her lower lip to keep from yelping as dirt and pine needles rained into her hair from above. She held her breath as he stopped moving.

“I see you over there.” Her heart stopped beating in her chest until she heard him move away from where she cowered in the tree trunk. “You know you can't hide from me.”

She inhaled the wet scent of the earth as Evan's voice grew farther away. He was just talking. He hadn't seen where she went, hadn't found her hiding place. He had no clue where she was and was just trying to scare her into giving up. He was doing what he did best—playing games with her mind. But she wasn't about to move until she knew he was gone.

“H
AVE YOU SEEN
a dark-haired guy with a pretty blonde here today?” Dylan asked the kid at the register.

The scrabble of nails on concrete drew Dylan's attention back to Gage, who was trying to control Tango while Roscoe danced around them, off leash. Dylan hand-signaled Roscoe to sit, allowing Gage to better control Tango as he pulled and tugged against the leash.

The kid barely looked at Dylan. “Dude, I get a lot of dark-haired guys. You expect me to remember someone specific?” He blew air through his lips. Dylan wanted to reach through the window and knock him into the glass. He didn't have time for teenage attitude.

“You'd remember this woman. Really pretty, hair to here.” He held his hand at the middle of his chest. “Dark eyes.”

“Nope.” The kid shook his head. “Haven't seen her.”

Dylan yanked the phone from his pocket, the plastic bag catching on his jeans. “What about this guy?” He opened the text message and showed the kid the picture.

“Oh, yeah, he came by. I wondered why he was taking a selfie. It was weird, but . . . ” The kid paused and shrugged. “Lots of people do strange things.”

“How long ago?”

“Hmm.”

Dylan though he might choke this kid if he didn't hurry up and give him the information. He didn't want to hear this kid hum a tune, he wanted answers. “It's pretty important. I need to know.”

“Hour ago? Maybe an hour and a half?” The kid's eyes widened. “Hey, are you guys, like, cops or something?” He leaned closer to the window. “FBI?”

“Did you see which way he left?”

“I think he went that way.” The kid pointed down the road.

“Thanks for your help.” Dylan led Roscoe back to the car, but the dog pulled up short, trying to drag Dylan back toward the road. “Come on, Roscoe.” The dog barked one last time before jumping into the backseat of the Camaro with Tango.

“Hey, aren't you going to compensate me or something?” Dylan heard the kid yell as he shut the car door and sped up the road, praying he would be able to find Julia in time. She'd been gone too long without any word from her. He knew Evan was playing a game of cat and mouse that Dylan couldn't afford to lose. Losing meant that everything that meant anything to him would be gone forever.