Page 64 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

As before, this text was followed by a new location pin and the words:

Park in the underground lot and wait for further instructions.

I could have wept with frustration as I realized it was back in the direction I’d just come from and again, I was set a deadline with barely enough time to get there. One traffic jam could mean life or death. The kidnapper was toying with me, it seemed.

I arrive at the new destination with just moments to spare. My blood pressure must be through the roof, and I feel like a tightly coiled spring. This location seems far more ominous than the last. It’s a deserted underground parking lot at an old shopping mall. With no other cars or people in sight, I park up and hesitate, uncertain of what to do. I take out my phone, ignoring the several missed calls and texts from the guys who’ve figured out I’m missing.

When my phone pings, my heart drops as I worry that the kidnapper is going to play the same cruel trick on me again. But, as promised, exactly on time, the message contains instructions.

Go to the third floor. Wait by the fountain.

With trembling legs I get out of the car, I don’t like this at all. The kidnapper hasn’t set any kind of ransom and I’m starting to feel like I shouldn’t have followed their orders after all. Perhaps I should have told the guys? If this person wishes me harm as well as Max, I’ve fallen into their trap perfectly. No one will ever know where I am and there’s nowhere safe to run to in this vast, empty place.

I contemplate calling them or sending a text, but I need to keep my phone on me in case the kidnapper sends any more instructions. They’re bound to check to make sure I have contacted anyone, so I can’t risk that either. But then, inspiration strikes. I rush back into the car and turn on the GPS tracking, praying that the guys will think to check it and find me. I don’t know who has access to the app, so it’s a long shot. But it’s the best I’ve got.

I race inside, opting to take the stairwell. There’s no way I’m going to risk my son’s life on a faulty elevator. When I arrive at the fountain—turned off and empty of any water—mylungs feel on fire as I gasp for breath. There’s no one in sight. The empty mall has an eerie apocalyptic feel to it, which is apt because this feels like the end of the world to me.

“Max!” I call out, my voice echoing in the vast empty space.

The sound of ruffling feathers and the flapping wings of birds, startled by the unexpected noise makes me jump until I realize it’s just a flock of pigeons that have gotten in through a broken skylight to make their nest.

My eyes continue to scan the area frantically as I start to panic that Max isn’t here at all, that the person messaging me is just toying with me.

“Please! I did everything you asked! Just give me back my boy!” I cry out, tears streaming down my cheeks as I shout into the emptiness.

The sound of footsteps pulls my attention and emerging from the shadows on the far side of the mall I see a figure. I can’t see their face, but they have the build and walk of a man. My heart jumps into my throat before plummeting back down again when I realize that the person is alone. Max is nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he? Where’s my boy!” I shout at the figure, somewhere between terror and confusion.

“He’s safe, Emma,” a familiar voice replies as the person steps into the light.

My brain struggles to comprehend what I’m seeing as the horrifying truth dawns on me.

This can’t be happening.

Chapter 36

Emma

“Adam?” I say incredulously as my dead husband emerges from the shadows.

I blink, as if I’m somehow imagining things, and when I open my eyes again, he’ll be gone. A figment of my imagination, conjured up by extreme stress. But he doesn’t disappear.

“Surprise,” he says with a smile, his voice so familiar and yet so alien.

He looks different, but I’d know my husband anywhere. It dawns on me, in a slow creeping dread, that Max wasn’t lying.

Adam was the man who came and tried to take him out of school that day.

In the time since I last saw him, Adam has gained weight and put on muscle. His long blond hair has been cut short and dyed and he’s grown a beard. He’s even wearing chunky steel-toed boots, making him a little taller. The man before me fits the description the teacher gave that day perfectly.

Max was so adamant that it was his father because itwas.He wasn’t lying or playing make-believe. His father really did come for him. This means there’s every chance that Max was telling the truth all these other times. My husband has been secretly watching us, visiting our son and terrifying him.

“I’m sure this must be quite the shock,” Adam says.

As though he’s just told me a distant relative passed away, rather than literally coming back from the fucking dead! He moves closer and I automatically back away.

“Where’s my son?” I hiss.

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