Page 78 of Protecting his Heart

He frowned and glanced at Dr Wallis for an answer. He shrugged. “Why would I not be?”

“The guy kept talking about you. About how you would be the second cog in his revenge. I can still hear his laughter when the house exploded.”

“You saw that?”

She nodded. “He had a camera on it all the time. He made me watch as you went in.” Her breathing laboured. “Made me watch as it exploded.” Tears streamed down her face. “I hadn’t wanted to be the reason you died.”

Owen pulled her in for another hug, tightening his hold on her this time even as his heart bled for her. She had been through so much for being fifteen years old.

“I’m okay, Anika.”

“No thanks to me,” Dr Wallis said.

Despite the slight distance between them, Owen felt Evan tense, and he let go of Anika to grab Evan’s arm. “Evan,” he whispered. His boyfriend stared at him, sighed and nodded. Owen focused on Dr Wallis. “We’d like to hear what happened.”

Dr Wallis nodded slowly. “Anika? Would you go and help your mother in the kitchen, please? You don’t need to hear this again.”

Anika nodded but glanced back at Owen. “Please don’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“I won’t.” He would discuss the other aspects of her words later.

She disappeared down the hallway and Dr Wallis gestured to the sofas. “Please.” They settled on the sofa, and the doctor sat in an armchair, his hands wringing together. “I’ll answer whatever questions you have, but please can I just say I am so sorry.”

Owen had already forgiven him, but he knew it would take Evan a while longer, so he just nodded. “What happened, Dr Wallis?”

“Edward, please. I don’t feel much like I deserve the title.”

“You don’t,” Evan snapped, and Owen gripped his knee. Evan sat back, crossing his arms over his chest, his expression mutinous.

Edward nodded. “I completely agree with your sentiment, Evan.” He sighed, long and hard. “When I found Anika gone, there was a note left on her bed. It just said, ‘wait for a call.’ I wasn’t sure what else to think. So I waited, thinking it was a joke Anika was playing on me. When the guy called, he explained what he wanted me to do. I was to call you, Evan, and request help with finding Anika. The guy joked that you had the means to get her back for me. He said if I did everything he asked, Anika would be returned unharmed. And then he told me to wait for another call, reminding me that I couldn’t tell anyone about the note or him. I had to make it look real.” He licked his lips, shaking his head. “I honestly didn’t think about what could happen. I was solely focused on getting Anika back, and I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t hear her being taken?”

Edward shook his head. “I’ve recently had the stairs redone because the boards were bad. So we had new boards and new carpets. There were next to no creaks on the stairs, and Anika said she remembered someone grabbing her neck and nothing else. I’m assuming they used her pressure points to make her unconscious. I didn’t hear a thing. Well, only one sound, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Some sort of click.”

Owen could see the guy was beating himself up for everything that had happened, and he was likely to do that for a long time. After all, Owen was still beating himself up for what happened to Amy, and that was over twenty years ago.

“And you received a second phone call?”

Edward nodded. “Same guy told me I would receive a third call from him, which I would connect to your boss for him to listen to. I had to pretend to be scared—which wasn’t hard.”

“How did you have Brett’s number? We didn’t give it to you.”

“Detective Acton gave it to me. Told me to call him if he couldn’t get hold of him.” Owen nodded and gestured for him to continue. “So when he called back, I added your boss, and did what the guy told me to.”

“How do you know it was the same guy? The voice we heard was robotic,” Evan said.

“He’d said he’d sound different to hide his identity.”

Owen glanced at Evan, wondering if that was a lead they’d need to look into. If the guy needed to hide his voice from them, was it someone they knew?

“What other instructions had he given you?”

“He was going to ask for a ransom, but that was fake. I didn’t need to ‘worry’ about that. Um… that he’d send a proof of life that I had to tell you about. He said it didn’t matter if you located him.” Edward frowned. “I didn’t really understand that bit.”

“It was because it was a setup,” Owen said. “He wouldn’t have been there no matter when we arrived. Whoever entered that house would’ve been in for a nasty surprise.”

“What does he want with you?” Edward asked rubbing his forehead.

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