Page 154 of Renard's Deliverance

Because if she thought about it too much right now, she knew she’d be sick.

“I never knew,” Mrs. G said, her voice shaking. “I didn’t know.”

Opal nodded. “He knocked you out when he found you down there?”

“Yes, he must have. Then I woke up to find him leading you down the stairs. Then he must have drugged me because the next thing I know, we’re back here.”

“Back here?” she asked. “You know this place?”

“I do. This is where his father died. He, uh, he killed himself here.”

“Oh my God.”

Opal wasn’t always that smart. She hadn’t even finished high school. But she had the feeling that was a bad sign. Then something occurred to her.

“Does anyone else know that?”

“Well, yes. I guess some of the older residents of Haven might remember.”

Then someone would surely figure it out.

They would come.

Renard would come.

Please let him come.

* * *

Where the fuck was she?

He was going insane and nothing made sense. Jake had people scouring the neighborhood where she lived, looking for more witnesses.

Someone thought they had seen Barney’s car, but it had turned out to be a dead end.

They’d gotten access to the traffic cameras in Haven, but he hadn’t driven through the main streets.

He’d been smart. Stuck to the side streets.

Gone out in the cloak of darkness.

Now, where the fuck was she?

“Report came back from the officers who checked his apartment in Houston,” Duncan said, walking in. “There’s nothing in there. No hint of where he might be. Nothing that points to his obsession with her.”

“We need to increase our search area,” Jake said. “We have an alert out on his vehicle. But if he’s taken Opal and Mrs. Gingers somewhere, then he might have set himself up for a while. He might not come out of hiding. We need to look into any property he owns or his family. Often people like this choose somewhere familiar.” He turned to Renard. “We’ll find her.”

They better.

Because he was fast coming to the realization that he didn’t want to live without Opal.

She was his world.

And when he had her back in his arms, he wasn’t letting her go again.

31

“Here. I brought you water and food.”

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