Page 95 of Romeo

“Unless you want me to put you on the ground right now, you’ll tell me where she is.”I stare into his eyes, not even blinking, because I want to makecertainhe understands that it’s not an empty threat I’m throwing his way.

“I haven’t done anything to Jules Landers.That girl is troubled, and if something happened, it wasn’t me.”

I hold up a finger.“That’s one strike, Dodger.You have two more before not even the good detective here will be able to stop me.”

Dodger’s gaze shifts to the detective.“You’re an officer.This man is threatening me.”

“Answer his question.Have you seen Jules Landers today?”

The doctor glares at me.“No,” he sneers.“I haven’t seen Jules in years.”

“You mean since you kidnapped, raped, and assaulted her from the time she was sixteen until she escaped two years later?”I ask.

Dodger takes a step back, his gaze widening.He’s terrified—it’s etched into every line of his face.Good.“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t.”I grip him by the front of his shirt.“If you hurt even a single strand of hair on her head, there is not a prison in this world that will hold me.Do you hear me?Iwillcome for you.”

“I-I didn’t do anything!I haven’t seen Jules today!Emmaline said she showed up here earlier, but Helena sent Emmaline out for errands, and by the time she got back, they were both gone.”

“Your wife was here when she arrived?”I ask.

“Yes.”

I release his shirt, tossing him back a step, and then I turn to Tucker.“Then you don’t mind if we search the house.”

“Actually, I do.”He crosses his arms.

“Actually, I think I have enough for a warrant,” Sampson replies.“So it really doesn’t matter what he says; one phone call and we’ll have our permission.”He withdraws his cell phone.

“Media is going tolovethis story,” Beckett says as she grins and crosses her arms.“I can’t wait to see what the headlines will read.”

“Just go in,” Dodger snarls as he steps to the side.“But you’re not going to find anything.”

“Oh, I think we’ll find plenty,” I snap as I unclip Romeo’s leash then withdraw Jules’s T-shirt from where it was tucked into my back pocket.I let the dog smell it.“Such,Romeo.”Search.

My dog instantly goes into work mode and moves into the house, nose to the ground.He rushes through the front door and into the living room.He sniffs the couch, then stops and looks at me, my sign that he found what he was looking for.

“She was here,” I tell them.

“Voran,Romeo.”Go on.He begins searching again, and I follow as Sampson makes the call to his team so they can come in and help us cover more ground.

Romeo moves through the kitchen then stops at the back door and lets out a single bark.I open it, and he rushes outside.He moves quickly, clearly following her scent, but stops when we reach the still-open garage door.

Dodger’s car is parked beside an empty space.

“He lost the scent,” Tucker says.“Meaning it was Helena that took Jules.”

Fear chokes me like a vise around my throat.“And we have no idea where they are.”

Chapter33

Jules

My head is swimming.Whatever drugs she slipped into the coffee have started to wear off, but as it ebbs away, the fear kicks in.Even though I’ve never been in Odie’s place before, I know that’s where I am now.

There are photographs of him on the wall of what is clearly his study.Candid photos of various events he’s attended over the years.There’s even one of him and my grandfather at the last movie premiere they attended together.

It makes my heart ache to see them here.Even if he was involved, I still remember the boy he’d been before he lost his mother.

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