Page 68 of Hot For You

“Please let me go.” The tears in her voice were impossible to avoid. “Please.”

He gave a bitter laugh. “It’s your fault, you know.”

“How is it my fault?” she managed to ask.

He shrugged as he paused in lighting matches. “If you hadn’t rejected me that night at Jo-Jo’s, I wouldn’t have to do this.”

“I was with someone else.” A pleading note was in her words. “I couldn’t just leave him.”

Nathan snorted. “You could have told him you were leaving with someone else.”

“I would have hurt his feelings,” she said.

“So instead you hurt mine.” He sneered. “It’s okay to hurt me just because I’m not as good-looking as your boyfriend.”

It’s because you’re a sadistic creep, went through her mind. Instead, she said, “Maybe if I’d met you first?—”

“Shut up, bitch.” His expression grew darker. “You’ll say anything hoping I’ll set you free.”

She bit the inside of her lip again, biting it hard enough that she tasted blood, just to keep herself from showing any more weakness.

The pile of matchsticks grew and he hummed to himself. He looked extraordinarily pleased as he scratched matchsticks on the box and watching each flame until it died away.

“What could I do to make you happy?” She was grasping at straws. “I’ll do anything.”

“Shout my name as you die.” He gave her a look that told her he was aroused. “I can’t wait to hear your screams while I watch you burn.”

Feeling sick to her stomach, she stared into the flames as she watched matchstick after matchstick burn, knowing it all would come to an end soon.

When he burned the last matchstick, he scooped them up and set them on the chalk line, close to her feet. Her terror grew as she watched him take gasoline and pour it over the large circle that surrounded her.

He picked up the matchbox. “One match left.” He smiled, a sick, satisfied smile. “You’ll get to watch the fire burn in a circle around you,” he said. “Gradually it will close in until you’re on fire, too.”

He struck the matchstick and held it over the gasoline-soaked chalk line.

Chapter 26

Reese, Cody, and Sam raced against time, finally reaching the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains. Once Cody had figured out that Carilyn had been taken, he’d stopped calling her phone because Firebug, who he now was certain was Nathan Morris, might hear it and turn it off.

For all Cody knew, Morris could have heard the phone already and planted it someplace to send anyone trying to find her on a wild goose chase. Cody prayed that wasn’t the case. He prayed Carilyn was exactly where the phone app said she was.

“Dear God,” Sam said in a frantic voice and Cody glanced over his shoulder at him. Sam’s face was pale and his teeth were clenched. “Can’t you drive any faster?”

The car fishtailed as Cody turned his gaze on Reese who said, “If we go any faster we’ll end up in the ditch. I’m doing what I can without losing control on this road.”

Sam crossed his arms over his chest and looked out the window. “Why did this guy kidnap Carilyn? I think you should explain it to me.”

Cody looked at Reese who gave a slight nod. “Tell him without giving the details we’re keeping from the press.” Which meant Cody wasn’t to tell Sam about the Barbie dolls.

Starting at the beginning, Cody gave Sam the Cliff Notes version of the case and what had been happening to Carilyn. He didn’t mention Janice’s burnt body or the videos of her being burned alive.

“Dear God,” Sam said again when Cody finished telling him the pertinent information.

“We’re getting closer to her.” Cody glanced at the phone, his heart throbbing painfully in his chest. “The app says we’re within five miles.”

Reese turned off the siren and lights as they got closer. Backup was four or five miles behind them.

Cody was afraid the phone’s app wouldn’t get them far in the mountains, just like the mapping app gave them problems once they got to rural areas. However the Find My iPhone app seemed to be more powerful than the mapping application.

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