Page 26 of Blood Revealed

We all answer “yes” at the same time. He kisses her and speeds off. Poor Maryanne has tears in her eyes. She and Elise have been best friends since like their junior year of high school.

The other women all have their phones out. I pull mine from my purse and press Blood’s contact. It rings. It rings again. It rings a third time— “Gah!” I scream at the damn thing when his voicemail picks up.

I need Blood. I need him.Dammit.This shit is so bad.

“Scotch isn’t picking up,” Frankie says. I look over to see her pacing in a small line back and forth.

“Duke isn’t, either,” Caitlin answers. “What the hell is going on? Why are none of the men answering?”

My stomach sours. I feel like puking and I haven’t even eaten anything yet. Liv tries her husband. Nothing. “I left a voicemail,” she says. “Told him what happened, that we have Tommy on it and that he needs to call me back as soon as possible. This can’t happen again. Oh god—” Her voice is shaky and then she drops. Her knees buckle right out from under her. Both Caitlin and I grab her before she hits the ground and I let Caitlin take over once we’ve laid Liv flat. Caitlin’s the doctor, after all.

“It’s okay. She’s going to be fine… You’re going to be fine, Liv,” Caitlin says in an ultra-soothing doctor voice. “I need you to breathe for me, okay? One of you, go back inside and get some water please.”

I nod, then realizing no one is looking at me when all their eyes are trained on Liv, I clear my throat to say, “I’ll go.” There’s a crowd gathered by the front door that I have to push through. The manager is one of the gawkers.

“I need water. My friend needs it.”

“What happened?” he asks. Did he not hear me?

“Hello?Water!” I shout at him and that lights a fire under his ass. He’s gone only moments when he runs back out carrying a glass of ice water, handing it off to me like we’re runners in a relay race. I run it back over to Caitlin, who has Liv on the ground but sitting up now.

“Drink,” she says, offering up the cool liquid to Liv’s parched lips. I suppose shock will do that to a person. No one can blame her. Everything Liv went through when that maniac Houdini was on the prowl. The things Elise survived. Just the memory of hearing about the kidnappings and attacks is enough, imagine reliving it like poor Liv.

We give her space, keeping the gawkers back, and when she’s able to, Caitlin helps Liv from the blacktop, then she and I help her to Caitlin’s truck.

“Everyone, back to the compound,” she orders before starting the engine.

Being the president’s old lady, we do what she says.

Several hours pass before the calls from the men start trickling in. We’re all gathered in Caitlin’s great room, with the kids playing or sleeping in either Jade or Diesel’s bedrooms when she gets the first call from Duke. She looks stricken and then I hear her say, “No. It was Elise who was taken. Didn’t you listen to the voicemail I left?” She pauses again, presumably to let her husband speak. “Hannah is here with us. I’m looking right at her.”

Then the man yells, “Fuck!” so loud that we all hear it through the receiver and I don’t know if I should be hurt by that or not. Was that fuck because it was Elise and not me? Or was it because one of the women was taken to begin with?

As Caitlin ends the call, she turns to us. “Okay, ladies. Here’s the deal. Duke hadn’t listened to his voicemail. They got word that there was a threat put out against Hannah and he was initially calling to warn us, but as we were talking, news came in that she was nabbed.”

What?

“They were after me?”

Caitlin drops her head, her hand resting against her hip, her phone dangling in the other. “It appears so. Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”

“So he thought Elise was me?” I ask, again dumbfounded as the information registers, even if it’s not really registering for me.

“You both look incredibly similar. Same shape, with those big boobs, same sandy blonde hair, even the same eye color. You two look more like sisters than you and I do,” Brinley says.

I got Elise kidnapped. I gotElise kidnapped. For the rest of my life, this will be hanging over my head. I’m tough—it takes a lot to make me cry—but dammit, I can’t hold back the tears from falling this time. The dam’s been breached. My hands to my thighs brace me, keeping me from tumbling forward. And they’re the only things to keep me upright as I begin to hyperventilate.

“Shit,” Caitlin says, rushing to my side. “Sit, girl. You’re okay.” She helps me to a stool and someone hands me a glass of ice water. My hands shake violently as I bring the cool liquid up to my lips.

At the same time as I drink, my phone buzzes and Blood’s name flashes across the screen. Somewhere in the back of my mind I decide that I need to change his contact to something more personal. What a stupid thing to think about at a time like this. I cough and choke while trying to answer in time. Caitlin helps with that too, swiping to answer for me.

“She’s choking on water,” she says to Blood. “Give it a second.”

When I can finally catch a breath and quit coughing, Caitlin hands me off the phone. “Blood,” I croak.

“Baby?” he says that word as a question, the concern evident in his voice.

“I got Elise kidnapped,” I whisper into the line, tears wetting my lashes once again.

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