Page 4 of Outlaw Ridge: Jesse
Not easily. There’d been multiple layers of the wide sticky stuff, circling around and around her skin.
“My abductor would come in often, maybe every couple of hours,” she continued. “It was hard to gauge time down there. But he’d bring me food or let me use a portable toilet in the corner of the room before he’d leave again. I listened, memorizing the way the wood floor creaked when he moved.”
“Smart,” Jesse muttered.
“Maybe. Not much else to do but think. And try to escape,” she added in a mutter. “After I got the tape off my ankles, I waited, and when he came back in, I struck, grabbing a chair, swinging hard, hearing a grunt of pain. Then I ran. My hands were still taped up but I managed to get off the blindfold and find my way out the bunker entrance. I didn’t see any other women. Or any other rooms. So, I ran and ran and ran.”
“And you made it to a convenience store,” Jesse filled in for her when her voice broke and she had to stop.
Lauren nodded. “I was able to give the cops directions to where I’d been held, but when they went there, it was empty. No sign of the other girls. No sign of him. They collected some DNA samples but weren’t able to match it to anyone.”
Now, she had to pause again.
“At first, I was terrified he’d come after me since the police never caught him. But as the days turned into weeks and then into years, I figured he was long gone.”
That had never stopped her though from looking over her shoulder. It hadn’t stopped the nightmares or her waking up with that overwhelming sense of terror.
“Once I became a cop, I started looking for him,” she admitted.
And that was a serious understatement. She was obsessed with finding him, pure and simple, and it was one of the main reasons she had become a cold case investigator. First, in Austin and now here, home, in Outlaw Ridge.
“So, the kidnapper might have returned,” Lauren managed to say.
“Or else we’re dealing with a copycat,” Jesse was quick to point out. “Over the past sixteen years, have there been any other incidents of abductions like yours?”
“No,” she had to admit. “There were some similar ones, but those didn’t involve the kidnapper putting tattoos on the abducted girls.”
Before she could say anything else, the door swung open and Deputy Griff Abrams stepped inside, his expression grim. A solid, steady presence in the department, Griff was usually the last person to look rattled, but there was something in his eyes now that put Lauren even more on edge.
“The ambulance is taking the woman to the hospital,” Griff said, glancing between them. “But I got an ID on her. Her name is Abilene Joyce, nineteen, a college student. She’s from San Antonio and was reported missing four days ago.”
Lauren’s breath caught.Four days. That would have felt like a lifetime or two if she’d been held captive.
“San Antonio,” Hallie repeated. “Forty miles from here. Does she have any ties to Outlaw Ridge?”
Griff shook his head. “Not that I could find.”
A chill crawled down Lauren’s spine. Why would a kidnapped woman from San Antonio turn up here, covered in blood, with the same tattoo Lauren had been branded with all those years ago?
Before anyone could voice the obvious, Hallie’s phone buzzed. The sheriff answered, listening for a few seconds before straightening.
“That was dispatch,” Hallie said, tucking her phone away in her pocket. “A real estate agent was showing a vacant shop behind the station. And found blood. Looks like we’ve got a crime scene.”
Before she had even finished speaking, Lauren was on her feet with Jesse standing upright beside her. They all started out of the office.
Behind them, Griff headed for his desk in the bullpen. “I’ll stay back and dig for more info on Abilene Joyce and see if there’s anything that connects her to Outlaw Ridge,” he told them.
Hallie gave him a quick nod. “Good. Let me know the second you find anything.”
Hallie, Lauren, and Jesse all hurried toward the exit. And into the Texas mid-day heat. It was only May but the temperature was already in the high eighties.
Lauren stepped out onto the sidewalk, the sun casting long shadows over the pavement. She felt as if she were in a fog. Or a nightmare. Nothing about this felt real. Except she knew it was.
God. It was happening again.
Jesse must have known she was on the verge of losing it because he moved along beside her, the back of his hand brushing against hers. It surprised her that it helped. Surprised her even more that just being around Jesse helped.
When she had returned to Outlaw Ridge a month ago to take the new job, she had thought that being back, being around Jesse especially, might trigger the worst of the memories of her abduction. But it hadn’t. Just the opposite. Part of her, that teenage girl part, still felt the old heat of attraction that had caused her to accept when he’d finally asked her out on a date.
