Page 52 of Vanished in the Mist
Kaden.
Unbidden, his image rose in her mind. What was he thinking right now? He had to have discovered that she’d gone missing. And she knew he was probably tearing the place apart searching for her. But the hidden door in the closet was locked from the other side with a thick steel bar. There was no way he’d be able to go through it even if he knew it was there. He wouldn’t have any way of figuring out where she went. He didn’t know about the tunnel under the B and B. According to the Phantom, no one did. But him.
She was truly on her own.
Bright sunlight temporarily blinded her as she stepped out of the mine shaft. Her captor chuckled as he jerked her arms behind her, using his duct tape again to tape them together. When her sight cleared, she realized he was wearing sunglasses. He must have put them on just before exiting the mine. Sheblinked and looked around. They were in the woods, in a small clearing. And on the other side of the clearing was a side-by-side, the exact same kind of four-wheeler that Sam had described.
Without a word, he lifted her onto the front passenger seat, then secured her with a seat belt. He held up the knife again, inches from her face, then chuckled and shoved it into a sheathe attached to the doorframe beside him.
“There’s no one around to hear you scream, so don’t bother. If you do, though, I’ll gag you again so I won’t have to listen to it.”
“Where are we going? Why are doing this to me?”
He looked at her as if he thought she’d lost her mind. “We’re kindred spirits. I’m helping you.”
“Helping me?”
“Saving you from the bullies.” His mouth scrunched in a sneer. “No one saved me. But I saved you. You should be thanking me for getting rid of that ex of yours.”
He set the vehicle in motion, racing down a well-worn path through the woods, a path that wasn’t on any of the tourist maps of the area. “They never thank me,” he complained. “Not once.”
They? Never? How many people had he done this to?
Practically feeling the heat of the anger seething in him, she said, “Thank you. For—for saving me.”
He gave her a suspicious glance. “You’re thanking me?”
“Of course.” She smiled, or tried to. “Troy made my life hell. I’m sure he would have…would have hurt me if you hadn’t been there. You protected me.”
His chin lifted and his back straightened as if with pride. “Dang straight I did.”
“Can you… Can you tell me where we’re going? Please?”
His mouth curved in a benevolent smile. “I’m taking you where you’ve wanted to go ever since you got here and started snooping around. I’m taking you to Tanya.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kaden brought the axe crashing against the Sheetrock, knocking a hole in the closet wall. Dawson immediately stepped forward, helping him break through.
“See a passageway?” Kaden asked.
Dawson shook his head. “Are you sure that Shanna didn’t get past you, go out into the hallway?”
“She was in the closet. Someone’s got her, that Phantom or whoever. There has to be a secret passage in the wall.”
“Hey, hey, what the heck are you doing to my hotel?”
They both turned to see Stella standing in the doorway. “State police are running all over downstairs thumping on walls and now, you two are up here busting holes. What’s going on?”
“He’s got Shanna,” Kaden told her, his voice tight and raw. “Someone took her.”
“From the closet?”
“She went inside and never came out. There’s a hidden door in here somewhere. Has to be.”
She whirled around and left.
“Move your hands,” Kaden ordered.
