Page 54 of Sheltering Lawson
Regret eating me up, I got out and stood there for a moment, disappointment heavy on me. Finding the key to her door, I opened it and walked inside. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing. I felt I just needed to be close to her.
Once inside I went to the bed. It was made, and everything was neat and tidy. It made me a little sick that she hadn’t left one thing behind. The hollowness grew as I remembered our time together in that bed and what we had shared.
I swore softly under my breath and kicked the leg. But it wouldn’t do any good. She was gone, and I would have to wait until she contacted me. That was going to be excruciating.
I looked at my watch, wondering if I could make it to the airport before her flight. I turned and headed for the door, but my boot kicked something metallic. I looked down and everything inside me locked up.
I crouched down and picked up the Celtic butterfly, frowning. Then I saw the broken chain. I reached for it, and it went through my mind immediately that she was in trouble. I don’t know why I thought that, but I knew it in my gut.
The door opened and Brax looked in. “I thought I would find you out here mooning over that girl.”
“Brax, something’s wrong.”
He immediately came into the apartment. “What?”
“She wouldn’t have left this behind. Even if she was pissed at me because I was a macho idiot.”
“What did you do.”
“That’s not important. I know she’s in trouble.”
“I’ll call Boone and Booker. We’ll find her.”
I nodded, pulling out my cell phone. I pressed the number for Mike and as soon as he answered, I told him my fears. “I think Haley’s husband has kidnapped her, and Mike he’s not looking for any ransom.”
That strung-out fucker wanted Haley’s money and he was going to make sure she never made it back to Atlanta.
Chapter 19
HALEY
I woke up in the dark, my head aching, blood in my mouth and my cheek stinging. I tried to think, but the strain made me dizzy. Danger. Brad. The memory came back to me intensifying the pain in my head. Brad had grabbed my hair. I reached for my neck, but it was bare. Damn him. He’d broken my necklace. The scent of gasoline was strong. I realized after a moment while my head swam, and I was getting my bearings that I was moving. I was in the trunk of a car.
It was a clear indication of Brad’s intentions. If he was taking me back to Atlanta, he wouldn’t have put me in the trunk. The implications of that made dread slither down my spine and caused my stomach to heave.
The numbness began to fade and fear took its place. Tears rose to burn the backs of my eyes. As I lay there panting for breath in the stagnant heat, the sounds of the tires on the road rumbled like the murmur of a distant ocean. Whatever road we were on, it was dirt, and rough from the constant dips and jolts. I felt the vehicle swerve and then roll to a stop, as tires crunched on the gravel behind me. Two separate doors opened then slammed. I started to frantically feel for something in the trunk that could be used as a weapon. My hand moved over my purse. I moved on and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when my hand closed over metal. A tire iron.
I heard footsteps, then voices. Brad and his daddy were talking.
“I’m going to take her car to that metal salvage place and make sure it gets crushed along with all her stuff.” Nerves trilled at the base of my neck, prickling like icy spikes. You wait here for me and then we’ll take her in to the swamp and get rid of her.” His voice had an edge of desperation to it, the sound of a junkie who’s access to drugs was in jeopardy. It was a cruel mistress. “Once she’s out of the picture all of it will be mine.” My skin crawled and pebbled with goose bumps at his words, the realization like a white-hot poker in my brain. “We’ll get our stories straight and we’ll be free and clear. Don’t screw this up.”
“This was your idea, Brad! This is crazy! I told you to let her go. It’s not worth it.” His daddy’s gruff voice had the sound of reason in it, but he was caught up in Brad’s nightmare now. He had always enabled him.
“You’re now in it as deep as I am,” Brad sneered. “She’ll never give up the money, and I need it! If she divorces me, I’m sunk. Just stick with the plan and keep your mouth shut and we’ll get through this without a hitch.”
“Brad—”
I heard a bit of a scuffle, then I heard Brad’s daddy say. “Let go of me, son.”
“Don’t you touch her. Do you hear me. She’s still my wife. You lecherous bastard.”
“Okay. Okay. I won’t touch her.”
More footsteps, then the start of the engine, and finally Brad drove away. I was shaking uncontrollably, remembering how Brad had been before our marriage and after, once the drugs had taken him. In that moment, I hated him as much as I hated his daddy. More. But it wasn’t going to do any good to dwell on the past. The present was rife with danger. The sense of dread and disgust seeped deep into my bones.
They were going to kill me.
It came down to the money, and I was nothing now but an impediment. I had already laid the groundwork for them. Disappeared and if they buried me out here, no one would ever find me. I had effectively turned myself into a ghost.
