It wasn’t there.
Damn. I never went anywhere without my phone. I had set it on the kitchen counter because I was in the middle of reading an e-mail when I went to fill my coffee cup…
It must still be there.
What time was it?
I was supposed to meet Melanie back at the house so we could drive to Denver…
I tried standing again, to no avail. I would have to wait until whatever I had been drugged with left my system.
Think, Joe, think. What could be going on? Who would be calling you Brad?
The door opened again, and the woman, still a blur, came in with a tray.
I said nothing. Just sat, squinting, trying to make out who it was.
And then I knew.
Brooke Bailey had never been stalking me.
The person stalking me, who was now talking to me as though I were my father, was none other than Wendy Madigan. She couldn’t have gotten me here by herself. Someone was helping her.
Was I in Denver? How much time had passed?
Wendy set the tray down on a TV tray and brought it to me. “I hope you’re hungry. I made my famous beef stew. I remember how much you used to love it.”
Should I play along? Not like I had much choice until I could work my body. Right now I was tingling all over. From nerves? Probably. But maybe also from whatever drug she’d given me wearing off. Hopefully.
She hadn’t bound me, thank God, but she was probably locking the door behind her while I was in here. But the room was sunny and had a window. I could easily get out of here.
What to do until then? Appease her? That would probably be the safest thing, but it wasn’t in me to do that without trying to get out first.
“You made a mistake,” I said. “I’m not Brad. I’m his son, Jonah. Brad was my father.”
“Always the same thing, Brad,” she said. “Always trying to deny what has always been between us. That’s why I brought you here. That’s why I’ve been texting you. It’s time that you finally surrendered to our love.”
She was crazy. My skin compressed against my muscles, and I remembered the last time I had seen Wendy Madigan. She had said more than once how much I looked like my father, more so than Talon and Ryan did. That much was true, and I recalled the way she’d stared at me, to a point where I’d become uncomfortable.
Now she had clearly flipped her wig.
I tried not to worry about my fate. Melanie would notice I was gone, and she would go to Talon and Ryan. They would put Mills and Johnson on the case, and I would be found soon. Still, I needed to try to escape.
“I’m ovulating, Brad. I think we may finally get that baby we’ve been wishing for.”
Nausea crept up my throat. Ovulating? Wendy was in her sixties. Not only crazy but delusional as well. No way was this happening.
“Enjoy your stew. I’ll be back to check on you later.”
“Look, Wendy, you know I’m married. Daphne and I have four children.”
“Silly, you only have three. Three boys. You say you love Daphne, but I was always your first and only love. You told me so yourself.”
All right. No wonder she thought she was ovulating. She was stuck in the past, obviously before Marjorie had been born. I could work with that. “That was a long time ago. We were just kids.”
“Not that long ago. You know as well as I do that we were always meant for each other. I forgave you when you impregnated that slut Daphne.”