He took me from the bed, and shoved me in the shower. “Get cleaned up.” He’d left me a pair of sweats and t-shirt to wear. There were even some sanitary napkins.
“Glen, I need to go to a doctor.”
“Don’t play tricks. I know all about a woman’s cycle.”
I couldn’t know what he’d do if I told him I thought I was miscarrying. “Something’s wrong. This is more than usual.”
“You’ll be fine.” He led me back to the room.
I finally decided that I had no choice. “I think I’m miscarrying.”
He stopped and looked at me. Slowly I saw the rage build and realized that he was probably going to kill me.
“You let him plant his seed?”
“He’s my husband.”
His hand struck me. “He’s the devil. God is expelling the demon.” He hit me again. I saw the moment that something snapped, and I knew he wasn’t going to stop. I fought as hard as I could, but in the end, he was too big and strong. The last thing I remembered was his foot propelling toward my head.
29
Chase
I was going fucking mad. Five days Sara had been missing and neither Hunter nor his former-FBI guy could find her. All I’d knew now from surveillance tapes around the park was that fuckhead Glen had gotten to her. When I found him, I was going to rip his head off.
There was a partial plate of a minivan suspected of being used when Sara was taken, and it was likely Glen’s but he hadn’t been home. I decided he must be keeping her in the city, although Hunter wondered if he was making a run for Canada. Fortunately, he knew people who could watch the boarder.
Up until now, we hadn’t involved the city police because there was concern that it would spook Glen into doing something crazy. He hadn’t been in touch to ask for money, which proved that Sara wasn’t in on it. That and the frightened look on her face on the surveillance tape as Glen hurried her away from the park.
Over the last few days, we’d learned that Glen had been obsessed with Sara when she left. He’d been controlling during their relationship, but according to his friends, had gone off the rocker when she left, and talked about getting her back “no matter what.” It was the “no matter what” that concerned me. If he loved her, he wouldn’t hurt her, but I knew enough about human behavior to know that people often hurt the ones they loved. Sometimes they killed them.
“We’ll find her, Chase. I promise,” Hunter said as I paced my terrace trying to get fresh air as if that would bring answers.
“If he hurt her—”
“Don’t go there.” He put his hand on my shoulder. Inside, Kade and Ash did what they could to help.
“Chase.” My father said as he came onto the terrace. I’d only just called and told him.
“Son, I’m sorry.” He embraced me and while the man in me wanted to be strong and push him away, the fear and pain had me holding on.
“There must be a way to track that van.” I said as I stood back.
“I know the police have been looking for the van, but if he’d dumped it or has in a garage somewhere not being used, they may not see it. I know a lot of people who own property in the city. I’ve called in all my favors asking if they can have their security check their buildings’ parking.”
“Thank you, dad.”
“Of course. We all want Sara home safe.”
At this point, only Hunter knew about the baby. I still had hope that we’d find her and we could tell the family together. But I was beginning to lose hope.
The minutes and hours ticked by. I felt like my life was going to end at any minute.
“Chase, we got something,” Hunter said from the doorway.
I whirled around and rushed into the house. “What?”
“Your dad’s contact has a minivan with the same partial in a garage. He insists it’s not one of his tenants, but there is an abandoned building nearby,” Jones said.
“Let’s go.” I headed toward the door.
“You should let the police deal with this,” Ash said.
My tone was lethal. “I’m going to kill that mother fucker.”
“Let him go,” Hunter said. “I’ll watch him.”
We rushed from my place and through the traffic to a sketchy part of the city.
“The police are coming,” Hunter said. “You stay here and let us look around.”
“The police won’t go in if it’s private property unless they have a good idea she’s there,” Jones said.
“I’m going.” They’d have to kill me to keep me from that building.
We walked in and took the stairs up to the first floor where there were several doors to apartments. “I’ll check these,” Hunter said, while Jones tried the others.
“This building must be condemned. These are all apartments, but they look like they’ve been sitting empty,” Hunter said.