All of the air leaves my body on a soft Oh.
I haven’t seen his face since the day I escaped. Since the day he beat me so badly I could hardly walk. I can still hear the crack of leather across my flesh and the way it bit and tore at me. And his laugh— “Vera?” Beau jostles me out of my memories. “Hey. You’re okay.”
I shake my head, looking around. Suddenly he’s everywhere. I can feel him. He’ll come at me out of nowhere with his sadistic smile and horrible laugh.
“I have to go.”
I start for my car. I’ve got to run, get out of here before he finds me. He’ll make me pay for outsmarting him and escaping. He’ll want to make me suffer, make me suck him off like that last time before he beat me. Maybe he’ll let his guys have a go at me first. He did that when Cinnamon tried to escape. They rotated her between them for three days before she was put back into service. I don’t know what all they did to her, but she was never right after that.
Beau grips me by the arm and pulls me back against him. “What about Marie? You came here to find her. He’s got her. You can’t just leave and let him have her.”
His words freeze me and I stop trying to struggle to get out of his hold. I can’t bear for Javier to turn her into what he turned me into. I don’t ever want to see her eyes go blank. She deserves a normal life. It’s my fault he knew about her in the first place. If I hadn’t told him about her, she wouldn’t be about to be sold to the highest bidder. She has no idea her innocence is about to be stolen. She has no idea her life is no longer hers. She has no idea that the man she thinks she loves is a monster.
“Let’s go inside,” Beau pleads. “See what Cora has to say. We’re close. Closer than we’ve ever been to getting her back. Come on.”
I let him tow me into the office. Savannah does a double take at the sight of us together, her brows disappearing into her bangs. Cora’s at her desk when we walk in, talking to a man I’ve never seen before. I pause in the doorway.
“It’s okay. That’s Nolan. He’s one of the investigators. He’s the one who staked out the shopping center and got photos of Marie last night. Come on.” Beau nudges me forward.
“Nolan Perry.” Nolan offers his hand to me. He’s about Beau’s age, with brown hair and brown eyes. He looks nice, but then I’ve met a lot of men who looked harmless and turned out to be anything but. I don’t take his hand and he drops it, looking a little nervous.
Cora gives Beau a look I don’t understand.
He shrugs at her. “She asked.”
“So I’m guessing you’re all filled in,” Cora says to me. “We uploaded the photos to my computer. Come have a look.” She clicks the mouse, then she and Nolan back away from the computer.
I edge toward the desk, the bagel I had earlier threatening to come up. All eyes are on me. I can feel them staring, judging. They don’t know. They don’t understand. Beau is at my back. He puts a hand on my shoulder in silent support. Wrapping my arms around me, I force myself to look. The shot is blurry. Taken at night, it has a grainy quality to it, but I can clearly make them out. Javier has his arm across Marie’s shoulders. She’s smiling up at him, so honest in her devotion. I can see myself in her and in the way she sees only him.
He’s a little older, grayer. I don’t know what I saw in him. The man I’m looking at now feels like a stranger, yet I know everything about him. How he likes his steak. His favorite color. The way he takes his coffee. His love for crossword puzzles. The kind of cologne he wears.
The look on his face when he kills.
Beau squeezes my shoulder. “Is that him?”
I nod. I can’t get any words to cross the back of my throat.
“Fucker,” Beau spits out.
“It was pretty slick the way he gave me the slip,” Nolan says. “I thought I might catch up to him, so I cut over a block, then back, but he was gone. Just vanished. I did manage to get his license plate, though. We can run it.”
“We need to be careful,” Cora tells him. “This guy hasn’t operated the way he has for as long as he has without some help high up. We can’t risk running the usual checks on him. He’s sure to have his records flagged to let anyone know they’re being accessed. Thank you for your help, Nolan. I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”
“Sure,” Nolan nods toward me. “It was nice meeting you.”
“Thanks, Nolan,” Beau says.
No one speaks until the door closes behind Nolan.
“Mr. Nash is meeting with Emmaline Markham at ten,” Cora says. “Chad Perez is out of the office today, so I made an appointment with him for tomorrow. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced talking to him might be a waste of time. He’s probably just a worker bee and doesn’t have a clue what went on in that house. And if he does, he’s not likely to tell us the truth about it. But I’ll give it my best shot.”