Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Caleb’s instincts began to hum, growing stronger when a muffled sound broke through the silence.
He signaled for Hernandez to pull back. They paused in front of the white door, exchanging a significant look. Someone was in there. Slowly, Caleb rested his hand on the door handle, glanced at the other man again, then pushed his way into the room, weapon drawn.
A strangled cry came from the bed.
Caleb’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, a soft curse exiting his mouth as he stared at the elderly woman bound and gagged on the bed. Had to be Lydia White.
Caleb held up his hand to silence the crying woman, scanning the bedroom. There was a door, ajar, at one end of the room. Hernandez slipped toward it, then kicked it open and yelled, “San Diego Police Department!”
Nobody was in there. After examining the narrow closet, Hernandez stepped back and said, “Clear.”
Disappointment tightened Caleb’s chest. Damn it. Grier had been here, and for a while, judging by the empty food containers littering the carpet.
Caleb went to the woman’s side, pulling off her duct-tape gag as gently as he could. “Lydia White?”
“Yes,” the woman croaked. “Oh, thank heavens you’re here! He was going to kill me!”
Caleb helped her into a sitting position. He pulled the knife from the holster on his ankle and quickly sliced open the tape binding her hands and feet together. Holding it by the corners, he set the pieces of tape on the table next to the bed for forensics to print and bag. He knew without a doubt whose prints they’d find on the tape, all over the room, in fact.
That son of a bitch had been here, scheming and watching Marley. Caleb’s eyes drifted to the window, then narrowed at the hole in the wall beside it. His pupils contracted as Hernandez flicked on the light, but adjusted quickly, and he noticed flecks of blood on the plaster where the drywall had been broken. Grier’s DNA would be on it.
“Mrs. White, can you identify the man who did this to you?” Caleb asked.
She nodded, a soft sob sliding from her mouth. “Yes, yes, I’ll never be able to forget that face.”
“I know you’ve been through quite an ordeal,” he said, keeping his tone quiet. Behind him, he heard Hernandez barking into the radio, arranging for a forensics team and an ambulance. “We’re going to take you to the hospital, to get you checked out, all right?”
The elderly woman’s eyes filled with tears. “It was so terrible, officer,” she said in the raspy voice usually heard from long-time smokers. “He was here for that dear girl across the street. He was so angry!”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Kincaid is under police protection. You are, too, now,” Caleb assured her. “Mrs. White,” he continued, “the man who did this to you—did he say he would be coming back? Did he give any indication of where he might have gone?”
“No. No, nothing,” Lydia stated.
Caleb turned to Hernandez, who carefully walked through the bedroom, making sure not to touch anything. “Miguel, can you stay with Mrs. White while I go across the street to Kincaid’s?”
Hernandez nodded, taking Caleb’s place at Lydia’s bedside, offering surprising words of comfort as he reassured her the paramedics would be there soon to examine her.
But Caleb wasn’t worried about Lydia White as he left the house. The elderly woman was dehydrated and in shock, but she would be fine. Marley, on the other hand…
His chest constricted as he realized how close Grier had been this entire time. He bit the inside of his lip so hard he could taste the blood in his mouth. Christ, he was scared for her. He’d seen the digital photo one of Hernandez’s men had taken of Marley’s locker at the hospital, the thick black X marking her face in that picture.
He couldn’t let Grier hurt Marley.
Swallowing hard, he ignored the sharp metallic taste and walked faster. When he marched into Marley’s living room, she was still on the couch, her hands clasped in her lap. Officer Thompson stood by the window, watching the scene outside.
“Is the old lady all right?” the young officer inquired.
“She’ll be fine. Thompson, do me a favor and excuse us for a moment.”
With a nod, the officer left the room. Caleb heard the front door open and shut, then Thompson’s footsteps as he descended the porch steps to help out the others.
“You have to listen to me right now,” he began, his throat tight as he looked into her gorgeous eyes. “I know you’re angry with me, and I don’t blame you for that, but please, Marley, just hear me out.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
“I need you to understand how much danger you’re in.” An eddy of fear swirled in his stomach but he ignored it, trying to remain calm as he laid it all out in front of her. “When I first moved in next door, I suspected Patrick would come back for you. Not to hurt you, but to convince you to leave town with him, or maybe just to say goodbye. I suspected he was obsessed with you, and when he sent that email, I knew it was a matter of time before love, or infatuation—whatever you want to call it—pushed him to see you.”