Page 130 of Reclaiming Adelaide

My gaze drifted to his shoulders, then to his long wavy blond hair, just like the man with the tattoo, and further up to his mustache…

Chills bled through my scalp, pulling my skin tight.

“No…” I choked out a gasp.

He was at my home. The sick bastard spoke to my mother and looked her in the face.

My sinuses stung as the salty tears fixed to fall. What kind of sick game did he play with me?

I jerked away from the computer.

My mind was on fire, the connections snapping into place.

Is that why he asked me where Holeo was? Because he wanted to find him through me? He thought I’d be able to get to him when he couldn’t?

But why would he try to take me three days before that? Why let me go? Why come after me and try to kill me when he knew I couldn’t lead him to Holeo? Everything out of Franklin’s mouth was a lie, except for one detail. My parents would get caught in the crossfire. It was a threat, not a warning, as I originally thought.

Franklin stood in front of me, knowing I didn’t know where Holeo was and threatened my parents’ lives.

I grabbed my phone off my desk and tapped Jake’s name.

The phone rang as I paced the room, my stomach in knots, my chest tight.

Voicemail.

I pinched my bottom lip, my feet eating up the carpet before me as I dialed again.

“Hello? Jake?” I said, answering the phone.

“What’s wrong?”

“Jake, I don’t think this is what it seems.”

“What do—”

“Something’s wrong. Do you have Holeo?”

“He’s right here.”

“Has he said anything?”

I sat down on the edge of my seat, my elbow resting on the desk as I stared at the picture on my computer.

“What’s this about, Adelaide?” Jake grunted as though he struggled with something. A meatythwackresounded in my ear. “Hold still,” he said through gritted teeth.

“What does he look like?”

“Holeo? You mean Yergi? Black hair, mid-thirties, brown eyes—”

“Scar on his right cheek?”

“How did you know?”

I’d followed the description he’d rattled out to a T with the one in the article.

“He’s one of them.”

“If you don’t stop speaking in riddles—”

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