Page 13 of Bone Echo

The little bastard’s face crumpled. Tears spilled down his cheeks. “I would never hurt my aunt and uncle and I sure wouldn’t hurt Ella. I swear to you.”

Kurt’s hands fisted but he somehow found the wherewithal to restrain himself from grabbing Brian by the shirt front. “I swear to you, if you hurt Ella?—”

“Please,” Brian cried out, “you have to believe me, she was fine when I last saw her. She was going straight home. She said something about looking through family albums to try and jog her memory.”

Kurt forced his brain to follow the steps he knew were important. He could not screw this up. “Did she mention feeling odd or woozy? Anything like you felt?”

Brian wagged his head side to side. “No. She was fine. She was talking the same as always. Acting the same as always. Oh yeah, and she said she was going to tell you about all this now that Lawler knew she was on to him.”

Except she never got the chance.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Ella woke with a start.

It was cold and dark.

Whatever drug he’d used on her was working overtime. Her mouth was so dry.

Her hands were bound together at her wrists. Duct tape, she thought. She couldn’t be sure how long she had been here. Her head hurt and her stomach felt bleh.

She’d dropped Brian off and then later he’d sent a text saying he needed her to come back. He was really sick and wanted to go to the hospital. He still hadn’t wanted to wake his aunt and uncle. He would wait for her out at the road.

Ella remembered sneaking out of the house and driving toward his place. She was nearly there when the snow started to fall. Her headlights had picked up an image on the side of the road. She’d pulled over, put the car in park and reached to open the passenger side door. The handle on the outside had stopped working. Her dad had promised to fix it but he hadn’t gotten around to it.

She remembered Brian opening the door and as he started to get in she realized something was wrong. Then he stuck this thing he had in his hand against her neck and suddenlyher body was on fire. She couldn’t control her arms and legs…couldn’t think. She didn’t remember anything after that except something wasn’t right.

When she’d first woke up, she had cried. Why would Brian to this to her? They were friends. Best friends. Maybe something more…except he’d hurt her. Then she’d fallen asleep again. This time when she woke she realized that it wasn’t Brian who got in her car. He’d been wearing Brian’s coat and gloves. But he’d stuck one leg inside and the boot he wore was not Brian’s.

The boot she had recognized. It was those crazy expensive ones that Dr. Lawler wore. Who paid over a thousand dollars for a pair of boots? Just one person she knew. The creep who had been watching her. No matter what he said when he caught them in his house, Ella knew. She could feel it in her bones. The knowing echoed like a memory she couldn’t quite place.

Wherever she was now, he hadn’t come back since bringing her here—at least not while she was awake. Her ankles were bound together too. So she couldn’t do much. The gag stuffed into her mouth and tied around her head wasn’t helping the urge to vomit. She had plucked at it repeatedly with her fingers but hadn’t been able to loosen it enough to remove it.

But she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit here and wait for him to come back. At some point she had started to pick at the tape around her ankles. Her fingers were fairly mobile but it wasn’t going nearly fast enough. She needed a knife or some other sharp object.

If she could get onto her butt, she could scoot around the space and feel for something to use. But her head started to swim even as she thought about moving.

She tried not to think about her dad and how worried he would be. And Brian. He would be worried too.

That feeling that something really bad was going to happen hadn’t dissipated yet. She’d felt it last night with Brian and it wasstill with her. Maybe the bad thing was what was happening to her. That was the thing about these feelings she got, she never knew what they meant until it was too late.

She hoped it wasn’t too late this time. She had no clue what that creep Lawler had in mind…but she was sure it was bad.

Really bad.

CHAPTER EIGHT

6:00 p.m.

Josef Lawler had left school early for a doctor’s appointment. No one knew with whom or where. More terrifying one of the teachers had remembered Lawler mentioning a trip to Europe for the holidays. Kurt hoped like hell the bastard wasn’t in the wind. He’d put out an APB on his car. It wasn’t so much that Kurt had any sort of solid evidence that the man had done anything illegal, but he had lied. He’d lied about Brian and Ella in connection with a double homicide investigation. That made him a suspect in Kurt’s opinion and right now that was the only one that mattered.

He had filled Audra in on all that Brian had told him. She had called an emergency staff meeting to determine if anyone at the school knew the man personally. Not one single person knew any more than what was on Lawler’s resume. He had no social media accounts. Never talked about family.

Kurt found that odd and damned frustrating. He had been to the man’s house. He’d walked around, peered through windows—all of which were closed tight with interior shutters. Whateverwindow Brian and Ella had found unlocked had been secured. He’d checked the small shed and found nothing.

Every student who had a class with Ella or said they knew her had been called to the auditorium during the final hour of school. Audra had personally spoken to the group. She urged the kids to come to her office if they had seen or heard anything unusual related to Brian or Ella or Dr. Lawler.

In an addition to Doreen setting up a tipline and a communications center in the conference room, an Amber Alert had been issued for Ella. Kurt felt sick whenever he thought about the need to do that for his daughter. How had he let this happen?

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