Page 72 of Crash and Burn

He cut her off before she even finished her own name. “Maggie's gone.” In a huff, he repeated what he had told Tracey at dispatch. He'd owe both of them an apology later, but he didn’t care right now. He bolted out the back door. Even if it was protocol, he couldn’t stand idly by.

“It looks likewhat?” Marina asked.

“Like someone wasdraggedthrough the grass and out the back gate, and you know that's how he's coming and going.” He looked at the grass even as he ran past it toward the back gate.

“Holy shit.” He heard her mutter the words and he could tell by the background noise that she was scooping her things off the desk—wallet? gun? badge?—and heading out the door.

What if he was running the wrong way? What if he should stay at the house?

He was practically yelling into the phone. “Come check out the house, Marina. We have to figure out where he took her. Get here ASAP.”

Once again, he hung up the phone before the conversation was over.

The back gate swung behind him as he headed into the woods. He should call the FBI directly as well, but Watson and Decker’s numbers were in Maggie’s phone. He’d have to trust Tracey and Marina to get them here.

What if Maggie hadn't been gone long? Had he wasted time checking the house and along main street? But if he’d barely missed her being taken, he might catch up … he was in the woods and heading toward the dock before he even thought about it.

It felt as if he wasn't breathing, but he must be because he didn't pass out. His eyes darting back and forth, he searched frantically for signs that Maggie might have been taken this way. But he couldn't tell. He wasn’t a tracker at all. So if a sign was there, he’d missed it.

He watched for other people using the trail today. They might have seen something. But the place was empty. Why was no one using the walking trail? He should have run into someone who’d seen a man carrying a grown woman through the woods.

But Sebastian was utterly alone. And before he’d realized how far he’d come, he was making the left hand turn to the short trail to the water.

He was running fast enough that he almost skidded to a stop, where the earth sloped down into the river, getting the tips of his toes wet. But the dock wasn't bouncing from someone who’d just walked across it. And the water was smooth as glass.

If Geller had brought her this way, it had been long enough ago that he hadn't left a sign.

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Maggie sat in her little chair and seethed.

She heard voices coming from the room directly behind her. She was shut in her own small room but bound with tape and faced away from the door.

Not being able to see what was coming made her jumpy—which was probably the point.

She was livid. Mad with herself to the point where she was grinding her teeth. And Sebastian was going to kill her. He was right. She’d been wrong—so wrong.

She’d thought she was prepared to fight Geller, but she’d been ready for a scenario Geller had turned on its head. She’d thought he would come in at night, that daytime was perfectly safe. And she’d been so stupid that she’d drunk whatever drug he'd given her before she'd even known it was there.

She would have growled if she hadn’t needed to keep quiet. Though she hadn’t ever fully passed out, she’d definitely been unable to fight. Her thoughts had been sluggish and dream-like, escaping her grasp and changing to ridiculous even as she tried to hold onto them.

The worst part had come when she tried to hit or fight back. It was like punching through water. Nothing landed. For all the force she put behind it, she would merely tap him. Geller had laughed at her attempts more than once, then just pushed her hand out of the way. He’d simply readjusted her over his shoulder or under his arm and hauled her along. There was nothing she could do about it except feel the terror of knowing he was stealing her away and she might never be found.

She had managed to kick one shoe loose along the path. But it had bounced a bit and landed to the side of the trail. It meant that Geller hadn’t seen it, but it might mean no one else did either …

Her favorite business suit was now dirty and ripped in several places where she'd come into contact with branches and hadn't been able to even move herself out of the way. The suit was the least of her problems. But anger about her favorite clothing being destroyed helped keep her sane. Fear of what might come would immobilize her and that was the last thing she needed.

“I brought her to you,” the first voice whined. Maggie now recognized that it belonged to Merrit Geller.

The cottony taste was leaving her mouth, but the plea from one psychopath to another made her bile rise. She fought it back down.

“I don't want her. It's no fun being handed playthings,” the other voice had replied. Maggie didn’t know this voice, but she could only assume it was the Blue River Killer. If it wasn’t, then Merrit Geller had amassed a team of super-villains and she wasn’t ready to deal with that possibility.

“I know she's not what you would have picked, but we need her gone.” It was hard listening to two men discuss disposing of her body. But then it got worse. “She’s Sabbie’s granddaughter, so I wouldn’t have picked her, but what’s done is done. I play with her first, then you dispose of her.”

Her stomach turned again. He had some allegiance to her Aunt—not hergrandmother, but now wasn’t the time to quibble—that made him not want to hurt her? But he said he still would, and that made her more determined than ever to get out of here. Her hands and ankles were bound with tape—wider than standard duct tape and maybe a little sturdier.Damn.

The force of the binding on her forearms kept her elbows nearly touching in front of her chest. Another piece covered her mouth.

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