Page 89 of Husband Missing

Alec snorted. “You got that right.”

Between the hotel behind them and the stadium below, there was enough ambient light for them to see one another, although not very well. The end of Alec’s cigarette flared orange, giving Josie a clearer glimpse of his face. He’d been crying. A pit opened up in her stomach.

“The officers you spoke with,” she said. “Did they pull the footage from inside the building?”

“And outside, yeah,” he said in a scratchy voice. “I was right. They took her. Two men. Grabbed her just down the hall from our room. She’d gone to the vending machines. When I got back from the store, she wasn’t in the room so that’s where I went looking for her. One of those nasty sneakers she was wearing was on the floor and…I don’t know. Father’s instinct, I guess. I knew something was wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” said Josie. “Did the officers say anything about the two men?”

Alec lowered himself to the grass, pulling his knees toward his chest and resting his forearms over them. The cigarette bobbed between his fingers. “No. Wouldn’t even let me watch the footage. They were going to get still photos and try to pull a license plate number from the car they were driving.”

It was no coincidence that Erica had been kidnapped after she came out of hiding and talked with the police. A shiver ran the length of Josie’s body as she settled beside Alec. Entering a hotel and snatching a grown woman in full view of surveillance cameras was incredibly brazen. After the perpetrators had been so careful to avoid getting caught during the numerous armed robberies they’d committed, this seemed out of character.

It was sheer panic.

They were trying to tie up loose ends. This was the most dangerous time for Erica and for Noah, if he was still alive.

Alec stubbed out his cigarette under his boot. “All these years, I never told another soul what really happened withthe embezzling. Not until I talked to you and your sister. It felt…good to, uh, let it out.”

Josie said nothing.

“Thank you for coming, especially since your husband is still missing.”

“You’re welcome,” she choked out.

There was a moment of silence and then Alec began to sob quietly, his shoulders quaking. His despair hung heavy in the air between them, stoking Josie’s own fear. Mentally, she patched the holes where it poked through her protective shell. She laid a palm on Alec’s forearm. Staring straight ahead, he nodded and then patted her hand. It was all she could do. There were no words of comfort in this situation. Josie knew that firsthand.

After several minutes, he calmed enough that she withdrew her touch. Lifting the collar of his shirt, he wiped his face. “It shouldn’t be this damn hard to protect one kid. I don’t even know what the hell kind of trouble she got herself into in the first place.”

From everything Josie had learned in the last several hours, she was inclined to believe Erica had been at one of the parties that Mace Phelan liked to throw at his sprawling residences and seen something she shouldn’t have. She was certainly in the same age range as the young women whose parents had sued Mace for injuries sustained at or after leaving one of his parties.

“She didn’t tell you?” Josie asked, trying not to sound too eager but desperate to know if Erica had told her father anything she hadn’t shared with the police. Something that might lead her to Noah.

“Nope,” Alec said. “She wouldn’t tell me one damn thing. Not about that.”

FIFTY-NINE

The concussive boom of the gunshot rattled Erica’s teeth. A thunderclap of pain slammed into her head, ripping through her ears. Something hot and wet splattered across her face. The small basement room couldn’t contain the vibration. It reverberated all around them. Her and the three men. Except now it was her and two men because the other one collapsed at her feet, and she knew from the way his head looked that he was gone, and he wasn’t coming back. Was he one of them or someone completely different? She’d been too busy fighting the assholes who took her from the hotel as they shoved her into the room to realize there was another man already inside. Then he was gone. In a heartbeat.

A scream tore from Erica’s throat before she could stop it. It kept going and going. Her entire body was numb except for where the blood and bits of bone and tissue clung to her skin. Then one of the other men—she never did learn their names—stepped forward and slapped her across the face. Her head whipped to the side so hard and fast that she stumbled and fell, catching herself awkwardly on a hand and a knee. If there was pain, she didn’t feel it. Cold eyes stared down at her. His lipswere moving but she couldn’t hear him. The echo of the gunshot was too loud in her brain.

Everything was moving too fast and too slow. Strong fingers dug into her bicep, dragging her body upright. She was pretty sure she was screaming again. Another slap landed on her face and the dim room wavered. Then the barrel of the gun was right there, between her eyes, nearly touching her skin, and she knew this was it.

The end.

SIXTY

Josie was glad it was dark enough that Alec couldn’t see the disappointment on her face. What Erica knew would lead her to Noah. She was sure of it and yet, that information remained out of reach—maybe permanently so at this point. Acid roiled in her stomach. Her chest constricted.

No. She would find another way.

“You know,” Alec continued, “when I got back to the room and Erica wasn’t there, I thought she ran off. Since she wouldn’t tell me what the hell was going on, we, uh, talked about some other stuff. You were right about everything. Erica’s mom—Bonnie or Bethany or Lila or whatever the hell her name really was—left her with my brother. Everyone thought she was dead, but Erica knew the truth. An eight-year-old kid abandoned by her mom, and having to keep that secret.”

Lila didn’t always have sensible reasons for the things she did. She couldn’t have known that Kiernan would pass away and leave their daughter with Alec and his wife—the perfect targets. There was no end to Lila’s scheming but sometimes she just got bored.

“She was in on it, you know? My daughter helped that woman blackmail me.”

Josie nodded.

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