Page 15 of Shrouded Past

While she’d slept, Skeleton Man had been right outside. The thought terrified her. “I can’t stay here.”

Bryce looked her in the eye. “You’re right. It’s not safe for you here. Let me call JT and explain and then, hopefully, he can suggest a place for us to go to hide out until we can figure this out.”

“Us? You’d stay with me?”

“I’m not leaving you to fend for yourself.” The truth of those words was backed up in his eyes.

A relief she hadn’t felt in years settled over her shoulders. She wasn’t alone. She had someone she trusted to help.

Once they’d finished the meal and cleared away the dishes, Bryce made the call. Bella came in and rubbed against Piper’s legs. She smiled down at the little white furball before lifting the kitten into her arms. “You’re such a sweet thing.” She remembered the fleeting memory of owning a cat before and would tell Bryce about it once he’d finished the call.

Bella looked up at her with blue eyes that reminded Piper of Bryce’s.

She listened to the cat purring while Bryce explained as best he could the things she’d gone through.

Hearing them aloud from someone else made it all seem so far-fetched. What were the odds that she’d be taken hostage twice in her lifetime. One right after the other? And more importantly, why? Who was she that someone wanted to protect while another wanted to bury?

“We’re all set. JT’s calling in his teammates. We’ll meet him at his office downtown in half an hour. He didn’t want to risk alerting the kidnapper to his presence by coming over here.” Bryce glanced out the window. “Since we have no idea who this man is or if what he said about killing Protector is true, we’ll have to be extremely careful. We can’t let him follow us.”

Piper held Bella against her chest and listened to the kitten purring. Again, a whisper of a memory teased at the edges of consciousness. Had she owned a cat at one time, or was her memory simply creating the illusion because of Bella?

She’d lived three years with the man who called himself Protector, thinking at some point he’d reveal why he’d taken her. Only he hadn’t. Every time she’d worked up the nerve to question him, Protector told her that he’d protect her from the devil.

Did she have a family out there somewhere who still searched for her? Missed her every day?

Time to come home. Time to return to your family . . .

Skeleton Man’s chilling words assured her someone wanted her back. They’d sent a man with a knife to bring her back. A man who didn’t care what state she arrived in. What did that say about her family?

Chapter Three

His clothes were covered in mud. Moving the disabled car had taken longer than he’d thought.

He’d stolen a truck and trailer from an isolated house on the mainland. Too risky to take something from the island. Getting the disabled car loaded, he’d driven a good distance away from the scene of the accident before shoving it off the end of a pier and into the Atlantic, watching it sink to the bottom with a sense of relief. No one would ever be able to track it to him.

Once he’d dealt with the car, he’d left the truck at a strip mall parking lot and then boosted another vehicle that was less conspicuous. By the time he’d finished disposing of the evidence, it was close to dawn.

Still, he had a bigger problem. She had been rescued. As soon as he’d seen the vehicle approaching last night, he’d dumped her into the trunk and then put distance between the vehicle and himself so he could wait for the driver to pass by.

Only it hadn’t. The truck stopped. His charge had been found. He knew he should have knocked her out again long before he was scheduled to reach his employer. She’d fought back and almost managed to take the knife from him when the car had swerved into the tree.

He should have kept her in the trunk the whole time. He would have except for his employer’s insistence he keep his eyes on her at all times.

Having to tell the one in charge that he’d failed had been one phone call he’d dreaded making because he knew what the man was capable of. He’d been given twenty-four hours to find her or else. The “or else” scared the daylights out of him.

Though he’d kept his face hidden, there were other ways for her to identify him that he couldn’t let happen. He’d need to get her back and take care of the problem her rescuer posed—like he had the old man who’d taken her in the first place.

There wasn’t much time before things got out of hand and the boss sent someone else to handle the job. If that happened, he’d become a liability. One that would be taken care of promptly.

Last night he’d made note of the house where she’d been taken.

He’d wait for the right moment and takehimout. Then he’d snatch her up and everything would be okay. It had to be.

???

“This is it.”Bryce slipped into a parking space a little way down from the weathered white building that was part of a group of shops in downtown Hope Island.

A sign above the door announced Hope Island Securities.

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