Page 83 of Never Give Up

“Let go. Just let me go.” I fight to get free but to no avail.

Smiling as he maneuvered himself over me, he said, “That can be arranged. After.”

He straddles me and then puts something over my mouth.

It smells sweet at first, and then the world goes black.

* * *

I turnmy full attention to the roads, still being pounded by an onslaught of rain.

“Damn, the cell tower must be overloaded,” Jake says. “It’s taking forever to check my messages.”

As I turn onto my street, a heaviness comes over me and by the time I swing into the drive, that heaviness threatens to turn into a dark storm.

Something’s wrong.

Maya’s car sits in front of the house instead of in the garage where it belongs. No lights shine.

My heart drops as my gaze goes to the open hole where the front door should be.

“Jake.” I can’t say anything else.

“I see it.Park the fucking truck, Brian.Let’s go.” I shake myself and grab my gun out of the glove box after I put the truck in park.

Jake jumps out and runs to the garage to get his gun out of his truck. I make it to the front door by the time he gets back, and the two of us go into the house together.

Maya isn’t here.

But there’s blood.

So much blood.

30

BRIAN

“Brian, I need you to focus.”

I can’t see anything but the blood. If the wall wasn’t holding me up, I would have fallen on the ground.

There’s so much blood.

It’s on the walls and has pooled on the hardwood floor. I fight the urge to throw up.

“I am.”

Jake keeps talking. “We weren’t supposed to be home.”

“I know, everyone’s on their way. Where the fuck is she?” I stand in the kitchen, forcing the panic as far back as I can. We must have just missed them. The blood is still fresh, still dripping off the counter and onto the floor.

Paul is setting up a search team even now as we’re standing here.

It’s only been a few minutes, but it feels like hours have slipped by since I stepped into the house.

“There’s not enough blood here for her to be dead,” I say before anyone else can speak.

“Well, that’s good,” Jake says. “And that’s if it’s even her blood. She might have gotten him.”

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