Page 47 of CHASE: Captive to the Dark

“You’re forgetting the goodbye part.” Chase held my hair tighter, holding me down as I tried to scoot to the side of the seat. “And don’t you dare think of contacting a single soul. Period. You know me. I’ll hunt you down and it won’t be pretty when I find you.”

Rory looked so little and scared as he nodded. “Goodbye,” he stuttered. He only hesitated for a second before he spun for the door and disappeared. I tried to lift the opposite way, feeling my hair tear as Chase ripped me toward him. His hand immediately clamped over my mouth as his glare met mine.

“He’s only alive because of you and he knows that. Fucking bastard had no clue what he was getting himself into when he came to fill in for me. Why Jim even thought he’d be a good fit until I came around…I can’t ask him now… Fuck!” Chase slammed the side of his fist down on the desk, only to bring it up to place over his mouth. He was so lost in his thoughts, I was afraid to move to trigger his anger even more.

“Father?”

Palo’s voice made me jump. Chase’s fingers slid from my hair, only for them to wrap around my arm. Palo took in his actions, bringing his stare back up to Chase.

“What’s going on?”

“Rory’s out.” He paused. “Get a car on him. Is the sheriff still here?”

Palo pulled out his phone, texting as he nodded. “He’s in the front, talking to the men. Giving them a hard time like always.”

Tightness took over the priest’s features. “Tomorrow, I’m predicting the sheriff is going to have a run-in with a stranger passing through. Routine traffic stop. His camera is mysteriously not going to work. Talk to Dennis. Make it happen. I want him dead before the sun sets. Have Becky ready to go to his wife. She’ll need to be consoled in her time of grief. Angie’s to know she’ll be taken care of. I’ll be of religious assistance if she needs me.”

Palo’s eyes cut up and his head slowly lifted. A smile pulled at his lips and he nodded in a slow pace. “Good to have you back, Father. Everything will be taken care of.”

This wasn’t happening. I knew he’d been unstable. I knew there’d been a dangerousness about him, yet I never would have expected the magnitude. My brother was supposed to be the bad one, and he had been, but this was so much worse. So much bigger than I could grasp. Chase wasn’t a good guy. Not even close. He’d never let me go with how much I knew. Not now…not ever.

Chapter 16

Chase

The throb in my head was getting worse by the minute. As I sat surrounded by my men, all I could do was stare at their eager faces. They expected so much from me. This whole town did. The big question was, what could I do to make things better? Safer, so we could continue to live without the fear of being discovered?

The last few months felt like a dream. One I was still floating in, trying to make sense of. I wasn’t going to do this. I fucking told myself I wouldn’t be back in this position. Yet, here I was. With Jim missing, probably dead, there was no one else. What had he been thinking, bringing Rory in? He could have easily taken over for his father, but he wouldn’t do it. Told me before I left that it had to be me. Even then, everyone wanted me to jump in and fill Abe’s shoes.

Abe.

My feelings were mixed about the man who raised me. Half of me loved him as a father. He did treat me as his own. Took me in when no one else wanted to. But I had seen all sides of him in those years. Sides I now saw in myself. It made me not even want to think about him. It made me think of Kit. I treated her like he treated his women. Hell, I’d treated all women horribly before I had amnesia. But I learned from him. When my past was erased, I still hadn’t lost who I was. The difference was, I showed her affection I had never displayed to a female before. I took care of her. Or had. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do now.

I’d thrown her in the basement and restrained her to the bed so fast without a single word. She’d been crying. Begging me not to leave her in the dark, but I had. And I wasn’t there to console her. It ate at me. Ate at me when months ago, I wouldn’t have given a shit. Even now, my fingers were twitching. My feet were even pointed in the direction of the basement door.

“Tell me where we stand.”

Palo looked up from his phone, the buzz of voices in the background dying out.

“James is tailing Rory. They’re about an hour and half north of here. Dennis just let me know he’s on his way to the station now. He pulls the night shift, so he’ll take care of the camera. We’re still going over the details of the traffic stop.”

I nodded, glancing toward the basement door. The screaming had finally stopped. It had lasted for the first half hour. Had Kit fallen asleep, grew tired of calling out for help, or had she finally turned brave? It ate at me to know.

“Tell me about Jim. What do we know?”

Max stood, pulling out his wallet before sitting back down. He took out a small black and white picture that was hard to make out. “That was the last time Jim was spotted. He was climbing in his car at the corner store across from the church. He hasn’t been seen since. No call, no nothing.”

“Do we think he’s dead, or did he run off?”

The men looked back and forth at each other and Ed, the youngest, shrugged. “Happened real close to when you were attacked. I don’t think he just ran off.”

“Agreed,” Weston said, looking down. “I figure it had to do with Rory, but doesn’t make sense being they were friends. At least, from what I could tell.”

More silence.

“What do we know about the men who attacked me? Any clues? Any tips?”

Palo shook his head, glancing up between texting. “We know nothing more than the fact that there were three men, all wore black masks, only revealing their eyes. Could have been anyone.”

---