It surprised me that she was actually really fun to talk to. We’d laughed, played around with Jaxson, and just had fun. It was so nice to let loose and be with her. Then the beginning of my freshman year, my folks began to have some issues. All I heard was a shitload of fighting, so I kept Jaxson away and took him pretty much everywhere with me.

Even though Jaxson was two years younger than me, I loved hanging out with him. He was totally mischievous and played way too many pranks, and being the loving brother that I was, I played them right back.

On the night Jaxson died, which would have been the end of my junior year, my parents were beyond consolable. Besides the yelling and hateful words that spewed out of their mouths to me, they didn’t talk to me, completely ignoring me ... which went on for weeks. But that night I needed someone. Images of Vann sitting at the picnic table listening to me rant about baseball and soccer popped into my head. Vann popped into my head.

I just knew she would listen to me, because at that moment, that was all I wanted. I needed someone to be there even if I didn’t know how or what my body was going through. I knew I needed to be with someone.

The sound of my cell going off with a call and a text pulled me from my memories. Thinking it was Vann I excitedly turned over the phone. Disappointment hit when Z’s name popped up on the caller ID.

“What’s up?”

“Get out to Koerner Road now!” Z yelled into the phone, totally out of breath like he’d just ran a marathon.

“What’s going on?” I clipped.

“Vann! Her car’s in the ditch. There’s lots of blood … and …” he trailed off.

“What?” I barked as I leaped out of the chair causing it to fall to the ground with a loud crash.

Z’s voice quivered. “She’s not here. She’s nowhere.”

“What the fuck do you mean?” I raced as fast as I could to my truck, pushing my way through the throngs of people.

“Like I said, she’s nowhere. There’s a trail of blood, and it just stops. Someone took her.” His voice was barely audible.

Dread coursed through my veins, turning them to ice, but I didn’t let it still me. I instantly went into cop mode. “Are there tracks?”

“Yeah. Truck tires that appeared to be covered in mud since they left us something to go on.” Z’s voice turned from melancholy to factual in a flash. It was the way I needed him if we were going to find Vann.

“Anyone see it?”

“Not that I’ve found yet.”

“Damn it. Who’s there on scene?” I would be going full cop mode as soon as my damn truck would get me there.

“Tebbin, Mason, and Fly right now. But more are on the way.”

Throwing my phone across the dash didn’t help the pain go away. If she would have just fucking listened to me and let me come with her to see her dad, but no. She had to be independent and stubborn as shit. But that was what I loved about her.

Yeah. I loved her. I always had; no one ever compared to her so I never tried. No reason to. When she left my life, she took my heart with her. And I’d be damned if this asshole was gonna hurt her now that I finally got her back.

Pulling onto Koerner Road, I couldn’t help but want answers, not unlike every other time I pulled up to an accident. In this case I was grateful for them because knowing it was Vann was tearing my shit up.

Three cars were parked in the middle of the street with their lights rapidly flashing. Pulling up, I instantly saw Vann’s jeep. I stopped dead in my tracks. Her jeep looked as if it was part of the demolition derby and didn’t fare so well. The top was smashed in. The side walls were busted in and one side looked to be completely ripped off. The back of it was smashed almost all the way to the front as if someone had hit her from the back end repeatedly.

If I had to guess, she got rear-ended and clipped causing her jeep to flip a few times before it landed in the ditch. My feet began to move, but at a much slower pace than I normally would, maybe the cop side wasn’t coming out as much as I thought. I needed to look inside the vehicle.

“Whoa. There.” Z tried to stop me, but I ignored him, and continued plowing through him like a linebacker. “Deke. Stop!”

“Fuck you!” I barked back almost making it there when Z stood before me with his arms crossed. “Move.” I pushed.

“Deke. Just be warned, there’s a lot of blood. We think he took her.”

I whirled around, getting right in his face, nose to nose. “What the fuck do you mean ‘think’?”

“Damn it, Deke. Calm down.”

Grabbing the front of his shirt, I growled, “I will not calm down.”

“Stop this shit. The other guys see you, they’ll arrest you first and ask questions later.” His eyebrow shot up. It didn’t even register that he was in uniform.

I let go of him, wanting so badly to push his ass down, but refrained. “I’m good.”

“Sure you are.” Z smoothed the front of his vest.

I quickly made my way to the jeep, looking for anything and everything I could come up with to help me find her. No cell phone, no purse. The car was a heaping pile of mangled metal and inside showed no signs of her putting up a fight. Making my way to the tire prints, they looked to be from a larger truck like mine as they were set pretty wide. But they could have also been some type of large SUV. I’d have to wait until forensics ran them through their system.

The woods. I headed off toward the woods; maybe she got away and was waiting there.

“Wait!” I didn’t stop when I heard Tebbin calling my name. I wasn’t in the mood for his shit right now. “Damn it, wait!” Tebbin’s boots pounded the ground beside me, but I didn’t stop. “Here.”

Looking at the light being handed to me, I quickly said, “Thanks,” and took off. After two hours of searching these woods, I came up with nothing. My feet and body felt numb. I knew I was moving, but barely felt my body go. I really didn’t think she was ever in the woods. Whoever got her took her somewhere far away from here.

“I’ve got Fly going back to the station to run a trace on her phone. If it’s still on, we may have a chance.”

Dread and fear came back tenfold as my stomach twisted in knots. If it wasn’t on … we had nothing to go on but a couple of tire tracks.

Vann

Voices—no—a voice. The muffled, masculine sound came from a distance as if someone was speaking through a door or wall. The voice was low and gravelly, but not in a sexy way and not one that I recognized. I tried focusing on the words being said, but the pain surging through my head was blinding.

Speaking of blinding, how come I couldn’t open my eyes? Opening them is challenging, but something dark was covering them with only a small slither of light coming through the bottom. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were restrained, maybe tied to the chair I was sitting on.

My head felt so heavy, as if it weighed a thousand pounds and my neck couldn’t hold it up, but I strained to keep it up. My head was so cloudy that nothing seemed to come into focus.

My head became too heavy, falling back to hit the back of the chair. Closing my eyes, I just needed to rest a bit.

Startled and shaking, my eyes flew open only to see blackness again. I pulled my arms and legs trying to move, but they wouldn’t budge. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Panic surge through my body, causing it to shake.

The memories of the accident flood my brain, and I immediately know who has me: Gary. I try my damnedest to calm my ass down. There was no way in hell I’d get out of here alive if I kept freaking out, but it was definitely easier said than done.

I listen, trying to hear anything. The only thing I made out was a small scratching as if something was scratching wood.