I didn’t even think—I just reacted. I tried to elbow my way past him out of the elevator, but he was fast. And strong. In one quick move, he had both my arms locked behind me and my cell phone out of my pocket and into his own. I was strong, too, but I couldn’t get out of his grip, no matter how much I tried to buck and kick my way out. Shoot. This wasn’t how I’d planned it.
“Try to alert the woman at the desk and I’ll break your neck,” he said, quietly, as the doors slid closed in front of me.
I remembered his multiple black belts with a sinking feeling. Still, I had to keep the brave face on. “You have got to be kidding me,” I said. “Do you know how many people know I was coming here?”
He ignored me. “I’m so glad you came,” he said, as if I’d been invited over for tea. “This is going better than I planned. Now. We’re going to walk out the door together holding hands, just like we’re in love. And if you try anything stupid, I’ll break your arm. And then your neck. Got it?” He smiled pleasantly, but the darkness in his eyes left me cold.
He led me back out through the lobby, smiling at the woman behind the desk. She waved. “Try to have fun! The weather’s getting better,” she chirped.
I glared at her, hoping she’d be able to read my mind or at least see on my face that I wasn’t going under my own free will. When we got to the door and McConnell paused to push it open, I turned back to her and took a deep breath.
“Call the po—!” I tried to scream, but the last word never made it out of my mouth because his arm was around my neck, squeezing so hard I felt all the air stop moving through my body. That giant bicep pressed into my mouth, and I closed my eyes and braced myself for the snap that would end it all. I wondered if it hurt to get your neck broken.
But the snap never came. Instead, he dragged me to the black sedan I thought was Lexie’s and nearly threw me in the back seat, slapping me hard enough across the face that it stunned me into stillness. I tasted blood in my mouth.
He yanked my arms behind my back and had them tied with some kind of scratchy rope in seconds. He must’ve been a freakin’ Boy Scout, too. Great.
“Stupid,” he said through gritted teeth. “Stupid, stupid, stupid girl.” He got in the front driver’s side, locked the doors, gunned the engine, and took off.
I shook my head, trying to clear it, and touched my tongue to the spot on my lip that was bleeding. Aside from that, my face seemed to be in one piece. I rubbed my neck. He hadn’t snapped it, but ouch.
“You are going to regret that,” he said, his eyes flicking to me in the rearview mirror. “Good thing I already have all the information I need. I don’t need to keep you alive to get the stupid notebook anymore.” He buzzed his window down halfway. I almost cried when I saw my cell phone go flying out of it.
“In case you’re hoping someone will track you down,” he said.
I bit my busted lip hard to keep the tears back. I’d much rather bleed than cry in front of this psycho. “So it was you who tried to break into my house.” I inched my bound hands over and tried to jack up the door handle, just for the heck of it.
He saw me. “Childproof locks. For the windows, too. You’re out of luck. And of course it was me. I know he left his research there. I tracked him to your place that day. I knew he was working there and I knew he left in a hurry when the subject of his research came in. He always was kind of a wuss. Didn’t want to face the music.”
“Thea,” I said. “What about her? Why was he so focused on her?” Part of me really wanted to know, and the other part of me wanted to keep him distracted while I tried to figure out what to do next. Plus, I was trying to keep an eye on the direction he was driving. We were heading away from downtown, which wasn’t good. If he took me out to the deserted roads by the beaches, that could be bad. Although I hoped most of them weren’t passable.
“You really don’t know? I thought you would’ve figured that part out already, since you’re so smart.” He yanked the steering wheel to take a corner extra hard. I assumed it was so he could get a kick out of watching me fly across the seat because I had no hands to brace myself.
“She’s the key to what’s going to be a huge boost to my writing career. A true-crime story, finally solved forty years later.” I could see the self-satisfied smile play across his face and wished I could get free just to smack it off him.
“Solved? How are you solving anything?” I asked with a sniff. “You’re just taking the work Jason did and trying to pass it off as your own.” I could hear Grandpa’s voice in my head—Don’t poke the bear, Madalyn—but I couldn’t help it. This piece of crap wasn’t going to do this to me. And if he did, it certainly wasn’t going to be easy.
We’d driven out of Daybreak Harbor now and were on the outskirts of Turtle Point. Near the beaches. Where was he taking me?
He definitely didn’t like my comment. The smile disappeared. “Shut up or you’ll go in the trunk with the other one,” he warned. “The only reason I didn’t put you in there in the first place was because I didn’t want to attract any more attention after your little stunt.”
I was immediately on alert. “What other one?”
“The almost-ex Mrs. Holt,” he said with some amusement.
I knew this was her car. The dread that had been spreading through my body congealed in my stomach. “Why is she in the trunk? Did you … kill her, too?” I tried not to feel nauseous at the thought of her dead body rolling around in the trunk right behind me.
He glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “Not yet,” he said seriously. “I mean, I should have. She couldn’t even divorce the guy. Wanted to go back to him after everything she promised me. Nope, his tragic death was all me.”
Everything she promised him. Looked like Damian’s source had been right. He sounded like a scorned lover. We all know what they say about when a woman is scorned, but really, psychotic men being scorned had the potential to turn out a lot worse. Clearly.
He stomped on the brake and turned again, heading down a road I was unfamiliar with, but I guessed it led to a beach.
And suddenly I knew exactly where we were going.