Brad reached into his back pocket and unsheathed a small hunting knife. With a flick of his hand, he cut through the plastic ties that bound her wrists. She jerked back and rubbed her aching and sore skin as he put the knife into his back pocket and sat across from her.
“Please eat. I don’t want this to be horrible for you.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind? You kidnapped me and brought me back to this hell hole, but you don’t eat this to be horrible for me? What are you doing, Brad?”
He flinched as she spoke, remorse and regret clouding his face as he slumped into his chair. “I had to kidnap you so I can make things right. I need to end what I started. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
“You stalked me! You were why I was going through this nightmare for weeks!”
“It wasn’t like that. I didn’t stalk you. But I was the reason Tony Brooks became fixated with you,” Brad said, dragging a hand down his face. “I didn’t have much time to plan after I found out you were coming home. The timing was perfect, and I was sure it would be low risk.”
“What would be low risk? What are you talking about?”
“I was an outsider in the St. X police department for years. They didn’t like that your mother pulled strings for my promotion to detective. I skipped over a lot of officers with more tenure in that department. They never let me forget it. Never let me become one of them. I had my dream job and hated it. I wanted to come back home to St. Felipe, but there weren’t any openings for a detective on the squad. When the Chief of Police in St. Felipe decided to retire, I saw that as my opportunity to leave St. X behind. But your mother wasn’t around to help persuade the powers that be that I was the right man for the job.”
“My parents are missing, and you’re worried about getting another job? I don’t have any sway over the government. Stalking me is pointless.”
“Rescuing you has more weight than you realize. If I could show Serena that you were in danger and I caught the criminal again, one word from her would have me installed as the new chief of police in St. Felipe,” Brad said, a deranged glee in his eyes. “Everything was working as planned until Brooks went off the rails.”
“You hired him to stalk me?”
“No. I couldn’t take a chance that any of this could be traced back to me. I went to the online sites he hung out on and encouraged him to make you his next target. I’d gone through the guy’s rap sheet. He was annoying but not dangerous. Your life was never supposed to be on the line. I just underestimated his connection with Damian Hester. That he would go rogue and escalate his threats against you.”
“You were why he left bloody goat hearts at the cottage and snakes in my purse?”
He nodded. “But your life was never in danger from those pranks.”
“Pranks? You’re delusional. What about the flowers at the hotel? The note attached. Did you make him do that, too?”
“I put the note in the flowers when you weren’t looking. The investigation was getting too close to me, and I needed another viable suspect to distract my team.”
“So, you sacrificed Sebastian when you knew he wasn’t guilty.”
“It bought me time until I could figure out where Brooks had disappeared. Once I found him, I planned to go there. He would have the contents of your purse with him, proving he was the stalker, and I’d arrest him. The nightmare would’ve been over. But he wasn’t there. So, I had to figure out a Plan B. I went back online pretending to be the guy he’d attacked you for and offered him a hideout until the investigation died down. But he didn’t respond.”
“I guess he was too busy stalking me to the safe house you made me move into. Your big plans backfired.”
“I had to wait until he resurfaced. There’s no way I could’ve predicted how crazy he’d become. I didn’t know what else he might do—”
“How about attack me in the shower, drug me with a sedative, and almost kill one of your officers. This is the man that you let loose into my life. Into your officers’ lives. How could you do this?” Gabrielle could barely breathe. “I’ve been living in a nightmare since I came home. None of this had to happen. None of it. All for some stupid job!”
“Stupid job? Stupid job!” Brad erupted. “We weren’t all born with a silver spoon in our mouths, Gabrielle. Some of us have to fight and work our fingers to the bone to get the success we deserve. Do you know how hard it is to be a detective in a Palmchat Islands police department? If your last name isn’t Francois, nothing you do means shit! But I made a name for myself when I saved you. If I can save you again, I’ll get the top gig, and everything will be fine.”
“How is everything going to be fine?”
“I’ve left a few messages on the sites for Brooks. When he sees them, he’ll know you’re here at the old Hester house and will come for you. When he does, I’ll arrest him.”
“And how will you explain that you were the one who kidnapped me and brought me here in the first place?”
“I won’t have to explain. I’ve already made it look like Brooks did this, and you aren’t going to contradict any of that.”
“You’re crazy.”
“If you do, I’ll tell the world exactly why Damian Hester kidnapped you. All of your family and adoring fans will find out that you had a consensual sexual relationship with Damian for years. I have the pictures he took of you. All of them. Even the ones you posed for him with his face between your thighs as you lost yourself in pleasure. Remember those?”
Gabrielle felt sick. She’d always wondered what happened to those photos. The ones Damian had thought would help him stay aroused long enough to make love to her. It had been stupid of her to take the pictures, but that was before Damian had turned on her. Before he’d become deranged and kidnapped her.
“You strung that boy along, making him think that there was a future for the two of you, while you fucked every Tom, Dick, and Harry at the school behind his back. No wonder he lost it,” Brad said, pointing a finger in her face. “Your Daddy was right to send a whore like you away. Your Mom made sure I was rewarded for my good deeds. I expect you to do the same to keep my silence and to stop those pictures from becoming public. I was the one who flooded the internet with the more tame photos before you came home to the Palmchat Islands. I know how to do it and keep my hands clean, so don’t think I won’t.”
