Think, he told himself.
He’d been unconscious for hours. He was in a large cement room with lockers. First, he had to make sure Kara wasn’t unconscious somewhere in this room. He hadn’t heard her breathing, and fear that she was dead clawed at him.
He should also look for a weapon, check out each of the lockers.
As quickly as he dared, he finished mapping the perimeter of the room. There were some cabinets along one wall and he cut his hand on a jagged piece of metal. He found nothing he could carry. Slowly, he crossed the middle of the room, unnerved, listening for breathing, for any sign that he wasn’t alone.
He walked into something and winced as pain radiated across his chest. He had bruises on top of bruises. He felt around—a table. He moved to the left and tripped. A chair. Dammit. Every direction he hit something else. He walked as slow as he could and counted seven tables. Just when he thought he was near the other side, his ankle hit something low and hard, he stumbled, and fell onto a damp cushion—a couch, he realized. A disgusting stench of mold wafted up. He coughed and rubbed his hands on his sweats.
Kara wasn’t in this room. Maybe she was at the resort looking for him. Maybe she had been left behind, unconscious, and he was brought... here.
Matt found his way back to the lockers and opened each one.
Empty. Empty. Empty. No loose brackets or shelves or rods to extract and use as a weapon.
By the time he reached the door again, he had some strength back, but he felt drained and his head throbbed. He had a sense he was in a warehouse or factory, a building with solid walls. It felt abandoned, the humid air and smell of mildew and rot suggested it may have been damaged in a storm, maybe in a hurricane. Wherever he was, he couldn’t hear the ocean or any traffic. No voices, no movement of people. Desolate. Empty. Hollow. Just that faint hum of electricity and the foul, rotting stench that filled his pores.
He needed to head toward the sound.
Someone had taken him. He couldn’t imagine that the Flagler Sheriff’s Department would have let Garrett Reid out of jail without informing him first. Reid wasn’t even going to be arraigned until tomorrow.
Matt opened the door. The generator noise was now more distinct, though still too far away to gauge how big the building was. It sounded like it was coming from below. Two, maybe three floors down.
No lights in the hall and though Matt’s eyes had adjusted to the dark, he saw nothing. It was darker than a moonless night.
Hand on the wall, he moved slowly, his shins still stinging from the low table he’d walked into.
He heard metal on metal at the far end of the hall, then a blood-curdling scream from the same direction.
“Kara!” he shouted.
6
Kara woke up with a start, every nerve on high alert as she realized something bad had happened. It took her several minutes to get her bearings.
Where the hell was she?
Faint lighting illuminated a small room that looked like a freight elevator. Itwasan elevator, she realized, about six feet wide and eight feet deep. The light came from a sickly yellow strip at the top on one side. The light strip on the opposite side flickered on and off.
She slowly pulled herself to standing. She felt ill, her head pounding, her stomach empty, her mouth dry.
How did she end up here? One minute she was having brunch and mimosas with Matt on their patio by the beach, the next...
They’d been poisoned. She remembered trying to force herself to throw up, but collapsing instead. Was Matt okay? Where was he?
Determined to get out, she pressed the buttons and the box didn’t move. She pulled the alarm button. Nothing.
The elevator doors were propped open about four inches, stuck between floors. Looking out into the dark hall, she figured the floor was about a three-foot jump. If she could pry the doors open, she could slide out. She’d rather find a staircase than risk this rickety elevator.
She thought she heard something in the distance, but couldn’t quite make it out. She didn’t shout, fearing that whoever had taken her was somewhere in the building. Her best option was to get out of this box, find an exit, get to a phone, call Matt.
Which wouldn’t do any good if he was trapped in this building with her.
Was he even alive?
Kara studied the doors, figured if she had the strength she could push them open just enough and slide out into the hallway.
She stretched, loosening her limbs.
