“H—elp me.” My mouth was impossibly dry.
“That’s right, my love. I’m here; I’m going to make it all better.”
His voice didn’t sound right.
“Jame—son.” His name came out disjointed, as every breath I took required all my strength.
With no warning, my hair was gathered in a fist and nearly ripped from my scalp when he pulled my head backward. “Now, hearing you say his name hurts my feelings.” His breath ghosted over the shell of my ear. “Hate to break it to you, but even the cocky, pretty-boy firefighter can’t save you from me.”
“Who . . . are . . . you?” I managed to ask as I tried to shift my weight on the rickety old chair, recognizing I was starting to get some feeling back in my extremities.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Arizona, this isn’t the first time I’ve found myself disappointed in you.”
While he stepped out from the shadows and positioned himself between my legs, his movement was calculated, and his facial features remained obscured behind the flashlight he directed into my eyes, temporarily blinding me.
His fingertips swept gently across my forehead and glided down the left side of my face. His touch made my skin crawl and caused bile from my stomach to rise in my throat. I found myself utterly powerless in my determination to stay still when a shiver laced with fear coursed through my body, triggering an immediate shift to his demeanor.
He gripped my chin so forcefully that I was sure he had the power to break my jaw with one flick of the wrist.
“Do I disgust you, Arizona?”
His grip tightened, silencing my attempt to respond. However, I was pretty confident that anything I said wouldn’t be the correct answer. My silence, combined with the knowledge he had me at his complete mercy, left me in a very vulnerable spot without a lot of options at my disposal.
With each second that passed, the rage pulsating under his touch intensified, threatening to not only crush my windpipe as his hand shifted down my neck but also any hope I had of getting out of there alive.
All I could do was picture the two men who meant the world to me.
My dad, who embodied every quality that made him the best father a girl could ever wish for. Our life together was filled with incredible memories and times of immeasurable sorrow. Through it all, he was my rock, always ensuring I knew where I stood in his heart and how much I was loved.
Then there was Jameson; he represented the missing piece my soul craved for completeness. We had been so immersed in an idyllic bubble that I’d allowed myself to fall into a false sense of security, believing we had all the time in the world when I knew better than to think tomorrow was promised. Our time together was seemingly cut short. All I could do was trust he knew in his heart how much he’d come to mean to me.
The realization that I’d never get to tell him how I felt lingered at the edge of my thoughts before my captor turned the flashlight on himself. His eyes were furious, black, pitted orbs that haunted me to the core. The figure looming over me was the last person I expected to see, and at that moment, the magnitude of my past mistake hit me all at once, drowning me in an endless pool of shame.
There was no one to help and nowhere to run.
My world lost its color, and cold fear gripped me as everything around me blurred into nothingness.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jameson
“Should be just up here on the left somewhere based on the location coordinates from dispatch.” The rough trail we were on wasn’t ideal for vehicle traffic, so it was no wonder the hikers found it odd.
“Remember, don’t touch anything when we get there; let forensics do their job,” Jaxon voiced.
“I know—shit, STOP!” I yelled. “Stop, I see something.”
I flung open the passenger door and ran through the forest, jumping over logs and broken branches until I fell beside a barely conscious Alex lying on his side in the dirt.
“Alex, where’s Arizona?”
His eyes were flickering as he fought to keep them open. His arm was bent unnaturally, and he was losing blood from a severe head wound just above his right ear.
“Jaxon, call for paramedics!” I yelled over my shoulder.
“Alex, can you hear me? I need you to stay with me.” I applied pressure to the wound until Boden ran over with a first-aid kit.
“This is all the gauze I have.” He tried to hand it to me.
