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And ring.
And ring.
I hung up and navigated toward our messages, reading through them, hoping it would prove Curran wrong.
But as I scanned the latest text she sent, I could no longer deny it.
Nick had Julia.
Julia:I’ll be careful, my darling. Don’t worry about me. I’m exactly where I belong.
I should have realized. Should have known it sounded nothing like Julia. She didn’t use pet names. That should have been enough for me to see the truth screaming at me.
“Where the fuck did that bastard take her?!” I bellowed, my voice echoing against the high ceilings of my home. My chest squeezed. Throat ached. Muscles cramped.
“We’re working on that as we speak.”
“Ask Ethan,” I begged. “Beat it out of him if you have to. I don’t give a fuck. Just find out where my bloody girlfriend is!”
“He’s dead.”
“What?! He told you Nick took Julia and you…you…you fucking killed him?”
“I didn’t have a choice. It was either shoot him or watch him murder an innocent girl.”
“Oh god!” I wailed, doubling over, an excruciating pain shooting through me. “So you’re saying you have no idea where she is?”
“We’ll find her.”
“How?!” I roared, digging my hands through my hair. “How exactly do you plan on doing that? You heard what he said at that prison. ‘Till death do us part’. It was a fucking threat.” I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. “And what he did to that woman? Christine? What if he’s…” I trailed off, unable to say it.
“Julia’s a smart woman. She survived being married to him. She’ll survive this, too. She knows him better than anyone. I have every faith in her ability to outsmart him again. In the meantime, I’m heading to the hospital, since it’s the last place anyone can confirm seeing her. Hospitals have a ton of security cameras. I’m hoping one of them picked up something that can lead us to her.”
“We’re on our way,” Nikko stated, not even asking what I wanted to do. He knew there was no way I planned to sit idle while the love of my fucking life was missing.
“No,” Curran replied firmly. “You will both stay where you are. I understand you care about her, but I can’t afford any interference. Julia can’t afford any interference. The best thing you can do for her is to let me conduct my investigation as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you do show up, I won’t hesitate to have you arrested. Not when an innocent woman’s life is at stake. I assure you, Mr. Hale, the second I learn anything, you’ll be the first to know. For now, let me do my job and bring your girlfriend and her daughter home.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling completely helpless. But I wouldn’t know where to even begin looking for them.
“You’d better bring them home,” I ground out. “Alive.”
“I plan on it.”
When the line went dead, I doubled over, releasing an anguished cry, needing to do something to make it stop hurting.
And right now, the only person who ever made it stop hurting was currently fighting for her life.
Or worse.
“He’ll find them,” Nikko attempted to assure me.
“How?” I advanced, nostrils flaring, body vibrating. “How the fuck do you know that?”
“I don’t. But I refuse to give up hope. You can’t, either. Julia needs all the hope she can get right now.”
I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to stop my mind from thinking about what she could be going through right now, each thought darker and more depraved than the last. What made it worse was that I couldn’t do anything. That I had to sit on the sidelines while Agent Curran attempted to put the pieces together.
It was like Piper’s attack all over again. Like being knocked out and rendered useless while she was assaulted.
