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“I rather doubt she dropped it,” Jeffriesnoted.
My brows rose. “You think? Spencer knocked it out of her hand the other night. Obviously, he did it again.” I shook my head. “I don’t suppose you have any idea what he was driving? I know it was a rental. That’s all I’vegot.”
“Where’d he rent it from?” The detective frowned and pointed to the officer behind thecounter.
“Enterprise. Not the airport one, but it shouldn’t matter. You should be able to find out from calling any one of them, right?” I straightened some. “Maybe they could even track it foryou.”
Jeffries sighed. “They can, but we need a warrant first. Quite honestly, at the moment, I have nothing concrete to get a judge on board with violating Mr. Morse’sprivacy.”
I licked my lips slowly then spoke carefully. “Then find out what kind of vehicle at least and then I can do my part to find her.” The officer behind the counter stared up at Jeffries to get his approval. The man nodded slightly and finally the officer searched on the computer to find the number and then calledit.
Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I paced back and forth in front of the desk while listening carefully to learn anything I could use to my advantage in the search for Peri. The customer service representative at Enterprise answered quickly enough. “How can I help you?” the woman on the other end of the lineasked.
“We need the make, model, and color of the vehicle Spencer Morse rented yesterday,” the officer responded after identifying himself and the policedepartment.
“One moment,” she replied while tapping on her computer. She was quiet a moment, probably while reading thescreen.
I moved closer to the desk, leaning slightly over, the anticipation absolutely killing me. The longer it took, the more my frustration grew. “For fuck’s sake,” I muttered under mybreath.
The detective shot me a look and I could feel him studying me while I rubbed my forehead. “Are you okay?” he askedquietly.
I released a hollow laugh. “No. And I won’t be until we findPeri.”
“Black Nissan Versa sedan,” she read off herscreen.
I turned on my heels and prepared to bolt for the door. Before I even took a step, the detective laid a hand on my forearm. “Where you going?” he asked, his browfurrowed.
“To find Peri.” My eyes widened and I jerked my head toward thedoor.
“I know Asheville isn’t as big as…where’d you say you’re from?” Jeffriesfrowned.
With a sigh, I mumbled, “I didn’t, but I live inBoston.”
“Right. Not as big as that city, but still, we have a lot of wilderness out there. You have no direction to go on. Give us a minute to do our job before you run off all hotheaded. We’ll find her.” He seemed unusuallyconfident.
I held my head in my hands. “I don’t know how long I can wait. Soon I’ll have to use all the resources at my disposal. I can’t lose her.” My hands dropped to my sides and I felt lost for words. Explaining what she meant to me would beimpossible.
“Let us at least get out a BOLO, okay?” He shrugged. “What do you have tolose?”
I glanced out the glass doors at the darkening sky. “Light. Time.” Then I shrugged and stuffed my hands in my pockets while I tried to remaincalm.
* * *
Peri
“Now what?”I grumbled. I’d crossed my arms over my body as I sat there staring out the window. I tried to act like I was pouting, but really, I was working on memorizing our route, trying to locate any landmarks. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Hell, if I had my way, I wouldn’t be going down at all. Not only did I not want to die, but the thought of my death taking out Mishal nearly brought me totears.
“What do you think?” Spencer asked as he studiedme.
“Dear Lord. You think I’m in the mood for games?” I twisted in my seat and glared at him. “I’m not. I haven’t eaten all day.” I laughed quietly. “Most everyone who knows me would understand this is a dangerous situation…for you. Fucking feed me,” I growled, “or I’m going to grow more than a littleunreasonable.”
He eyed me curiously. “You really aren’t afraid of me right now, areyou?”
“Nope.” I snapped. “Mostly, I’m pissed off.” I raised a brow then lookedaway.
“Well, I wouldn’t want you angry and unmanageable.” He chuckled as he turned off the road and pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot. “Here’s how this is going to work,” Spencer began angrily. “I’ll order you food from the drive thru. If you do anything to alert anyone to your situation, I’ll shoot you and dump your body in the woods after I finish watching you bleed out while suffering unimaginably. Gotit?”
“Sounds awesome. Just great,” I grumbled. “I want a McDouble, no onions, a medium fry, and a large Coke. Oh, and see if they have any fresh apple pies. Half the time the damn things are older than I am. There’s nothing worse than congealed apple pie filling.” Then I crossed my legs and squirmed slightly for emphasis. “And I wouldn’t object to a bathroom or things are going to get messy. Gotit?”
