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And babies weren’t supposed to die. It just wasn’t…done.
But Trick sounded worried when he said, “She looked dead.”
“Patrick,” I snapped, unable to think about Lucy’s daughter right now. We had to find Chloe. I couldn’t worry about multiple people at once. My brain couldn’t compute that much horror. “The baby’s going to be fine,” I growled.
He nodded and went back to looking out the side window and tapping his fingers until I kind of wanted tobreakhis fingers.
“How do you know where this guy lives anyway?” I finally asked, needing noise and words to distract me from the restless tapping. And the worry. I didn’t like worrying so much. But seriously… “I didn’t realize Chloe had even dated this guy long enough forherto visit his place, much less members of her family.”
Trick sniffed. “She didn’t. But the motherfucker’s been harassing my sister. She put a damn restraining order out against him. Why would Inotfind out where he lives?”
Made sense.
I nodded, yet my chest still lurched with unease, and my fingers squeezed around the steering wheel as guilt sluiced through me.
Ihadn’t made sure to find out where he lived.
“I made fun of her,” I admitted bleakly, swallowing down the bile that was threatening to rise. “After she got the restraining order. I made light of it and teased her. I fuckingteasedher.”
“Dude,” Trick said softly and squeezed my shoulder as I wheeled us around a corner onto Eighth Street. “Shemade light of it. What were you supposed to think?”
“I was supposed to think it was a fucking restraining order, and that’s serious shit. Herlifewas in danger. Itisin danger, and I—”
“Wemadeher file that restraining order,” Trick argued. “She was never that worried about him. She thought it was overkill. But we forced her hand, and it set him off. God. If we hadn’t pushed her into doing this, maybe he wouldn’t have reacted so—”
“If he was the type to react likethis,” I cut in, “then he needed one, so you guys were right to persuade her.”
“Yeah, tell me that when we find her unharmed and okay.” He pointed through the front windshield. “There. That street. Windmill, I think it’s called. Take a right, and it’s the third house down.”
But I hadn’t actually needed any more instructions aftertake a right. When I saw a butt-ugly Mitsubishi sitting in the driveway of a small, single-story brick house, I knew where I was going. Trick had gone on and on about how much he’d hated this guy’s ride; he’d described it to a T.
Next to me, he snorted acerbically. “That stupid car. I knew the guy was a douche the moment I saw what kind of shit he did to his vehicles.Dammit! Why didn’t I just murder him the first moment I met him?”
I’d never even met the guy, just heard the rumors about him through the gossip mill, and I hadn’t liked the sounds of himbeforerestraining orders were even brought up. He just hadn’t seemed like a good fit for Chloe. So why hadn’tIdone anything to prevent this?
Pulling up to a stop directly behind the Mitsubishi and blocking it in so the fucker couldn’t escape, I killed the engine and hurried after Trick as he bolted from the truck and raced toward the front door.
I stumbled a step when I watched him kick the door open ahead of me, not pausing to knock or wait for anyone to answer or anything. Lifting my eyebrows, and impressed as shit, I hurried after him.
Inside, the house was strangely hot. I plucked at my shirt, immediately trying to circulate some air in the stale front room that was completely empty of everything but a reclining chair and a television. It was fucking eerie.
Watching Trick run one way, I decided to go the other, and I stepped cautiously into a hallway, belatedly wondering if I should’ve grabbed some kind of weapon for self-defense.
Too late now.
All the fucking doors along both walls were closed, which was just plain weird if you wanted my opinion. Unease skated up the back of my neck.
But I shrugged off the creepy crawlies and carried on, opening each door as I went. I found a closet first. Then a bathroom. After pushing aside coats and jackets, then shoving shower curtains out of my way, I went to the next set of doors set across from each other. The first was dark, but I found a light switch just inside it and flipped it on to reveal a set of narrow, steep steps going down, only to reveal yet another closed door at the bottom.
Great. A spooky basement. This looked promising.
“Chloe,” I called as I jogged down the steps, the temperature dropping steadily until it was downright chilly once I reached the bottom step. “You down here?”
There wasn’t an answer, but I shoved the door open, anyway, only to freeze in place and gape openly at what lay inside.
Seriously, I couldn’t even describe it. But on the floor before me, the girl I’d known since she was born was bare-ass naked with her legs spread apart and chained to the floor and her arms pinned down on either side of her with more restraints.
Bruises and cuts already coated her skin, half of them swelling, the rest oozing, and one of her eyes looked wild with fear and shock while the other was so full of blood I’d be surprised if she could see from it at all.
