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Wanting you. Just the way he said the words, his voice thickening, gave the situation a whole new meaning. Bree could hear his internal struggle. Wanting a woman he should hate. A Colton. No wonder the emails were filled with threats of violence. In his head, hurting her would be preferable to liking her.
She tried to hide the shudder that ran through her. Rylan had been right when he talked about classic stalking behavior. David’s plan to drive her out had changed focus and become an obsession with her personally. Which made it much more dangerous...
“A Colton. What kind of idiot does that make me?” David was looking down at the floor. He almost seemed to be talking to himself or repeating something he’d been told. “Get back to the plan. Too much invested in this to waste it.”
He raised his head and looked directly at Bree. “Get rid of the problem.”
* * *
Rylan broke into a run as he ended his call to Trey. The sheriff was close by and would be there in minutes. If David was in the Wise Gal building, the lobby was where he was most likely to find him.
This was the breakthrough they’d been looking for. It was also the reason David had slipped through the net when Rylan’s colleagues were doing background checks. He didn’t have anything to hide. No criminal record, no sinister past, no previous history of obsessive behavior toward women. His only connection to Bree was that she had bought the property that had been in his family for generations. It had been enough to trigger a resentment that had flared into fixation.
When he discovered David wasn’t in the foyer, Rylan headed back in the direction of Kasey’s office. The most important thing now was to keep Bree safe until Trey could get David behind bars.
“I don’t have the coffee, but I do have a good reason—” He stopped just inside the door. He was talking to an empty room.
Okay. There could have been any number of reasons why two women and a dog had left the room. There was no reason to panic. Even so, his imagination went into overdrive, his concentration splintering.
I left her.
Alarm became a physical presence, wrapping powerful arms around his chest and pulling him down. Pressure built in his lungs, driving his heart rate up too hard, too fast.
“Rylan?” Trey’s voice pulled him back from the edge. Like a drowning man breaking through the surface, Rylan pulled in a huge breath of air.
He swung around. “She was here, with Kasey.”
“You think he could have them?” Trey asked.
“I don’t want to take that chance.” Rylan tried to keep his thoughts on track. “Papadum. Of course.” He headed toward the door.
“Pardon?” Although Trey followed him, his expression was bemused.
“My dog. You’ve seen him. He’s unmistakable. Bree had him with her. Someone will have seen him and noticed where they went.”
When they reached the gallery, Rylan headed toward the group of school kids, who were just packing up. He approached the teacher. “Is it okay if I ask a quick question?”
Her eyes flicked to Trey, taking in the uniform and badge. “I guess so.”
Rylan took up a position where he could be seen by all the kids. “Guys, did any of you just see a dog that looks like a giant mop?” There was a ripple of laughter and a chorus of shouts. Since the little girl nearest to him was jumping up and down on the spot, trying to get his attention, Rylan turned to her. “Where’d he go?”
“He was with two ladies and a man in uniform.” She pointed to the door that led to the basement. “They went through there.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
Rylan drew Trey toward the entrance to the basement. “This didn’t have a lock last time I was here. Why would David close this door and lock himself in with Bree and Kasey?”
Trey stood back, eying the door. “It looks strong, but between the two of us we could kick it down.”
“And let him know we’re coming so he has time to kill them both?” Rylan shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
He’d been in enough hostage situations to appreciate the need for caution. They didn’t know for sure what they were dealing with. Didn’t even know that David had the two women in the basement, or that he was holding them against their will.
