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“Oh my God.” I’m out of breath, my smile wide and disbelieving. “You found me.”
“It wasn’t easy.” He takes my shoulders and ducks us low to the ground. His finger is over his mouth. “Sound carries far in barren woods, Lesi. Keep low and I’ll get you out of here. My car is three miles away.”
My eyes widen. “You knew he’d be looking for a vehicle.”
“Of course. The man who captured you has been a ghost to the feds for a decade.”
Adrenaline is spiking as I hang onto every word to make sure it’s real. Arnold Frick, in the middle of the goddamn woods, just to rescue me?
This is a get-out-of-jail free card. I can’t picture growing old in a basement with four other women… even if it is a decent life. I’d be kissing the hope of babies, a career, everything goodbye if I stay here.
Yes. It’s time to go.
“Okay, so call for backup. Get some helicopters in here and get him,” I say. “Wait, no. He’d kill—”
He stares at me for a long second. “I’ve been forbidden from working on the case.”
“What?” I start to panic.
“I’m here on my own time, Alessia. My boss said no more resources on this one. I’ve wasted too much checking up on you over the years. And once you and Joey disappeared, they pulled me off entirely, knowing I’d be obsessed.”
Oh no.
He grabs my hands in his.
Now that I’ve felt Leandro squeeze my hand, I realize what Arnold and I have isn’t chemistry. It was just a desperate girl clinging onto something, anything that wasn’t Joey.
I swallow past a lump in my throat. Guilt stabs my kidneys like a knife.
“Now that I found you, though.” Arnold nods. “This changes everything. C’mon.”
I shake my head.
“What is it?” His face is all confusion.
“There are others,” I blurt. “Four other women. The wives of the other men he’s murdered.”
His mouth parts in shock.
“This is bigger than you think, Arnold,” my voice quivers as the gravity sets in.
Every word that comes out of my mouth feels like a knife in Leandro’s back. We burnt his shrine after he finally got justice, and now I’m ruining everything for him.
“I have to go back. If I don’t and Leandro suspects I’ve escaped, he’ll kill them all,” I say.
Arnold’s eyes dart back and forth in thought.
“He’s a killer, Arnold. I know you’re a survivalist, but he’s different. He—”
“Relax, Lesi,” his voice softens. “I’ve been in this game a long time.”
His words do not give me comfort. “Just get a squad and end this when he’s not home, please.”
“I can’t. Not without you in my custody.”
“What do you mean? C’mon.” Panicky tears flood my eyes.
“I may have made some excuses to come see you time and time again. I—I’m sorry. You have to come with me in order for this to work.”
