Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
She started to cry, and I handed her over to her friends before bolting out the front door.
As the former second-in-command of a crime family, I actually had quite a bit of experience with kidnapping. Normally it was us picking someone up, torturing them for information, and then making them disappear. And while that was horrible, there were other kidnappings when spouses and children were taken to pressure others into spilling secrets. I never allowed that when I was in charge. Families were strictly off-limits. But others had attacked us that way, and I was always the one leading the investigation into who had done what and when. I never hesitated to call in the police, and other crime families had always been so surprised. But when you devolved to preying on loved ones, you deserved what you got.
Outside on the street, I took in the scene of people going door to door. There were lights on in every house, and as I stood there, I remembered what it had looked like when Gale and I were walking toward the Snyders’ house. Lights were on in a few homes, some neighbors were on the street, annoyed, like Siobhan and Chris, who’d called us, and when we’d gotten closer, the lady on the left with the dogs was on her porch. But on the right, the house was dark. And yes, on that side, the side by Lauren’s bedroom, there was less noise, but still, what about the booming of the fireworks? Wouldn’t the resident there have been annoyed? With the house being dark, the assumption could have been, of course, that there was no one home, but now there were lights on. So why now, but not earlier?
Logically, everyone was different about noise. Some people didn’t mind, could sleep through a tornado. Lev was like that. I myself was a light sleeper. It came from never feeling safe, and the first good night’s sleep I’d had in years was last night with Gale wrapped around me. And while I didn’t know what kind of sleeper was in the house next door to the Snyders, whoever they were, they were awake now.
Rushing down the street, I went in through their front gate, up to the door, and rang the doorbell.
Nothing.
I rang a second time, and a man answered. He was probably about my age, clean-cut, handsome, and wearing glasses. He looked like a schoolteacher. And that was my bias because schoolteachers came in every size and shape, and I knew that, but still. He reminded me of one. Or maybe a college professor.
“Hi,” I greeted him. “We’re all out here looking for Lauren, so I just wanted to know if you’d seen her.”
“No, I—I just got home and––”
“Colby!”
I turned to see Siobhan at his gate, hair back, tennis shoes on instead of her slippers, ready to be out looking for a little lost girl. The thing was, she had Misha with her, and he tugged on his leash at the same time the lady with the German shepherds came toward her, one of her dogs charging down the sidewalk.
“Oh no,” Siobhan gasped as Misha bolted toward me and the shepherd charged by her.
When Misha reached me, I scooped him up, but the shepherd ran by and into Colby’s house.
“No,” he screamed and went to grab the dog.
I followed them in, and he wheeled around on me as the shepherd, nose to the carpet, sniffed away.
“Get out of my house!”
“I’m just trying to help you with the dog,” I said, putting Misha down and “accidentally” unclipping his leash in the process.
“Get your dog!” he roared as Misha took off and ran laps around the living room, thinking that it was a game.
“Lemme get the shepherd first,” I said, following the dog down the hall, where he was sitting by a door.
“That’s locked,” Colby yelled, rushing down the hall. “Don’t you dare––”
I body-checked him into the wall, which put him down hard on the tile floor, before I reached the dog, stepped back, and kicked the door open. The dog was through in seconds, scrambling down a flight of stairs, and I turned on the light before I followed.
It was a lot of stairs. One flight came to a small landing, and then there was another short flight down. And there, against the far wall, was a little girl, arms and legs bound, duct tape over her mouth, lying naked on a mattress. The dog was sitting beside her like a statue.
Rushing to her side, seeing how wild her eyes were, I gave her a reassuring smile and said softly, “Love, I’m here to take you home, okay?”
She nodded.
“The duct tape is gonna hurt when I pull it off, so we’re gonna count one two three go, all right?”
Second nod.
I counted and pulled, and she cried out and then screamed, and when I turned, I saw Colby on the landing.