Love you to Death Read online

Elise stood and looked right up at him, making sure he’d pay attention. “If I were to let something happen between us, it wouldn’t be because you took advantage. It would be the other way around. I’d be taking advantage of you, using you to bleed off some stress.”

  His dark brows shot up in surprise, and there was more than a spark of interest glowing in his eyes.

  “But I don’t have time for that now. I’ve got to get dressed and ready to go.”

  “Where?”

  “I’m going back to Sally’s to show off the picture I found today. I’m hoping someone will know who the guy is. So, if you don’t mind, please let yourself out so I can shower.”

  She turned to leave, expecting him to do the same, but instead, he grabbed her arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I can’t let you do that.”

  Was she out of her mind? What the hell was she thinking, deciding to go back to Sally’s with the picture of some stalker in hand? Didn’t she have any idea how dangerous that was?

  “What do you mean you can’t let me?” she asked. Her voice was quiet, but the threat of violence running through her words was loud and clear.

  “Bob told me about the photo. It’s too dangerous for you to go around asking questions.”

  “Did I ask your opinion? Did I even ask you to come with me?” She jerked her arm away and thrust her chest out at him in defiance.

  Trent was too much of a dog not to be distracted by the sight of her breasts on display. Even sweaty and disheveled, there was still something alluring about Elise. All he could think of was that if he ever got her in bed, she’d look just like that when he was done with her. Her skin would be glowing and dewy, pink from exertion. Her hair would be a mess. Her eyes would be shining and sleepy.

  All the previous signs of sleepiness were gone now, though. In front of him stood a fiery, enraged woman who looked like she’d just as soon slug him in the mouth as kiss him.

  “It’s too dangerous. Let Bob and his men do the questioning.”

  “Like hell I will,” she snapped. “And if you can’t keep the macho urge to stick your nose into my business in check, then you can just go home and leave me the hell alone.”

  “Excuse me?” he said, feeling his temper rising fast. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. He did. He’d been a cop long enough to see the myriad scum that walked the face of the planet. He wasn’t about to let her saunter into Sally’s and piss one off. “It was me sticking my nose into your business that got you into that morgue last night. If not for me and my connections, you’d still be in Chicago, wading through red tape. And even if you had managed to get in to view the body last night, who would have been there to help you get through that trauma? You were barely able to stand.”

  She was silent, but her mouth was tight in anger.

  “Do you think I wanted to see that woman’s corpse?” he demanded. “Do you think I enjoyed giving up a decent night’s sleep so I could wallow in the devastation some sick fuck caused? I did it because you needed me. I did it because you didn’t have anyone else. And I’m going to stop you from getting yourself hurt for the same reasons.”

  “Leave,” was all she said. He knew she’d heard every word. He could see her struggling not to let the tears pooling in her eyes fall.

  “No.”

  “I’ll call the police.”

  He waved toward the phone. “Be my guest. I know Bob will back me up in this. He doesn’t want two missing women on his turf.”

  Her bravado disappeared and her whole body deflated, like the life had been sucked out of it. The tears she’d been trying to hold back fell. Her voice was weak, and the sound of defeat trembling through her words made Trent want to kick himself.

  “I can’t stop,” she whispered. “I can’t sit around and wait. I have to keep moving, keep doing. If I don’t . . .” She trailed off and a sob shook her body.

  Trent couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t stand to see her cry and do nothing, which probably made him a hypocrite for asking her to do just—nothing.

  He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. Her breasts felt soft and perfect against his ribs, but he did his best to ignore the feeling. He stroked her limp curls, and she let him. There was no fight left in her.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he told her, praying it wasn’t a lie. “They’ll find this guy. They’ll find Ashley.” Hopefully alive. “You’ve done all you can.”

  “No. I haven’t.” She sniffed and looked up at him. Her gray-green eyes were bright and filled with desperation. “I understand that asking questions is dangerous. I don’t care. I’m the only person she’s got left. I can’t sit back and do nothing, even if the only things left to do are the dangerous ones.”

  “You don’t have the training to deal with this kind of thing. What if you make it worse? What if you find this guy, but he gets away? He’ll know the police are on his trail and it might make it even harder to find Ashley.” He might even skip town, leaving her locked up somewhere to die of starvation, but Trent couldn’t bring himself to say that to Elise. It was too horrible for her to think about and would only make her more desperate.

  “I’ll be careful,” she said.

  “You don’t know how to be careful.”

  “No, but you do.”

  Damn it. He’d hoped she wouldn’t ask this of him. Helping her duck a bunch of red tape was one thing, but she wanted more than that. She wanted him to hit the streets with her, to work the lead she’d found today.

  Trent wasn’t equipped to do an investigation anymore. He was rusty, out of practice. He didn’t even own a gun. After what he’d done to John and Tyler, he couldn’t even stand to have one in his home. If he ran into trouble, he’d be hard-pressed to deal with it.

  And if he went after the guy in the photo, he was definitely going to run into trouble. There was no question in his mind that this guy was responsible for Ashley’s disappearance. Whoever he was, he had the upper hand. No one knew who he was, where he lived, or what he wanted.

  If they were lucky, he was keeping Ashley for sex and would let her go once he was bored with her. She’d be traumatized, but she’d live. If that’s not why he took her, then the options swiftly got bleaker after that. He’d had her for four days now. A lot could happen in four days.

  Trent didn’t want to get involved any more than he already had. He didn’t want to step back in that world where people depended on him, trusted him to help keep them safe. He liked it too much. He knew that if he got another taste of that—if he felt that thrill again, that sense of purpose—he might never recover once he went back to his real life. And he had to go back. He couldn’t be a cop again. He swore he’d never again pick up a gun—never again risk shooting someone he cared about. Never again kill another kid because he had no choice.

  So where did that leave him?

  He either had to risk losing all the progress he’d made over the past two years of getting on with his life, or he had to look into Elise’s hopeful eyes and tell her he couldn’t help. If he did that, he didn’t trust for a second that she wouldn’t go out on her own and try to do the job herself.

  If he didn’t keep her in sight, there was no telling what she might do.

  In the end, there really wasn’t any choice to make. He had to protect Elise from herself.

  “Okay. We’ll go to Sally’s and see what we can dig up, but you have to promise me that if we don’t find out who this guy is, you’ll accept it. We don’t even know that the guy she left the bar with is the same guy as the one in the photo.”

  “I never even considered that, but you’re right. Maybe she came home from the bar, and he was waiting for her here.”

  “Stop right there,” said Trent. “Going down that path is not going to do anything but scare you. Let’s take this one step at a time. We’ll go back to Sally’s, ask around, and then we’ll go back to my place.”

  “Your place?”

&nbs
p; “This guy might already know you’re living here. It’s not safe for you to stay here alone anymore.”

  Elise nodded. “I can get a hotel room.”

  He liked the idea of having her in his home too much to let the opportunity slip by. “You’d be safer with me. Besides, I want to make sure you’re not doing anything stu—desperate.”

  She gave him a weak smile. “What? Don’t you trust me?”

  “Not an inch. Pick out what you need to bring with you, and I’ll help you pack. You can get dressed at my place.”

  Ashley heard Gary coming down the hall, and every muscle in her body tensed. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been here, but it had to have been days. Without any clocks or external light source, she couldn’t really tell.

  At first, she’d thought he was a perfect gentleman, but it hadn’t taken her long to realize how wrong she’d been. She’d woken up with that devastating hangover, wanting nothing more than to go home, but Gary insisted on taking care of her.

  It hadn’t been until after the grogginess wore off that Ashley realized two things. First, that had not been any normal hangover. She’d been drugged. And second, Gary was not what he seemed.

  He told her he wanted to keep her all to himself, just for the weekend, and proceeded to turn on the charm.

  Stupidly, Ashley had fallen for it and ignored her instincts that something was off. Right up to the point when he’d told her good night and locked her up again without sleeping with her.

  As soon as he’d come back hours later, she’d demanded that he let her go. When that didn’t work, she lashed out at him physically, raking the skin of his arm with her fingernails. The change from nice Gary to demonic, frothing-at-the-mouth Gary had been instantaneous and scary as hell. He’d locked her back in this room and hadn’t come back for her since.

  The room wasn’t bad. She had a comfortable bed, a bathroom stocked with all the toiletries she needed to keep herself clean and groomed, fresh clothes in a tiny closet, and a small area where she could sketch with the supplies he’d left for her. The room’s colors were a bit drab for her tastes, but everything matched. There was even a print of an English garden on the wall over the bed—the only splash of color that wasn’t some form of beige.

  If it hadn’t been a prison, it would have been a nice place to stay.

  But it was a prison. And she wasn’t alone. She could hear pitiful moans of pain and desolate weeping coming through the walls. There was another woman here.

  Gary’s steps paused outside her door.

  Ashley stood up and forced herself to appear calm. She didn’t want to do anything to set him off again. She’d spent hours going over every inch of her room, looking for a way out, and found nothing. If she was going to get out of here, it was going to be through him.

  He unlocked the door and swung it open. The space behind him was dark, giving away nothing of the layout of the building. She’d been so drunk or stoned when he’d led her down here, she couldn’t remember a thing other than going down a long flight of wooden stairs.

  He stepped inside, and she could see he had a plate of food with him.

  Thank God. She was starving.

  He stood there as if waiting.

  He was a handsome man, well dressed. But it was his confidence that had attracted her to him at Sally’s. He moved like the earth was his domain and he was just letting everyone else live here out of the goodness of his heart.

  If only Ashley had realized that it was all an act. There was no goodness in him. How could there be when he held women against their will? When he did to her whatever it was that made her cry out in pain?

  Ashley prayed he wouldn’t do the same to her—that she’d find a way out before he could.

  His dark hair was neatly trimmed, neatly combed. Everything about his grooming was fastidious—nothing at all artistic or expressive. Except for his eyes. He had the oddest-colored eyes—golden, yet dirty, like sunlight reflected off an oil spill. They seemed to glow from inside, but they only did it when she was afraid.

  Demon eyes.

  “Are you ready to apologize?” he asked.

  Ashley had never been the smartest person in the crowd—in any crowd—but she was smart enough to know that playing along was her best shot at getting out of this mess.

  She looked down at the floor, hoping she seemed apologetic enough. “I’m sorry.”

  “For what? You won’t learn if you don’t know what you did wrong.”

  She was sorry that she’d let him come on to her. She was sorry she’d been stupid enough to drink whatever it was he’d drugged her with. She was sorry that she’d let him bring her home with him.

  “I’m sorry I hit you.”

  “Apology accepted. Now, come and eat. We have plans for tonight.”

  Hope soared inside her. “We’re going out?” She could run away, jump out of the car. She didn’t even care if it was moving at the time.

  He set the tray down on the small table and motioned for her to sit first. “In a manner of speaking. There’s someone here I’d like you to meet.”

  Ashley sat down, watching him slide gracefully into the chair across from her. It took all her willpower to pretend her skin didn’t crawl getting this close.

  She took a bite of the sandwich, wondering if it, too, might be drugged. At the moment, she was too hungry to care, and too worried she’d piss him off to lift the bread and check for signs of drugs. “Who?”

  “You’ll meet her soon enough. Slow down. You’re eating too fast, chewing like a cow.”

  Ashley slowed down.

  “How long have I been here?” she asked.

  “Why? Don’t you like your room?”

  She swallowed her sarcastic comeback along with a dry bite of bread. “It’s not that. I’m just curious. It’s odd not being able to tell time.”

  “I’m giving you the gift of timelessness. You don’t have to worry about anything here. There is no work, no school. No bills or obligations. You’re free.”

  “Free? But I can’t go anywhere or do anything.”

  “You’ll be busy soon enough.”

  She looked up to see him smiling. His eyes were glowing, making a sick sense of dread pool in her stomach.

  The food in her mouth turned to putty and threatened to choke her. She took a sip of water, hoping to wash it down. He watched her struggle. She could see his amused enjoyment lifting the sides of his mouth.

  He was toying with her, and heaven help her, she didn’t know if she would be better off feeding his enjoyment or trying to destroy it. The idea of making him angry again scared the hell out of her.

  After another drink of water, she finally won the battle with her food and asked, “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “I don’t like surprises.”

  His smile fell away. “Are you complaining? Whining? Perhaps you need a few days alone this time to think about what you’ve done, rather than a few hours.”

  So, that period of confinement hadn’t been days? It had only been hours? If so, there was no way she’d survive longer. “No,” Ashley shouted. “Please. Don’t leave me alone again. I’m sorry. I won’t complain anymore.”

  “See that you don’t.”

  After a moment of silence, Ashley decided she was safer if she got him to do the talking. Her mouth was bound to get her into trouble. “How was your day?” she asked.

  He settled back in the chair, pulling the king-of- the-world cloak around him again. “Tedious. I’d hoped to come home early to see you, but I had paperwork to do.”

  “What do you do?”

  “I work at a bank.”

  “Which one?”

  He shook his head slowly as he stared at her. “This is beginning to sound like an interrogation.”

  “I was just trying to make conversation.”

  “Idle conversation is for women. Come with me and I’ll give you someone to talk to.”

  “Really?” she asked
, putting down the last few bites of her sandwich.

  He gave her a magnanimous smile and reached out to stroke her cheek. Ashley managed not to flinch away from his touch, but it left her feeling dirty and used.

  “You’re beautiful like this. Perfect. I may have to give you gifts more often.”

  She almost asked him to give her the gift of freedom, but she didn’t want to come across as whining again and risk losing her chance to talk to someone else.

  He wrapped his fingers around her wrist in a painfully tight grip and led her down a dark hall. There was just enough light to see doors lining either side of a long hallway. Ashley counted five more besides her own.

  At the end of the hall was a wider door. He unlocked it and led her inside. He flipped on the lights, and bright whiteness stabbed at her eyes. She blinked fast, hoping to help them adjust. If there was some way of getting out of this place, she didn’t want to miss seeing it.

  The room was large, tiled completely in white. It had a distinctly medicinal smell, and beneath that was the familiar sharpness of bleach. The walls were lined with stainless-steel cabinets and shelving. Two video cameras were aimed at the center of the room, pointed directly at the woman who was strapped to a complicated chair.

  She was in a hospital gown. Her arms and legs were held down by wide straps. At her left was a small rolling table covered by a blue cloth.

  The woman’s blue eyes were wide with fear, and tears streamed down her temples, wetting her blond hair. A wadded rag hung from her mouth, muffling the sounds of her terror.

  “Ashley,” said Gary, “I’d like you to meet Constance.”

  Ashley stood in shocked stillness. She couldn’t seem to make sense of what she saw. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought she was in a hospital. It certainly looked like one.

  Gary tugged her wrist, jerking her forward. “Constance, this is Ashley.”

  Constance’s eyes pleaded with Ashley for something, but she had no idea what it might be. Or what she could possibly do to help.

  “What’s going on here, Gary?” she asked. “What is this place?”

  He ignored her questions and waved to a stainless-steel stool on Constance’s right. “Sit there. Comfort her. Your job now is to take care of her.”