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He clamped a hand over her mouth and yanked her away from the door, lifting her up when she tried to wiggle away. No one, not one neighbor, witnessed her second abduction.
****
Reece had this feeling he shouldn’t have left Marnie, despite the fact she asked for time. He came to a halt at the four-way stop at the bottom of her road in front of the open gate and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Indecision warred with her need for space, but something in his gut told him he should turn around and go back to her. Blowing out his breath, he carefully did a U-turn. As he drove back to Rebecca’s house, he mentally shifted through excuses he could tell her. Then a car sped by and it took his brain a second to realize it was Dan’s car. What was Dan doing here?
Something was wrong. Again, his gut was telling him to follow, so he did another U-turn, speeding up a little to make sure he didn’t lose Dan. Confused, he placed a call to Dan’s wife, Anna. When she answered, tears were thick in her voice.
“Anna? What’s wrong?”
“He l-left,” she said, a hiccup breaking her words.
“Left?”
“He said … he said he loved another woman.”
Ice filled Reece. It was Dan’s car. “Oh, shit.”
“Reece? Do you know this woman?”
“I don’t know her, but I know her sister.”
A sob came over the speaker. “Did you know he cheated?”
He sighed. “Not until two days ago. And I tried to do damage control.”
“Why?” she whispered. “Was he unhappy? Why didn’t he talk to me?”
“Anna, I promise I’ll get you some information. Right now, I’m following him. Let me call you later.”
“Okay,” she said, suddenly sounding tired.
He disconnected the call and hurried after Dan, from Rebecca’s expensive neighborhood, through downtown, until they were in the country.
“Where the fuck are you going, Dan?”
When Dan turned from the asphalt onto a dirt road, Reece slowed down. He knew the only thing at the end of the road was an old asylum that once housed orphans back in the early 1900s. Recently, the state had given it historical status.
Historical. For a moment, he felt dizzy. No. It couldn’t be. No fucking way, except it all made sense now. How the arsonist got away from being detected. He placed another call, this time to his boss, the fire chief. He didn’t even wait for him to give a greeting.
“It’s Dan! Dan is the arsonist!”
“Reece? Wait. What? Dan? Are you sure?”
“I’m following him now. He’s heading to the Bradshaw Asylum. Get here quickly.”
He hung up and stepped on the gas. He had to stop Dan from setting another fire.
****
Marnie wrestled and fought with the man she’d deduced was Dan, Reece’s best friend.
He’d failed to tell her his BFF was certifiably crazy. She looked around as the car turned onto a dirt road, and had no idea where they were. The only thing she knew for certain was that they were outside the city limits.
In her head, she worked out the scenario on how she planned to escape. When the car parked, she was going to make a run for it. Just get out of the vehicle quickly and start running. She hoped that element of surprise, and the fact he had to go around the car to chase her, was enough. She’d figure out the rest along the way.
Up ahead, an old building sat, under some type of repair. Scaffolding surrounded it, and lumber lay in the yard. The grass was pretty torn up from the construction. The car slowed down and came to a halt, and Marnie realized now was her chance. Only, when she went to open the door, it wouldn’t budge. She threw her weight at it, praying it would cooperate with her escape plan, but nothing. Then he was on her, wrestling with her. Marnie screamed, but Dan was unrelenting, and before she could fully process what was happening, he had zip-tied her wrists together.
“Don’t be a bad girl,” he told her.
