VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) (6 page)

“Abby.” He reached for her hand only to have her shove herself off the bed.

“Don’t. Just don’t say another word.” She stood straight and walked past the bed with her head held high, back straight. At the bathroom door she stopped. “I neither need nor want your pity. But you’re right. I probably can’t do this by myself. What I need is your help to find Brianna or whoever hurt her. Help me do that and I’ll go back to Washington and we’ll never have to see each other again.”

Before he could answer her she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

“Argh.” Luke pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes until he saw stars. Dammit. What was it about this one woman that drove him crazy? He couldn’t make the right move no matter what he did.

The sound of running water in the shower filtered through the bathroom door. Visions of Abby naked, standing beneath the jets, water running over her long, lithe frame, steam rising around her, flashed into Luke’s mind.

With a groan, he rolled to his side and came face-to-face with Abby’s laptop. She’d left it open to a file titled
Brianna’s schedule
. Had Abby taken evidence from the crime scene? He glanced around the room. Nothing looked like her friend’s datebook. He studied the computer screen again. Apparently Abby had reconstructed it from memory.

Interesting.

The water stopped.

His imagination working overtime thinking of every inch of skin Abby toweled dry behind the bathroom door, Luke tried to concentrate on the screen in front of him and not the rustling coming from the bathroom.

Get a grip, Edgars. There’s a missing woman out there depending on you to find her, and all you can do is lust after Abby—naked, hot and willing for you
. The memory of her pushing the gun into his side quickly cooled some of his ardor. For both their sakes he’d best remember she was armed and knew how to use her weapon.

He focused his attention on the open file. Abby definitely had her friend’s daily activities listed for the past six months. From the pattern, the missing woman was a very busy lady. So, how had Abby reconstructed her friend’s schedule? Who were the three sets of initials she had highlighted?

“I’ll bet one of them has something to do with Brianna’s disappearance,” Abby said, coming out of the bathroom, rubbing her hair with a towel.

“What makes you think our man is one of these?”

She pulled back the cover on the other bed, climbed in and turned on her side to study him for a moment. “Because each one…” she yawned, then closed her eyes “…had a meeting with Brianna yesterday, before she called me.”

“How did you get this copy of Brianna’s datebook?” Luke studied the computerized itinerary and waited for an answer. None came. He glanced at the other bed. “Abby?”

Her eyes remained closed, her breathing easy and regular. She’d finally exercised herself into exhaustion. He closed her file and the laptop, setting it on the bedside table next to a pair of black-framed glasses. Had he ever known she wore glasses?

Before leaving, he turned off the light. Tomorrow he’d get an answer to his question about the datebook. Only he had a feeling he wouldn’t like what he heard.

* * * * *

Even with her eyes swollen shut, Brianna knew the room was dark. If her captors thought to frighten the information out of her, they’d miscalculated. Darkness didn’t scare her.

The familiar metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. Ignoring the reflexive gag, she swallowed. Her parched throat needed something fluid down it, even if only her own blood. The last time she’d had anything to drink was when she’d gotten home from work today. Or was it yesterday? How long had it been? She couldn’t remember.

Throughout her life she’d had her share of beatings—at least before she’d been adopted. This one ranked as the worst. She hadn’t told them where the disk was, had she?

Her mind was fuzzy. How much blood had she lost?

She forced herself to take a deep breath. It hurt to breathe. That couldn’t be good.

Voices murmured in the distance.

Were they in the room with her? No, there wasn’t anyone in the room. She didn’t know how she knew, she just did.

She strained to hear what they said.

“Did you get her cell phone?” a raspy voice asked.

“No, I left it on the table with the rest of the junk from her purse. It doesn’t matter anyway. She’s tied up,” a deep voice answered. “Besides, she’ll be dead soon. No one can survive that kind of beating. Especially not a broad.”

A click sounded, followed by a pause in the conversation.

Brianna’s heart jumped two extra beats, skipped one, then jumped two more.
Please don’t let them come back.
She just couldn’t take anymore.

Fresh-burning tobacco tickled her nose.

A man coughed. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. By tomorrow she ain’t gonna be a problem to no one,” raspy voice said.

The words changed to a muffled murmur as they moved away. Finally, in the distance a door closed.

Brianna struggled to take several breaths. Their words rang in her ears. She’d be dead tomorrow. Did that mean they’d be back to actually kill her? Or were her injuries so bad she’d just slowly bleed to death here tied to a chair in the dark?

What a disgusting way to die. Helpless. Restrained. Broken. A sticky-gooey mess. Worse, she’d dragged Abby into this, and had no way to warn her.

Abby. Poor frightened-of-her-shadow Abby. The image of a gangly, rail-thin girl sitting on the bench outside Sister Compassionatta’s office with her dark brown hair hanging down to her shoulders and almost covering her face flashed into Brianna’s mind. They’d both been sent to see the principal of the orphan school that fateful afternoon. Abby for crying when one of the boys teased her, Brianna for talking to the boys too much.

“
You know it’s silly to cry when the boys tease you,” she’d said in her snootiest voice. “It only makes them tease you more.”

The frightened mouse turned her big green-and-gold-flecked eyes on Brianna. There was no malice in them, only an honest stare. “At least they aren’t nice to my face and talk mean behind my back.”

In that moment, Brianna found the one thing she’d never had in her life. Someone she could trust to always be honest with her. They served detention together that day and until the day Brianna was adopted, they were inseparable.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Everything seemed fuzzy. She wasn’t sitting on the bench outside Compassionatta’s office. Her ears rang again. She struggled to inhale. God, her chest hurt.

What had she been thinking about?

Oh, yeah, Abby. She needed to warn Abby.

How?

The cell phone. Didn’t they say they left her cell on the table in the room? It might as well be ten miles away as just across the room. Tied to this chair, she had as much a chance of getting there as she did going to the moon.

She struggled to inhale once more. The trickle of blood rolled down her arms.

Abby needed to know…

Brianna shook her head again. Maybe if she tried, the ropes would give. She lifted her right shoulder. Her arm extended and her wrists pulled on the ropes binding them together behind her back. She slumped in the chair. The effort forced her to inhale and exhaled deeply.

She wiggled her wrists. Had the ropes loosened? All the blood was making the bindings slip a little.

How long would it take to get free? How much time did she have? It was impossible.

She closed her eyes.

“
You can’t conquer the world all at once, Brianna
.
”
Abby’s voice filled her head in the darkness.

“Oh, and you have all the answers, Ms. Perfect?”

“
No, it’s like a giant cookie. You can’t eat it in one big bite. You have to nibble it a piece at a time
.”

“What do you want me to do, gnaw at the ropes?”

“
Try to loosen the ropes a centimeter at a time. You can do it. You can do anything you put your mind to.”

“I don’t think I can this time, Abby.”

“
Just try
.
”

Brianna sucked in air. She leaned to the right and lifted her left shoulder this time. Her arm tightened and she tugged on the ropes again. Her wrist slid slightly past the rope.

“Okay, Abby. I’ll call you.”

CHAPTER FOUR

The ringtone erupted from Abby’s cell phone. Jumping nearly out of her skin, she struggled out of the pile of hotel-issue blankets and sheets wrapped around her body to snatch the phone from the bedside table.

“Brianna?” she asked hopefully as she squinted through the mid-morning light to read the time on the bedside clock. Quarter to noon. How had she slept so long?

“No, Ms. Whitson,” a slightly familiar, deep voice said on the other end. “This is Detective Jeffers. We spoke last night.”

“Oh, yes. Detective Jeffers. What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to ask Agent Edgars a few more questions, ma’am. I’ve tried the number he gave me, but he isn’t picking up. I’m sorry to bother you. Is there any chance you can contact him for me?”

Luke wasn’t answering his phone? Had Brianna’s captors found them? Images of his body lying in a pool of blood on the other side of the wall flashed through her mind.

Abby swung her legs out of the bed, and hurried over to the slightly ajar door joining her room with Luke’s. Across the opening she saw the closed bathroom door and heard the shower water running.

Thank goodness. She leaned against the doorframe and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Ms. Whitson?”

“Uh, yes, Detective. I can get him a message. What did you need me to pass on?”

“I’d like to meet with you both today.”

“At the police station?”

There was a pause on the other end of the line. “I believe Agent Edgars wanted to keep a low profile while you were in town. I’m thinking we should probably meet someplace away from the station. Maybe for lunch? Say in an hour?”

Abby glanced at the clock again, quickly calculating how long it would take her to throw on some clothes and be ready. “I would imagine we can meet you. Where did you have in mind?”

“A place called Flannery’s Pub. It’s about five miles from where your friend’s condo is and they’ve got great fish and chips. Do you have a pen and paper?”

Abby spied a pen and pad of paper on Luke’s beside desk. “Yes. Go ahead.” She bent over the desk writing down both the address and directions from their hotel. She paused, swallowing before continuing. “Detective?”

“Yes?”

“Have you…has anyone…Brianna…” She swallowed again, blinking back the tears.

“No, Ms. Whitson. I’m sorry, there’s been no word from her, but we are actively looking for her. Perhaps you or Agent Edgars will be able to help me search in the right direction after we talk.”

Abigail mumbled an agreement and hit disconnect on her phone. Fighting hard not to cry, she stared out the window at the just budding trees of spring. She’d decided last night that tears wouldn’t find Brianna.

“Who was that?”

Abigail tore her gaze away from the street to find Luke standing in the bathroom door with only the hotel’s cheap white towel wrapped low around his hips.

All moisture in her mouth disappeared.

His wet blond hair was slicked back and last night’s stubble still clung to his face. Her gaze wandered down his body, taking in the well-defined muscles of his shoulders and arms, the pale hair over his sculpted chest and down over his abdomen. He didn’t have the overdeveloped six-pack body builders had, but what he did have heated her blood.

“Abby?”

Startled, she jerked her gaze north, only to see the corners of his mouth rise in a smile and a bit of a twinkle in his dark gaze. Damn, she didn’t want him laughing at her. Not again.

Quickly, she turned back to the desk and lifted the note. “Detective Jeffers has been trying to get in touch with you. He wants to meet us for lunch to talk about the case.”

“Lunch?”

“Yes, he said you wanted to keep our presence out of the official reports. He wants to meet us at this address in about an hour.”

Serious now, Luke strode over, his bare feet thudding softly on the carpeted floor, and took the note from her. “I know this place. It’s down near the baseball park. My brothers and I usually stop in for dinner when we come to town to watch the Indians play. Damn good fish and chips, not to mention the beer.”

His body heat warmed her skin as he stood next to her. The scent of the masculine hotel soap tickled her senses, setting her nerves on high alert.

What was she doing? Hadn’t she learned her lesson, that any desires she had for him weren’t reciprocated?

Get a grip, Abigail.

She’d wanted more from this man once before and it had ended with her humiliation. The last thing she needed to do was get distracted by his nearness. This time Brianna’s life depended on her focused attention.

Ignoring the heat rushing to her face, she fled the room before he could comment on her awkwardness. “I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

After washing her face and brushing her hair into a serviceable bun at the back of her head, she put on the navy-blue suit she’d hung in the closet last night and hoped it wouldn’t look too wrinkled. She smoothed her hands down the skirt as she stepped out of the bathroom.

“You’re not wearing that, are you?”

Jumping at the sound of Luke’s voice, she turned to find him leaning against the doorframe between their rooms. Thank God he’d dressed. Although the hip-hugging jeans and red Henley shirt stretched over his muscular chest was almost as sexy as his near-nakedness in only a towel.

She was pathetic.

“Yes, it’s this or my pajamas,” she said, a bit more peevish than she meant.

“That’s all you packed for a visit with Brittany?”

“
Brianna
. If you must know, she left me the message when I was on an out-of-town audit. I never went home to get more than my work clothes. So, yes, this is all I have to wear.”

He looked at his watch. “Okay, we should have time to stop and grab something before we meet with Jeffers.”