Page 73 of Caught By the Chief of Staff

Chapter 22

Backfire

“Hello?” I whisper into my phone.

When it rang, I snatched it up off the nightstand and slid my finger over the glass to unlock it as fast as I could. Everyone I know is here in this house, so the only person who would be calling me is the kidnapper. And I need to talk to them. I’ll do whatever it takes to get Rachel back, even if it’s to a life that no longer has me in it.

“I thought you would have learned your lesson by now,” the robotic voice says.

“I did,” I whisper furiously. “I did. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“Then why are you living with Mr. Donovan?” the voice asks.

“He won’t let me go,” I admit and decide that sticking as close to the truth as possible can’t hurt. “He’s angry with me for keeping his daughter from him, and now he won’t let me go home.”

“An interesting predicament for sure,” he says, and then I hear two loud booms in the distance. “I guess you should figure something out.”

“Take me,” I say before I can think it through. “Take me instead. But let my daughter go.”

“I’ll think about it,” the voice lies to me, and we both know it. They have no intention of letting her go. I can only hope she hasn’t been harmed yet while I was playing Rick’s deadly games. “I guess you’ll have to find us first.” And then he hangs up.

“No!” I shout but then look around. I can’t afford to have anyone hear me and stop me from going and getting my daughter.

I know where she is.

The realization hits me like a ton of bricks, making me gasp. She’s been close the whole time. The whole fucking time my daughter has been no more than three blocks away. I know, because the two loud booms are very familiar. They are the same noise as the double backfire of Amber’s old minivan whenever she parks. In fact, I’m willing to bet it’s the exact same sound, because the kidnappers are keeping Rachel somewhere close to Amber’s house.

She had mentioned before when I felt like I couldn’t live right next door to Rick that her neighbors had moved out and were looking for tenants, but when I finally asked about it in a moment of weakness, she said it was already taken. I don’t want to call her and put her in danger. That’s not fair to Amber, her daughter Becky, or her husband Aaron. I would never do that to her or to anyone.

I can’t tell the group where I’m going. I don’t trust them—not anymore. But I feel like I have to leave some kind of clue as to where I’m going. A note? Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t like not being able to talk to them. I used to be just fine on my own, and damn Rick for making me trust him. He made me fall back in love with him… if I ever even stopped loving him in the first place.

This is so stupid.

I look around the room. He literally keeps nothing in here. There’s nothing but an industrial-sized box of condoms in the nightstand drawer along with some power cables. There’s nothing I could use to leave a note in the bathroom either. Where is a pen and a pad of paper when you need one? Doesn’t everybody have like seven hundred free notepads from realtors? I swear in my house I have them coming out of my ears!

That’s it! My house! I need to get to my house, and I can leave a note and grab my keys and drive to Amber and Aaron’s neighborhood.

I toss back the covers and climb out of bed. This morning, I threw on leggings with a floral print all over them and a black V-neck T-shirt over a pink tank top. I like the comfy layered look. It hides my love handles. So now, I just need a pair of sneakers and a jacket. I slide my feet into a pair of Converse and grab my denim jacket.

Now, to escape next door.

Quietly, I turn the lock on the door and slowly twist the knob. I hold my breath, terrified to make a noise and be found. I tiptoe down the stairs. I pause at the bottom of the stairs just before they open up into the kitchen. I wait and listen. And then I peek my head around the corner. The room is empty.

I scurry into the kitchen and hear voices coming from the living room at the front of the house.

I have to move quickly.

“We should have heard from them by now,” Rick says, and I can hear the frustration in his voice.

“We will,” Captain Black says. “You have to let the plan work.”

They have a plan. That’s just fucking great. It would have been nice if they told me about the plan, since it involved me and my daughter. I don’t stay to find out what they’re talking about. I walk straight to the kitchen door that leads out into the side yard where the trashcans are stored. Rick’s house is a mirror image of my own, so I know I can walk around to my garage from there.

The deadbolt sounds like a gunshot in my ears when I flip the lock open, and I freeze, hoping no one heard anything. I open the door and step out, shutting it quietly behind me, breathing a sigh of relief. I’ve made it this far, so there’s no going back now.

I skirt my overhead garage door down to the far side where there is a digital keypad to open the door with a code. Thank God Rick insisted on digital locks being installed all over both houses so that we would be safe.

Spoiler alert: we weren’t safe anyway, but I will be able to get my car and leave. And that’s exactly what I do.