Page 14 of Frankie and the Fed

I can bite him. He’ll kill me, of course, but it will be a fitting end to my life. I’ll die, but he’ll be without his d—

“On second thought, get on the bed.” He swings me by the hair and throws me on the mattress like a rag doll.

I close my eyes and wait.

CHAPTER7

Ethan

She’s not here.

I do another scan of the house just to be sure. As far as I can tell, there are no secret rooms here. Fuck. She isn’t in his house.

I go out to the car and rest my head on the steering wheel. How do we proceed from here? I don’t know what to do.

I send a message to Ryan to inform him I’m okay, then call Jess.

“She’s not here,” I tell him as soon as he answers. “Could she be in that hospital, as he claims?”

“I checked. The documents are from a private center called Naturcare. On the phone, they confirmed that they have a patient under that name but refused to let us talk to her. I sent someone over there as a visitor. He searched the place, and she wasn’t there. Whoever works for him is doing a good job. She’s disappeared off the face of the earth.”

“Find her,” I beg. “Please.” I’m losing it. Michael Summers had the advantage of more than a few long hours before I discovered she was gone, and he had time to erase any evidence and plan his moves well. Too much time has passed. Who knows what damage he’s done to her already? What he’s capable of?

“I’m doing everything I can. Summers has no other properties to his name. Perhaps he’s rented something, but if he did, he didn’t use a credit card. I’m trying to track him down. This guy is good.”

“Fuck!” I shout. “Call me immediately when you have something, anything at all.”

I rub my temples and close my eyes, trying to overcome the nasty headache. I need to stay focused. There’s no time to rest.

An incoming call causes me to jump, and I answer without checking to see who it is. “Jess? You have something for me?”

“This is Paul Sheridan.”

Heck, I didn’t even check who it was. I have no patience for work now, but I gather what little I can to answer him. “Yes, Paul?”

“I heard about Ayala. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you know where she is?” he asks.

“I thought I did, but no. I have no idea where he’s hiding her. If he hasn’t killed her by now,” I mumble.

“Did you contact the police?”

“It’s…complex.” I pause and decide to tell the truth. Paul will not criticize me. “They’re not willing to help because she’s legally married to this man.”

“Yes. I heard.” He stops me. “I guess you know what you’re doing, but have you tried using Savee to track her?”

“What? How?” I sit up.

“You know that whoever installs our app agrees to us tracking their device. It gives us a chance to check where their phone is—”

“She didn’t take her phone.” The air comes right out of me. For a moment there…

“Maybe she didn’t take it, but what about the man who kidnapped her?”

“What about him?” I raise an eyebrow.