Page 151 of Girl Between

“They took her,” Jake growled.

He and George were standing in Dana’s empty hotel room.

“We don’t know that,” George warned.

“I do. Her things are gone. If she packed them to come meet me, then why didn’t she? And why hasn’t she answered any of my texts or calls?” George didn’t have an answer, but Jake did. “I’ll tell you why. Someone intercepted her and sent you that text from her phone.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because I know her,” Jake snapped. He held up his phone, pointing to a photograph of the last text Dana sent George.

Dana: Sorry 2 run. Have 2 go back 2 DC. Touch base soon.

“Dana was adamant about staying to finish this case. And she doesn’t use shorthand. She despises it. She once went on a fifteen-minute rant about how the demise of language leads to the demise of society just because I sent an emoji as a reply.”

George looked marginally less skeptical.

“Look at your previous messages with her. Has she ever abbreviated anything before?”

George didn’t have to look. Jake could tell he’d made his point.

“Okay,” George began. “If you’re right, and that’s a bigif, we can use this to our advantage. I’ll text her. If I get a response, we might be able to pinpoint it.”

“Not until you put somebody on a trace,” Jake ordered. “If this scumbag takes the bait, I’m not wasting it. We need to be able to track the tower and figure out where she is.”

“Excuse me.” The hotel manager who let them into Dana’s room returned with another man. “This is our head of hotel security. He’s got something you need to see.”

134

Dana wanted to scream.She had no voice.

She wanted to run. She couldn’t feel her legs.

She could feel nothing in her limbs. Only a chill on her face was discernible as she stared up at the bright bulb glowing above her—the sole light in a sea of surrounding darkness.

Where the hell am I? Why do I taste blood?

Dana’s memory rushed back, making her instantly nauseous.

It wasn’t hers … the blood she tasted … it was her attacker’s—Levi Monroe.

She’d bit him.

Whatever he’d dosed her with took effect so quickly, biting him had been her only option for defiance before her world went silent. Then the silence slipped into darkness, and everything faded away.

Until now.

Now, she was awake. Her body was motionless, but her heart pounded double time. She struggled to move but her limbs were unresponsive. He must’ve given her some form of paralytic. Was this what he did to his victims? Were they awake while he dismembered them?

Her mind flashed back to the tox screen, then the horrificphotographs in the farmhouse attic: victims with their eyes wide open. Panic flooded Dana’s bloodstream. But that was good. Panic meant adrenaline, and adrenaline would speed the drug through her system.

Breathe,she reminded herself.Think.

Dana knew she needed to stay clear-headed. It was her only advantage at the moment. Slowing her breathing, she willed calmness into her mind. Dana managed enough focus to lift her head. Tilting it back and forth she surveyed her surroundings. What she saw only deepened her fear. Dana squeezed her eyes shut. But each blink felt like a curtain call, revealing a fresh new horror when she reopened her eyes.

She was strapped to a metal table, maybe a gurney of some sort. There was an IV in her arm, but she couldn’t reach it to stop the flow of the mysterious clear liquid in the tubing. She tried to follow it for a clue to what she’d been dosed with, but the tubes disappeared out of view behind her. Everything else was dark.

A scuffling noise echoed in the distance. Footsteps. Two sets.