Page 8 of Once Vanished
In the doorway behind them, Gabriela appeared briefly, a small pistol in her hands.But her aim wavered as Leo used Jilly as a shield, backing steadily toward the back edge of the property.The last frame showed them disappearing into the alley, Leo’s face turned slightly toward the camera in a final, taunting glance.
“Son of a bitch,” Bill breathed.“He’s playing with us.And he wants Riley to know exactly who has Jilly.”
The realization deepened his alarm.A criminal who didn’t care about being identified was infinitely more dangerous than one who did.It meant Leo believed he was untouchable.
But most concerning of all was the timing.Leo had struck when Jilly was home with only Gabriela, when April was safely at college, when Riley was miles away at Quantico.He’d studied their routines, learned their patterns.The level of planning involved was methodical, obsessive—and terrifying.
Bill’s concern for Riley sharpened into physical pain.He knew what this would do to her—how the guilt and fear would eat at her from the inside.And he knew that Leo understood this too.That was the true target of today’s attack: not just to take Jilly, but to break Riley in the process.
CHAPTER THREE
Consciousness returned to Jilly in cruel fragments.First came the darkness—absolute and impenetrable, as if the world itself had been erased.Then the pain—a dull, throbbing ache where the taser had struck, electric ghosts still racing through her muscles.The hard press of something against her back, her wrists bound tight behind her.The rough texture of a gag stretched across her mouth.A cloth hood over her head was drawn tightly enough around her neck for her not to be able to shake it off.
As reality assembled itself piece by terrible piece, Jilly understood that she had been taken.She tried to move and found her ankles secured to what felt like chair legs, the plastic ties cutting into her skin.Panic flared, wild and consuming.She fought against her bindings, but the restraints held fast.
Where was she?The hood over her head kept her from knowing.All was blackness.No sliver of light, no shadow, no shape to give form to her prison.She strained her ears, detecting only the sound of her own pulse and the shallow rush of her breath against the gag.
Memory came next, a flood of images that made her stomach clench and a muffled whimper escape into the cloth covering her mouth.She’d been in the family room, trying hard to do a good job with her homework.The sound of Darby barking.The shadow that had made her turn … the figure—tall and lean—already moving toward her.
She had screamed and fought her attacker.Darby had been trying to help.But then—that crack of electricity.Pain—white-hot, all-consuming—as the taser drove its voltage through her body.Her muscles seizing, her mind a burst of static.
After that, only disjointed fragments.A cloth pressed over her face.A chemical smell, sweet and sickening.Consciousness slipping away even as she fought to hold onto it.And a voice—calm, almost gentle—whispering something she couldn’t quite remember now.
She knew it had been Leo Dillard, the man her mother had warned them all about.The man whose photograph had been passed around, whose name had become a threat hanging over their household.
A groan escaped her, muffled by the gag but audible in the silent darkness.
“Ah, there you are.”The voice emerged from somewhere to her left, startling her.Soft, almost pleasant—if not for the context that made it terrifying.“I was starting to worry.You’ve been unconscious longer than I’d calculated.That’s my fault—I may have been a bit...overzealous with the chloroform.”
Jilly tried to speak, forgetting the gag.Only garbled sounds emerged.
“No need to strain yourself,” Leo said, his tone conversational, as if they were meeting for coffee rather than in whatever nightmare scenario he had constructed.“I know you have questions.But I think it’s better if I do the talking for now.”
Footsteps approached—measured, unhurried.She couldn’t see him, but she could sense his presence drawing closer.Every instinct screamed to flee, but the restraints held her immobile.
“I should acknowledge that things didn’t go quite according to plan,” he continued, his voice now directly in front of her.“I feel a bit foolish, to be honest.All my research, all my surveillance, and I somehow missed that your family had that little dog.”
Darby.Jilly’s heart clenched.What had he done to Darby?
“Don’t worry,” Leo said, as if reading her thoughts.“Your precious pet is fine.A bit traumatized, perhaps, but physically unharmed.I’m not a monster, Jilly.The dog was more of a nuisance than a threat.Though he probably did alert your housekeeper sooner than I’d intended.”
His footsteps circled around her, predatory.She flinched when his hand suddenly touched her shoulder.
“Gabriela with a gun,” he mused, a note of genuine surprise in his voice.“That was...unexpected.I’ll admit, I didn’t think your mother would arm the help.Though I suppose with her background, why wouldn’t she?The FBI agent, preparing for every contingency.”
His hand left her shoulder, and she heard him step away.Her skin crawled where he had touched her.
“She didn’t take the shot, of course,” Leo said, an undercurrent of amusement in his words.“She was afraid of hitting you instead of me.Still, it was closer than I’d have liked.I’ll need to be more thorough in my planning next time.”
Next time.The implication that this was just the beginning sent ice through Jilly’s veins.
“But do you know what the most interesting part is?”The creak of a chair suggested he had sat down somewhere in the darkness.“I think this imperfect execution might actually be better than my original plan.There’s an...elegance to the unintended consequences.”
Jilly strained against her bindings again, the plastic cutting deeper into her wrists.A muffled sound of pain escaped her.
“Be still,” Leo said, his tone hardening for the first time.“You’ll only hurt yourself, and that’s not what this is about.Not yet, anyway.”
Those last three words were followed by a long moment of silence.