Page 72 of The Twins

“What?” I crowded to see, Finn’s head touching mine.

“And it hasn’t moved for a while,” she said. “Why is she in a field?”

“She might not be with her phone anymore,” Mitch said.

“What do you mean?” Amy gulped, and two fat tears formed and overspilled.

“We’re worried that the stalker got to her,” Finn said, the words seeming to scrape like sandpaper on his tongue. He glanced at me. Amy didn’t need the image of her best friend getting thrown into a car in her head.

Again I beat down the bile rising in my gullet. The need to run and chase and then kill this motherfucker was becoming unbearable.

“The stalker. Oh no…this is terrible. She’s all the family I have.” She clutched Mitch’s uniform. “You have to find her, please, you have to get her back. I love her. I love her so much.”

“So do we,” I said and gestured to Finn.

He nodded, and I knew our feelings matched.

Mitch touched Amy’s cheek, a tender gesture, and swiped away a tear. “You’ve brought us valuable information that we can use. You’ve really helped. Now I suggest you go home and we’ll keep you updated.”

“Home? How can I just sit at home? I’m sick with worry. I might never see her again. Oh…I can’t stand the thought of that and…” Her words became a series of hiccups and sobs, and sheflopped against Mitch with her face in her hands. “Oh, she must be so scared, poor darling Rebecca.”

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do.

“You need to get the gang on the road,” he said over her head. “Get up to Steeple Ashton.”

“And then what?”

“When he dumped her phone he might have been near his final destination. Where he’s taking her.” He paused. “If he’s a dumb criminal that is and if so that might be your lucky break. Have a nose around, and I’ll do the same online, see if there is anywhere, any properties, that are disused, or suspicious, or known for criminal activity.”

“Okay,” I said.

It was the best plan…it was the only plan.

Chapter Sixteen

Rebecca

My head was so heavy, leaden, and my mouth dry and itchy. I was jolted as the vehicle I’d been bundled into bumped in and out of potholes. Feeling like nothing more than a rag doll, I was consumed by the white-hot visceral fear that swirled within me. It was raging and frantic and burned in my veins.

How was I going to get out of this?

Fuck knows.

The truth was…I wasn’t.

I’d been kidnapped and drugged by a madman and, most likely, no one had any idea where I was.

The car came to a stop. The relief of the end of the jolting journey lasted only a moment, and then a new grip of terror clenched my belly. If we had arrived at our destination it meant new, awful things were about to happen.

The door was pulled open, and the scent of the countryside breezed in; cattle, hay, and oilseed rape.

“Right then, bitch, get ready for it.”

I couldn’t answer, my mouth wouldn’t obey my brain the same way my legs and arms wouldn’t. I was aware of my surroundings and what was happening the entire time I was locked inside my useless body.

Reg hauled me out, my legs falling to the ground and my hand scraping on the grit.

“Steady there.” He hoisted me up into a rough hug and then half dragged me, half carried me alongside a fence.