Page 232 of Things We Hide from the Light

I had a missed call from Lina and a new voicemail.

I stabbed the Play button and headed for the door, the rest of the wedding party behind me.

Lina’s voice came out of the speaker. “Nash. It’s me. Burner Phone Guy is Cereal Aisle Guy. Mrs. Tweedy was with me when we met him in the grocery store. He was buying the same kind of candy that Waylay said is Duncan Hugo’s favorite. There were candy wrappers all over the warehouse floor in the crime scene pictures. I saw him again at Honky Tonk the night Tate Diltoncaused a scene. I know it’s not much to go on, but I feel it in my gut. Call me back!”

Candy wrappers.

And just like someone had snapped their fingers, I was transported back to the side of the road on that hot August night.

Bang.

Bang.

Two gunshots echoed in my ears as a strange stinging sensation started in my shoulder and torso. I was going down…or the ground was rushing up.

I was sprawled out on asphalt as the driver’s door swung open. Something thin and transparent floated to the ground, glinting in the headlights of my cruiser. And then it was gone. The crinkle of plastic wrapper rang in my head as a black boot crushed it under foot.

“Been waitin’ for this a long time,” said the man in the hoodie. He sneered, his mustache twitching.

A fucking candy wrapper. That was what had been haunting my dreams for weeks. Not Duncan Hugo. A candy wrapper and Tate Dilton’s finger on the trigger.

“Call her the fuck back,” Knox snarled, snapping me out of my head.

“What in the hell do you think I’m doing?” I dialed again.

“I need a status update, now,” Lucian barked into his phone.

“Someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” Lou said.

Lina’s phone was ringing.

“Come on. Pick up, Angel,” I murmured. Something was very wrong and I needed to hear her voice.

The ringing stopped, but instead of her outgoing message, someone answered.

“Nash?”

But it wasn’t Lina. It was Liza J.

“He got her, Nash. He took her.”

FORTY-EIGHT

THEY KIDNAPPED THE WRONG GIRL

Lina

My job had put me into some pretty interesting situations, but this was a first. Not only had he zip-tied my hands behind my back, Cereal Aisle Guy also tossed my phone, watch, and coat—with Lucian’s tracking device—in the grocery store parking lot.

Then he’d shoved me into the trunk of a late-model sedan.

So much for Lucian’s team of creepers being able to follow my signal. I closed my eyes tight and thought of Nash. He would move heaven and earth to find me. So would Knox and Nolan. Even Lucian would lend a hand. And if they couldn’t do it, my mother would hunt me down.

I just needed to keep my wits about me and find a way to escape. This asshole had kidnapped the wrong woman.

Pep talk complete, I spent the first few minutes of trunk captivity trying to find the emergency trunk release only to discover that it had been disabled.

“Damn it,” I muttered. The car took a hard right turn. I banged my head and rolled awkwardly on my back, cringing atthe binding at my wrists. “Ouch! Learn to drive, jackass!” I gave the trunk lid a half-hearted kick.