Shelby's Secret (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 4) Page 15

  Mike leaned away from the laptop. “I know why this guy had no work experience.”

  “Why?” Daniel asked when the other guys stayed quiet.

  “Because Robert Charleston committed suicide on New Year’s Day, 2001. He was a patient in the same hospital where Larry was committed and had no surviving family members.”

  “What do you want to bet Larry’s first computer hack was into the hospital itself?” Damon said. “You tend to start with small places that are familiar, like the high school kid who hacks into the school system to change a grade.”

  Jesse chimed in, “Only Larry got himself a new I.D. Finding the right candidate with no family, or one that was already deceased, would have been easy. But why? What was the point of changing his name?”

  “Because Robert Charleston didn’t have a criminal record,” Mike answered. “He was just a messed-up kid with a history of depression and anxiety. Too old, but otherwise a good fit. So, Larry takes his identity as soon as he leaves the hospital, presumably to get a job.”

  “Did the report ever state why his mother had Larry committed in the first place?” The question was from Zach.

  “The summer Larry was thirteen, he beat up and tried to rape a girl while he was staying with his cousin Charles.”

  “The girl pressed charges?” Daniel asked.

  Mike shook his head. “His cousin Charles found them in the act and beat the shit out of him. After he got out of the hospital they transferred him to the psych ward. The incident was covered up completely. Money must have been exchanged in order to avoid a police report, but the details were in the admitting paperwork to the hospital. His mother wanted him to get counseling and had to explain why.”

  “There could have been some resentment toward the cousin for putting a beating on him. Maybe he held the guy responsible for getting him committed,” Jesse said.

  “Maybe,” Mike allowed, still reading through the report.

  “Who was the girl?” Zach wanted to know. “That might be the trigger.”

  Mike scrolled through the email, speed reading. Not until the end did he find what he’d been looking for. He sat back and shook his head. No wonder this kid was fucked up. “She was Charles’ girlfriend.”

  “What do you want to bet Charles put him up to the whole thing?” Zach said. “If he’s already got that kind of history with his cousin, then going after Shelby like this makes a kind of twisted sense. What Charles wants, Larry wants. He’s fully under the influence of whatever his delusions are.”

  “Larry only had one visitor the entire time he was admitted. Anyone want to guess who came and saw him regularly?”

  “Charles,” Damon said.

  Mike’s cell phone buzzed, and Madge’s number appeared on the screen. He stood and moved away from the table before he answered. He wasn’t sure why, but dread was snaking it way around his stomach. “This is Mike,” he said.

  The room had gone quiet as soon as he’d left the table.

  “She’s gone,” she said, through a gasping cry. “She’s gone, Mike.”

  “Take a deep breath for me. Who’s gone?”

  He could hear Madge take a deep breath in and breathe out, but she was still shaky when she spoke again. “Shelby.”

  “Tell me what happened.” His voice was calm but his mind raced. Shelby wasn’t stupid, she wouldn’t have gone off by herself. And she would have never left Rebecca, so the only thing that made sense was that she’d been taken. Even as his heart squeezed in his chest, the blood in his veins froze. He had to keep it together.

  “Rebecca snuck into the room like she does, and when she came and got me, she was almost hysterical. Now she won’t say anything.” There was a long pause and then her voice cracked. “There’s blood on the patio.”

  “How much?”

  “Just a little, but I know it’s hers—”

  She’d stopped talking as the sobs took over. “Madge,” Mike said, trying to get her attention again. “Have the guards searched the grounds?”

  A hiccup and then, “Yes.”

  “Did they find anything?”

  “Just a rope tied to the bedroom balcony rail. They said he must have lowered her out onto the mountain and carried her to a waiting car.”

  Her voice was stronger now that he was keeping her occupied with questions. “Okay, have your security team pulled into the house and keep Rebecca close. We don’t know if he’s planning to come back for her as well.”

  “Oh God, you think he will?”

  Mike ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. But I want you both surrounded by armed guards until we get Shelby back.”

  “You will get her back, Mike. You have to.”

  A boulder was lodged in his throat, but he got the words out that she needed to hear. “I’ll get her back.”

  The guys were all on their feet when he turned to face them. The files were put away, and the messes they made were cleared off.

  “He has her?” Damon asked.

  Mike nodded. Now that he was off the phone, he was momentarily paralyzed by the overwhelming fear that coursed through him.

  Goddamn it! He would personally kick the asses of every member of that security team for letting that madman get his hands on Shelby. But he was really pissed at himself. He should have kept her with him, no matter what. What had he been thinking? He’d been thinking that seven men patrolling the grounds would be plenty.

  “Mike.”

  He heard his name but it sounded far away. But then something very big and very angry was in his face. Zach. “Marine!”

  Mike snapped out of the dark place he’d been in, as if there were another choice with Zach yelling at him. He stared at his friend, whose face was set in a scowl only inches from his own. He took a deep breath. “Stop breathing fire all over me.”

  Zach narrowed his eyes. “Get your head out of your ass then.”

  When he looked around, he realized he was alone with Zach, who looked like he was ready to lay a beating on someone. Probably him. “Where is everyone?”

  “Damon is getting our equipment together, Jesse is informing the wives, and Daniel went to make a phone call to a tech he’s been working with, to get us some possible locations. And I’m babysitting your ass until you get your shit together.”

  “I’m here. My head got dark for a minute, but I’m back.”

  “I’ve been there,” Zach said, his tone only a little less harsh. “Jesse and Damon get it as well, but you spooked your rookie.”

  “He’s never been in love before,” Mike said. A confession and a statement. As much as he’d tried to shield himself from her, he couldn’t deny Shelby had swept in and taken his heart again.

  “Damn right,” Zach growled. “Now let’s go get her back.”

  Chapter 17

  Shelby’s head pounded. Her mouth was dry, and the left side of her face throbbed in time with her heart beat. But what scared her was that she couldn’t move. It didn’t make any sense. And the panic that surfaced was primal when she realized that nothing moved. Not her legs, not her arms, and not her eye lids.

  What the hell?

  What had happened? Was she in the hospital? Why couldn’t she remember anything? Full-blown alarm set in, causing her heart to race and her breathing to speed up, but try as she might, she couldn’t force any part of her body to so much as twitch. That’s when panic set in. But she fought it. Shelby wasn’t sure what was happening but she could feel the terror clawing at her, as if her body was functioning at the most basic level—danger or no danger?

  Her mind screamed danger.

  She struggled until she was exhausted, no closer to understanding what was happening than when she woke up. Then she thought about Rebecca, and Shelby knew that if she didn’t use her brain, she wouldn’t figure this out. It took a while and some inner strength she wasn’t sure she had but she began to relax. Deep breaths in and out, focusing on slowing her heart rate.

  What did she know?

 
She wasn’t home.

  And it smelled . . . bad. Like rust and copper—and old garbage. But also dusty, as if she were in an old shed that hadn’t been used in some time.

  Straining to listen, Shelby heard cars in the distance and the wail of a siren. An old house or abandoned building, maybe.

  She was lying on her back. The surface was hard, but without the ability to move her fingers, she couldn’t tell what it was. She still had on clothes. Such a minor thing, but the fact was a huge relief in her mind. Not that clothes would stop whatever was about to happen, especially since she couldn’t even open her eyes to see.

  She was in terrible danger.

  And the steadily increasing pain on her left cheek that spread over to her nose reinforced the sudden vision of a fist coming at her face out of the darkness on her patio. She remembered.

  Tears welled and spilled through her lids. Oh God. She hadn’t wanted to believe what all her senses screamed, but it was true. She was in the hands of the maniac. The one so obsessed with her he’d killed other women to remake her videos. What did he have planned for her?

  Lost in the desolation of that revelation, she didn’t hear the footsteps until they were too close. No time remained to pretend she was still passed out.

  “Oh good, you’re awake,” he said.

  The voice was young and hesitant, as if he’d interrupted an afternoon nap. She didn’t recognize it. At all.

  “I thought you would sleep through everything, Shelby Lynn. And I’ve been doing so much work for us.”

  She couldn’t have answered if she’d wanted to, but he didn’t seem to need anything from her.

  “It’s early in the morning, you know,” he said.

  His tone was faintly chiding, as if she’d overslept and made him late.

  “Time to get out of those pajamas and into something a little more appropriate. Don’t you think? But it’s still dark so I can understand why you didn’t realize. And I’ll have to clean off the blood. It might hurt.”

  He started humming one of her tunes, and she heard him moving around.

  And then he touched her face with a cloth. Dabbing carefully, he moved it over her upper lip and back and forth on the skin between her top lip and her nose.

  That must have been the smell of copper and rust. Her own blood. The cloth disappeared, only for her to feel a light sweep of his fingers across her cheek, over her nose and down the side that was bruised. He touched her lips and tickled her earlobes, touching in the way of a lover.

  Shelby was creeped out down to her very soul. She wanted to throw up and shrink away from the vile touch.

  He moved her arms. Once they were above her head, he took the edges of her overlarge t-shirt and began moving it upward and off her body. He touched her here and there, caressing her—and shattering her.

  Shelby started screaming. The sound ricocheted around her brain, but the only thing that emerged was a strangled hiss. Then she started praying.

  Not for God to help her. No, that wouldn’t do at all. Shelby started praying for something better than a miracle.

  She prayed for Mike.

  Because he would find her. Shelby just had to survive until he did.

  ***

  Five worried ex-Marines showed up at Shelby’s mansion, in black fatigues and armed like they were about to invade a small country. Mike led the group.

  The first person to approach them was the leader of the security team. His problem was that he got too close.

  Mike didn’t lose control. But he wanted to.

  “You’d better tell this very large, very angry man how Shelby Lynn got abducted during your watch before he hits you,” Jesse told the man. They all towered over the guy.

  His name was Hank, and he took a quick gulp and a deep breath before he answered. “I would deserve it, but I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing since she was taken.”

  Mike nodded. “Tell me everything.”

  The guys all gathered around, except for Daniel, who stepped away to make a phone call. He was calling dispatch to coordinate. A missing person’s detective was on his way to take a statement from Madge and an “attempt to locate” message had been sent to every patrol car in the Phoenix Metro area. Daniel was doing everything he could to make sure the proper people were involved. They’d all agreed to that.

  Mike wasn’t waiting for proper channels. Shelby didn’t have that kind of time.

  “I put Rebecca, and the Chef into the den. Two of my guys and one of yours are in there and will be until this is over.” Hank threw a look at Madge, who paced close to Daniel, listening to his side of the phone conversation. “Her we can’t control.”

  “Good,” Mike said. Over his shoulder he said, “Zach, take the bedroom. Second floor, third door on the right.”

  Zach took off at a run. He was the best tracker of the group, so if a trail or clue was left behind, he’d find it. The rest of them looked back at Hank.

  “Continue,” Mike said.

  “This guy had to be watching the house for a while to get the pattern of our patrols. And we varied it, so he must have gotten lucky there. I had your guys going door-to-door, to see if anyone had seen something odd in the area.”

  “Good move,” Mike said, clenching his fists. He spoke barely above a growl, and he still considered hitting the guy, but knew it was really himself that he wanted to hit. He should have been here, damn it.

  “The neighbor next door is on vacation according to the maid and she is older, so rarely goes outside. But she swears she thought someone was on the roof a couple of nights ago.”

  “Jess,” Mike said, without breaking eye contact with a visibly nervous Hank.

  Jesse nodded. “I’m on it.”

  “I’m assuming you found something useful, otherwise you wouldn’t be wasting my time?” Mike asked.

  “Yes, sir. Two houses down, the family has the wife’s mother living with them and she walks her little dog all over the neighborhood. She’s also the self-appointed block-watch captain so she looks for unusual things. She told us about an older model, tan Toyota Camry that’s been in the area lately. She never saw the driver, but she wrote down the license plate so she could call the police if it showed up again. She didn’t go out today because the dog was sick, so she’s not a witness to anything but the car being there, but she supplied the plate number. She swears that car does not belong to anyone in this neighborhood.”

  “I think you just saved the rest of your teeth,” Damon said. “I’ll take that.” Once he had the paper with the plate info, he pulled out his cell phone to make a call.

  Mike turned away to check on the progress of Daniel’s conversation. He hoped Hank took the hint and went back inside, because he was holding his temper by both hands, and control was slipping.

  “Missing persons did a call out and have as many bodies on the street as they can,” Daniel said.

  “What about Lance? You said he was working on finding a pattern for this guy.” Mike hoped the tech would come up with viable locations because he needed to be doing something. Anything to put him closer to Shelby.

  “He triangulated the dump sites in relation to the concert venue. We have ten abandoned warehouses in that radius.”

  Mike reached out and put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Great job. All three of the warehouses used have been abandoned for more than a couple of years, see if he can narrow the locations down starting with the oldest. We’ll hit that one first.”

  Daniel nodded and dialed the tech’s number again.

  Taking a deep breath, Mike finally moved toward Madge. He had questions for her, but he’s been avoidingthe look of agony on her face. He had to bury what he felt so he could think straight. doing so was the only way Shelby was getting out of this alive. “Madge,” he called out as he approached.

  She turned from the view of the skyline. She hadn’t moved from her position in the big driveway. “My turn?”

  He nodded. “I need to ask you about Robert
Charleston.”

  His question must have surprised her. Her eyebrows puckered, and she cocked her head to the side. “He’s a kid. We took him on in Nashville, and he’s been a hard worker. Never complains, never even asks for a raise. He’s been training with one of the lighting techs for the last six months, and he’s a fast learner. What about him?”

  “Did you see him today during rehearsal?”

  She nodded.

  “Does he room with anyone? Someone he’s close to on the tour?”

  She shook her head. “No. He keeps to himself and usually finds a place somewhere else to sleep. The crew talked to him about it once, but he’s a little antisocial so they left him alone. He shows up on time and keeps his mouth shut.”

  “Has he shown any undue interest in Shelby?”

  Again, she shook her head.

  But he could see she was thinking about the kid in a different way. Madge hadn’t come out and asked him, but she was getting there.

  “No, but I’ve seen him give Rebecca things from time to time. No one but the band knew about her, because we’d been in Nashville for a break until we left for this tour. Then she started showing up with us to rehearsals and went on the road with us again.”

  “But most of your crew and the band knew Rebecca because of Abby, so her presence wouldn’t have been a surprise.”

  “Except for Robert,” Madge said, slowly. “He was brand new to the tour, and he’s been doing little jobs for just about everyone.”

  “So he’s invisible?”

  “You mean to Shelby?”

  Mike nodded. “Especially to Shelby. He was someone in the background, who was listening and watching but just part of the crew. I know she’s close to her band, but she wouldn’t be with the crew all the time, because they travel ahead and prep everything for her shows.”