Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“Ellodie is alone?” Dad sounded alarmed.
Hell, I was alarmed myself.
“Yeah,” I croaked.
I found the gas station she’d told me she was going to, then cursed myself for not buying a phone for her that was with my phone company. Cell service on her provider sucked donkey balls and was notorious for going out at the least opportune time lately. Like fucking right now.
I pulled up at the gas station and felt a sense of relief to see her no longer there. Maybe she’d decided to leave and go straight home…
Pulling up my phone, I parked next to the pump that I would need to fill up my own cruiser and got out.
The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang.
And the unease that’d been with me since I’d left her that morning hit me right in the chest, full force.
“Baby,” I said when her voicemail picked up, “I told you to wait in your car with the door locked. Where are you?”
“You looking for a young woman? About yay high, beautiful brown hair?” the woman wearing bright pink scrubs and smoking a cigarette at the gas pump asked.
She wasn’t pumping gas. At least there was that.
I looked at her, feeling a bit of relief that she’d been seen. “Yeah.”
“She left with a doctor not too long ago,” she explained, looking relieved herself. “I stayed a bit because she was talking about you comin’. She left with an ER doc who used to work with her. He said his car broke down about two blocks that way. He mentioned his knee, and that he was needed at the hospital.”
I blew out a relieved breath.
Dr. Brewn.
She’d told me about him and his guide service in Broken Bow.
She wasn’t alone.
That was good.
“Thank you, ma’am.” I nodded my head at her.
“Welcome.” She paused. “I didn’t like the look of that guy. I’m a nurse in the pediatric unit. Something was off about him and that’s why I waited here.”
I hoped she was wrong. I mean, how was she going to tell me there was something off about a doctor when she was literally lighting up a cigarette next to an open gas container?
I called Ellodie again once I got in the cruiser, and then started to track back to the hospital.
I didn’t see her car, but that wasn’t really saying anything. The hospital was huge and took up four blocks. Cars were everywhere.
Double parking next to a utility van, I got out and jogged inside, hoping to find Dr. Brewn.
Only, I got a bunch of confused looks and an explanation from a nurse. “Dr. Brewn quit last week.”
Gut sinking, I pulled out my phone and called Auden who was at the station today.
“Yo,” he said.
“Ellodie is missing. Track Dr. Brewn’s cell phone,” I said as I stood in the hospital hallway, a bunch of worried looking nurses surrounding me. I spoke and paced. “He got a ride from her at the gas station. Was supposed to be taking him to the hospital, but they never showed. That was twenty-five minutes ago. I got a bad feeling, Auden.”
Auden said he’d look it up, then I called Tobin.
I gave him the same information and stayed on the phone with him while I listened to him type.
Tobin started to work, and within minutes, he had access.
With the blanket agreement from the judge to do whatever we needed to get this motherfucker out of his town the information came fast.
And within ten minutes, we’d pinpointed his location to a popular hiking trail on the outskirts of Lake Lavonne.
I made it to the lake entrance in three.
“It’s him.” Tobin sounded excited.
I wasn’t excited.
I was experiencing bone-deep terror as I hung up on him and called my dad.
“Carter,” he said gruffly, sounding distracted.
“The killer has Ellodie,” I said as I bailed out of my cruiser and headed for the trailhead. “It’s a doctor from the hospital.”
“Don’t fuckin’ move, kid. I know you want to, but you need backup. If he was able to get her into the woods, there’s a reason.” Dad activated the phone tree after hanging up, and soon I had all kinds of people calling me.
I didn’t answer any, hoping to keep the line open in case Ellodie called.
She didn’t.
It was one and a half minutes later when I decided fuck it and started hiking.
I couldn’t wait.
Wouldn’t.
Not when she needed me.
The stupidly stubborn, too smart for her own good, really never going to hear the end of it from me, woman.
God, was it possible to love someone too much?
Because the feelings inside my chest right now… they were debilitating.
My hands were shaking. My knees felt weak. My heart was pounding.
And it had nothing to do with the hike I was now taking down a trail I’d been down what felt like a hundred times now.
I’d hiked all the trails in the area. Twice.