Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 68006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Whoever has been tormenting Kelly is either a magician—or has someone working on the inside.
Since no one is a magician of that caliber, he’s got someone on the inside for sure. Which means…he probably didn’t notice that camera.
I race back inside the hotel. No one’s at the concierge desk, so I run to the check-in counter, bumping people in line.
“Hey, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” a belligerent man yells.
“Shut up. I’ve got a missing woman on my hands.”
He steps back obediently. “Sorry.”
“That camera outside. I need the footage from it. Now.”
The check-in clerk, a young woman with pale blond hair, widens her eyes. “Sir, what camera? I don’t know what you’re—”
“I don’t have time for this. Give me the manager.”
She nods quickly, running into the back.
An older woman with silver streaking her light brown hair returns. “I’m Lenore. I’m the manager on duty this evening.”
“That camera outside over the door of the hotel. I need the footage.”
“May I ask what for?”
“Didn’t you see the police come in? Did they talk to you? A woman has been kidnapped from one of your rooms.”
Lenore steps back. “What? My God!”
“Yes, I work for the Wolfe family. I need that footage.”
“Let me find our security team.”
“What do you mean, find your security team? Don’t you know where they are?”
The woman is obviously flustered. “Yes, of course. Let me do what I can.” She pulls her cell phone from her pocket.
I call Reid. “Reid? It’s me, Leif. I need you to talk to this hotel manager. There’s a camera outside that may have seen where they took Kelly.”
“Unless they went out a back door.”
“Right.” I turn to Lenore. “Do you have cameras on all your points of egress?”
“We do.”
“I need all that footage. Here, talk to Mr. Wolfe.” I hand the phone to Lenore.
Reid is dominating their conversation, because all Lenore says is “yes, sir” several times. Until she hands me back the phone.
“Did you get it?”
“Yeah. She’s going to have her security team pull up all the footage for the last couple hours.”
“Great. God, I hope we see something.”
“I do too.”
“By the way, you need to call the cops off. They stopped me, held a fucking gun on me up in the room I booked for Kelly. Wanted me to stay to answer some questions, but I don’t have time for that.”
“I’ll see that it’s taken care of.”
“Thanks.”
I hate standing around. My pulse is racing, and my whole body is in fight-or-flight. I need to protect Kelly. Need to find her. Need to save her.
But my best chance at knowing where to go is this security footage.
So I have no choice.
I wait.
31
KELLY
Moving.
I think I’m moving.
But I seem to be floating as well.
Can’t feel my body.
Not sure where I am… Where… I… Am…
Aren’t you going to say thank you, Kelly?
Aren’t you going to say thank you for the thoughtful gift I gave you?
It’s your eighteenth birthday today. Don’t bother coming home from school. Get out.
Didn’t I tell you not to be here when I got home? You’re eighteen now! Get out, or I’ll call the cops on you for trespassing!
You’re twelve today. Have you started your menstruation yet?
You’re not a grown-up. Fifteen today, and you’re still not menstruating.
I wake up, my stomach cramping.
Blood stains my white sheets.
Three days after my fifteenth birthday. Such a late bloomer.
My mom will be angry with the blood on my sheets. So I get up quickly, strip my bed, until—
Kelly. What are you doing?
I’m…changing my sheets, mama.
Whatever for? Didn’t you just change them three days ago when I told you to?
She brushes past me, grabs the sheets, looks at them.
The blood.
So you’re a woman after all, Kelly.
She raises her hand… Wants to hit me…
But I’m as big as she is now.
Still, she’s my mother…
You should always obey your mother…
Even when she’s a vicious bitch like mine is.
But I walk past her.
I walk past her with no place to go. If only I had some money. Or enough to eat to give myself the strength I need.
I can never play volleyball.
Never bothered trying out for the team.
I gave it up, after she destroyed my volleyball when I was ten.
And at this point?
I’ll never have the strength…
Never have the strength…
Never have the strength…
I’m running… Running… Running…
He’ll catch me. He always does.
But still I run. We have to run. It’s what they want.
And here on the island, they always get what they want.
32
LEIF
I pound my fist into the wall. “What the fuck do you mean the tapes are blank?”
The security man’s name is Jake. He looks about nineteen. “I’m sorry, sir. We must’ve had a glitch.”
“The only glitch is in your fucking head.” I grab his shoulders and yank him out of his chair. “How much are they paying you? What are they paying you to fuck up the tapes?”
“Sir, I don’t know what you’re—”