You Can't Run Hope Davis (free ebook reader .txt) 📖

Atlas shook his head. “Because this man is crazy.”

Another officer called Atlas over to ask him some questions. Kevin felt the guilt beginning to settle in. If he had been here last night, Naya wouldn’t have been taken. Maybe Vance would still be alive.

Then it hit him. If a crazy man really did have Naya, would he kill her? Would he ever get to see Naya again?

        Oh God.

         And he hadn’t been nice to her the past couple of days. Kevin felt sick to his stomach.

         This couldn’t be happening.

He had just found the first woman to hold his interest in years.

And he might have already lost her.

CHAPTER 29

NAYA

Naya felt herself slowly coming to. It took her a minute to realize that something was wrong, her eyes were open, but it was still pitch black. And she couldn’t move her mouth. She tried to move her arms and legs and found she was bound, tightly.

The night before came rushing back to her. She had been drugged. And kidnapped. Her detective mind kicked into overdrive, trying to think of every person she’d ever pissed off and who would possibly want to kidnap her, but everyone she had put behind bars was still there as far as she knew.

Her mind snapped back to her current case.

        What if? It had been Monday after all.

She felt a cold dose of fear run down her spine. If the guy who kidnapped her was their guy she didn’t have much time before he killed her. He only kept most of the women alive for an hour or two. She needed to think of a way out, and now.

She tried to relax so she could think clearly. She felt motion. Okay, so she was in a car. She was wearing a long sleeve shirt and pants. Probably her work clothes, so he hadn’t stripped her or anything. She rolled slightly so she could feel the material she was on. It felt like the floor of a car. She tried to listen, to see if she could notice anything distinct which would tell her where they were, but all she heard was the sound of the vehicle she was in. She barely had room to move, she had to be in the back of a car with no leg room.

Okay, now time to think back to the night before. When she had gotten home, Trevor’s truck had been out front. She had gone inside, leaned down to take off her shoes and someone had been waiting for her.

But the door had been locked when she had put her key in the lock.

Whoever had her, either had a key, or had been let in by Trevor and then locked the door behind them.

She felt dread settling as she came to realize that she probably knew her attacker. And that wasn’t good at all. What could Trevor want with her?

Naya started thinking back to all the interactions she’d had with him. But honestly, besides meeting him, she couldn’t remember having that many interactions with the guy, nothing noteworthy for sure.

She thought briefly about Vance and she hoped that Kevin would stop by and check on him today at least. She wondered what time it was; if it was light or dark outside. He had grabbed her at about one which meant that no one would be missing her until about seven when she was supposed to be back at work.

Dammit. She had been so tired the night before, Atlas might just think she had overslept.

She tried to see if she could move at all. If there was any weakness in the ropes where she could slip out a hand.

“Don’t even try.” Came the gruff voice of her attacker. So, he was keeping an eye on her.

She wanted to engage him so badly but couldn’t with the tape over her mouth. So instead, she decided to see what would happen if she kept struggling.

“I said stop. We’re almost there.”

Almost where? She wanted to ask, but nothing physical had happened so she continued to see if she could mess with the ropes. Nothing seemed to budge.

Trevor slammed on the breaks and she felt herself go forward into the seat in front of her. “I said stop it!”

She could hear he was getting annoyed. But, he was definitely acting alone. If he had been able to do anything other than slam on the breaks he would have done so. And honestly him slamming on the brakes didn’t bother her that much, so the joke was on him. Okay. She was going to keep struggling.

“STOP IT!” He screamed from the front seat and she felt the car swerve. He was clearly being distracted by her actions, she could tell he liked control and her refusing to comply was driving him nuts.

Suddenly, the tires screeched to a halt and she felt them swerve again. The ride got bumpier as he was apparently heading off the paved road.

“Goddamn it. I wanted to go further, but fine, you win. We will do this right here!” He roared as she felt him tear open the car door and he dragged her out by her feet. She dropped and hit the ground with a crash and a sharp jolt of pain traveled up her shoulder.

The ground was rough, and she could feel what felt like blades of dried grass cutting into her arms. Her mind immediately went to the fields Benjamin Rodgers worked.

Wait a minute.

Was Trevor also her perp? Had the guy who had been kidnaping and killing these runners been under her nose the entire time?

Oh God. She suddenly felt like an idiot.

But she had no time to work through it because this also meant that death was probably right around the