She screamed.
LUC pulled up in front of the house he had shared with Alyssa. Parked. Stared. She’d beat him home, based on the softly glowing lamp in the living room. Damn. Would she even answer the door at this time of night?
During the long drive, he questioned himself a hundred times, his thoughts an endless loop of logic that always drew him back to one conclusion: He had to talk to her face-to-face, try to reconcile with her again. He wasn’t letting Alyssa go without a fight. Somehow, he had to make her believe that he loved her and would never do anything to betray her trust again.
Armed with his conviction, he turned off the car, stepped out to the still night and chilly November wind. His palms were sweating as he approached the door.
A faint feminine scream of terror burst across the night. The sound seared its way down his spine. It wasn’t the TV. It was real and human—and familiar.
Alyssa!
Running to the door, he grabbed the knob and wrenched it. But it was firmly locked.
“Fuck!” Windows? Other door? All locked, he knew. Jack had wired her house tight. Which begged the question: Who had gotten to her and how had they broken in? Later. He couldn’t worry about details now.
Luc would also have to break in, somehow. He had to make some decisions—and fast—or Alyssa could die.
Nine-one-one was the first logical choice . . . except Remy didn’t do his job well and didn’t have the means to get into the house. Calling Tyler made more sense.
Ripping his phone from his belt, he hit his speed dial, thankful he’d filched the number off of Alyssa’s cell phone just after she’d gone “missing.”
Tyler answered before the second ring. “What?”
“It’s Alyssa. There’s someone in her house. I can hear her screaming, but I can’t get in since she changed the locks.”
“Don’t try to bullshit me just so you can see her again.”
“God’s truth.” Then Alyssa screamed again—loud.
“Shit!” Her bouncer cursed, and his demeanor changed. “I’m at least ten away. You’re going to have to get in and handle this until I get there. I’ll get you inside.”
“How?” They were losing time. Every second, another opportunity to keep Alyssa from harm was lost.
“Go through the gate, around to the side of the house. In the side yard, there’s a door that leads into the garage. On the right of the door, there’s a holly bush. Behind it is a tiny film canister. It should be half buried.”
Luc sprinted around the side of the house and was now directly below Alyssa’s window. He heard her scream again, and the sound cramped his gut with fear and dread. Why couldn’t he just break the fucking thing down and save her? He needed her in his life, damn it.
“Too damn dark to see anything.”
Frustration mounting, he ran back to his car and pulled out his emergency flashlight. While there, he also pulled out the semiautomatic he’d forgotten was in his car and tucked it into the waistband of his jeans, at the small of his back . . . just in case.
The seconds back to the side door seemed to take forever, but he quickly located the canister, extracted the key, and shoved it into the lock.
“I’m in the garage.”
The stuffy air was dusty and smelled faintly of grass. Luc didn’t dare turn on a light, but at least he knew his way around.
“Shut and lock that door behind you in case the assailant isn’t working alone. No need to alert anyone to the fact you’re there yet. They could kill her before you have a chance to save her.”
“Right.” He did as instructed.
Edging around her lawn equipment and the front of her little convertible, he sidled up to the door that led into the den.
“Standing in front of the door to the house.”
“You can’t use it. It should be locked, and I don’t know where she keeps a key. And if you open it, the alarm, if it’s engaged, will make a sound and alert her intruder. You need to go through the attic.”
“Gotcha.” Luc eased back around Alyssa’s car and pulled on the string hanging from the garage ceiling. A set of stairs emerged into the empty space beside her car. He climbed up, flashlight leading the way.
Inside the space, he found Christmas decorations in boxes, tax records boxed up neatly and arranged one year after another, and virtually nothing else but empty space. Impatience and fear gnawed at him.
“I see two small doors. They open to crawl spaces?”
“Right. Never knew helping her fix her cable one day would come in handy,” Tyler tried to joke, but the quip came out tersely.
“The one ahead seems like it would lead over the living room.”
“Exactly. Take the one to your right. Once you’re inside the crawl space, it will angle up. The exit is at the end, in the hall just outside her bedroom.”
“I know exactly where.” He’d noticed the attic entrance as he’d traversed the hall.
Luc made his way through the door and, on hands and knees, crawled up into the rafters of the house.
“This will take a few minutes. It’s long and narrow, but you’ll keep the element of surprise.”
As much as every second apart from her chafed Luc, he agreed this was the best plan.
“Any idea who the fuck we’re dealing with?” Tyler asked.
“No clue.”
“Peter was extradited to Florida. He had a pending sexual assault charge there, so it’s not him. But fucking Primpton made bail.”
“You think he’s that stupid?”
“He’s that tenacious. And he ain’t right in the head.”
Luc couldn’t agree more.
Tyler sighed. “There’s something else I should tell you, just in case this asshole is our problem. You’ve probably guessed that I’m not a bouncer by trade.”
“Yeah.” Luc’s guts seized up. What the hell was the man saying?
“I’m from California, Alyssa’s home state.”
Shit. Luc did not like the sound of this. “What the fuck did you do?”
“I used to be a vice detective for LAPD. Now I’m a PI. I was hired at the end of August by a real wealthy prick to find Alyssa. I was given a teenage picture of her and the information that she was somewhere in Lafayette. The asshole told me it was his missing sister.”
Luc went cold all over. “Joshua.”
“That’s him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Or tell her?”
“So she could throw me out of her life completely? No. I thought I had the sitch under control.”
“So you think Joshua could be inside?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed. “As soon as I found Alyssa for him, he wired me payment. I flew back to L.A. to give him her information and photographic proof. Son of a bitch asked me a million questions, like did she have a husband or lover, had I fucked her, was I aware of anyone fucking her. He was obsessed, man.”
Luc’s gut knotted. “Damn it, we all assumed Primpton was the threat.”
“The councilman is unhinged, but I don’t think he’s eager to up his prison sentence with this prank. You almost through the crawl space?”
“It’s tight in here, but I’m close.”
“I’m about five away.”
For once, Tyler’s presence would be a huge relief. “Once you figured out that Joshua was a scumbag, you stayed in Lafayette to protect Alyssa?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t breach the confidentiality of my client by telling her without risking my license. For all I knew, he just wanted to know where she was and to beat off to her picture every night. Then when things started to get hot, I couldn’t prove who’d left her the knives and the threats. So I stayed, called buddies back home periodically to check up on the bastard, make sure he was still in L.A., and I did my best not to let her out of my sight. It would have been a shitload easier to safeguard her if I’d been her lover. Nothing like twenty-four/seven protection.”
Jealousy belted Luc. “That’s not the only reason you wanted Alyssa.”
“Oh, hell, no. I’ve been in love with your wife almost from day one.” He sighed. “But she’s always been into you. I never had a chance.”
“You led me to believe more than once that you were fucking her.”
“I kept hoping you’d get pissed off, go away, and give me a chance. But you were too tenacious, damn it.”
And so the truth came out. Tyler had never once slept with his wife. Alyssa hadn’t been lying. Luc gritted his teeth. He’d been so fucking stupid to let his jealousy get out of hand.
“Nor am I letting her go now,” he vowed. “The trapdoor that leads out of the crawl space is right in front of me. It lowers from the ceiling. Do I just push down and the stairs lower?”
“Should. But you’ll have to be very quiet. The wooden stairs will clatter on the hardwood floor if you don’t lower them slowly.”
Alyssa screamed again, this time a clear, plaintive wail. “No! Don’t touch me!”
“Do you hear that?” Luc growled in low tones. “I don’t have time for slowly.”
“You don’t have a choice. I got a call three hours ago from my old vice partner that Joshua left L.A a few weeks ago.”
“A few weeks?”
Tyler sighed. “I didn’t think after all these months he’d suddenly make a move. I wasn’t checking up as often . . . My fuckup, I know. Anyway, Joshua told his wife he’d be on business in London, but TSA says he never left the country . . . If that’s him in Alyssa’s bedroom, he’s going to want to mess with her for a while. He’s got over a decade worth of hard-on for Alyssa. If he intends to kill her, it won’t be quick. Take a deep breath and find some fucking patience.”
Tyler’s words ate at him. Anxiety scraped him raw. He swallowed it because the PI was right.
“You got a way to fight him off? Any weapon?” Tyler asked.
“I’m licensed for a concealed weapon in Texas, so I had it in my car. It’s tucked in my waistband.”
“Slightly illegal, Traverson.”
“Had more on my mind than technicalities.”
“Roger that. We have to end this call now. You’ll need both hands to lower the ladder, and once you open the trapdoor, he’ll be able to hear you talk.”
“Yeah.” Luc gripped the phone, trying to calm his erratic breathing and racing heart. This was it. He must save Alyssa or die trying.
Deke had done a lot to prepare Luc for this. Hand-to-hand sparring, karate, a near overdose of target practice . . . But the fact was, Luc was a chef and, other than helping Tyler dismantle Peter in Alyssa’s office, Luc had never had to mop up an attacker and rescue someone—especially not someone he loved more than his next breath.
“You can do it,” Tyler assured. “Keep calm and quiet. Use the element of surprise if you can. If not, just blow the motherfucker’s head off. I’m calling Remy now. The cavalry will be there in less than five. Do whatever you have to do to keep her alive that long, and we’ll take care of the rest.”
“Thanks.” Luc may not be as well trained as Tyler, but he’d be damned before he let whoever this was kill his wife. And if it was Joshua . . . Luc would be fucking thrilled to exorcise this ghost for her—for good.
ALYSSA blinked. Blinked again. Her worst nightmare had come to life—and now stood in her bedroom.
“Hello, Lindsey. Though I guess now I should just call you ‘whore.’ ”
Run! Her brain couldn’t make her body obey the commands as shock overwhelmed her system. She stepped back, fear gripping her lungs as she screamed.
“Quiet now. I’ve looked a long time to find you. Over a decade, in fact. Now that I’ve succeeded, time to remind you who you belong to. And yes, the ropes are for you. Old times’ sake.”
Her body trembled. But when she saw the black-handled serrated knife in his hand—the kind that had been stabbed into her belongings—her world shook.
“You’ve been stalking me?” Not Primpton?
His eyes sparkled with sick mischief. “I enjoyed scaring you with all those notes. Trashing your bedroom was fun, too. But you weren’t as terrified as I wanted. I’m put out that you’re not the same meek virgin, Lindsey.”
She wasn’t. But in that moment, it was as if she were fifteen again and stunned that her best friend was now her worst nightmare, causing her immense pain as he stripped away her innocence, one forced thrust after another.
“Don’t do this, Joshua,” she pleaded, willing to do anything to live for her baby’s sake.
“Ah, so you do remember my name. How juicy that you haven’t forgotten your first. Let’s see what else you remember.”
“You’re going to kill me.” It wasn’t a question. She knew the answer deep in her bones.