“Every time I run into a guy in his early twenties, I think it’s him,” Grace said. “His name was Zane, but I’m not sure if that’s his real name or not.”
“Ah, the guy in the banquet hall. You were pale because you thought he could be Zane?”
“How old is Josh?” I asked.
Janet rubbed her hands together. “Um… he started working as a counselor in his senior year of college, and I think he told me he’s been at the Boys & Girls Club for two-plus years, maybe.”
“So twenty-two? Twenty-three?” I said, doing quick math.
“Something like that,” Janet confirmed. “Why?”
“Grace got a bad vibe from Josh when she met him at the academy. Oscar, keep playing the video.” I held my breath, hoping I was wrong. Hoping Josh wasn’t Zane. But if he was, what would he want with Fran?
As soon as the question punctured my brain, my eyes bugged out, and I stumbled backward. A woman and a girl had appeared on the video.
“That’s Fran!” Janet cried. “They’re taking her into that van.”
“She looks like she’s going willingly,” Oscar threw out, stopping the video. “Seems to me she knows that lady.”
“She does.” My voice didn’t sound like my own. “That’s my former waitress who worked for me in Nashville.” My pulse thundered in my ears like waves against rocks, each beat slamming until my vision blurred at the edges.
Janet’s voice faded like smoke in the wind, Oscar’s words melting into a dull roar. My fingers bit into the arms of the chair as I sank down, bile rising fast and furious into the back of my throat.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from the screen. My beautiful, innocent daughter—the little girl who’d fallen asleep on my chest countless times—was being led into a van by Sabine.
Her nosiness was making sense now. Her desire to strike up a relationship with me. That she was always asking about my daughter and when Fran was coming to Nashville.
“Do we have the footage from my building yet?” I snapped, addressing Oscar.
“Give me a second.” His fingers flew over the keyboard.
“I don’t understand any of this.” Janet dragged a chair beside me and sat down. “Why would your waitress want Fran? And where is Ryan? I don’t see him unless he’s in the van.”
“That boy better pray for his life if he is involved.” I unleashed the threat despite the cop who was in the room.
“I fast-forwarded the video outside your place to around eleven p.m., since that’s when Grace disappeared.” Oscar pressed Play.
In less than a minute, we were watching Grace open her car door.
I rubbed at the spot where the pain was growing stronger in my chest as Josh walked toward Grace.
Janet grabbed my forearm and dug her nails into me.
I leaned forward, squinting at the screen, watching Grace and Josh talk before she jogged to the corner, peered into an SUV, then went around to the back side of the vehicle and out of camera view.
Minutes later, Josh jumped into the SUV and drove off.
Motherfucker. He’d taken both Fran and Grace.
The images of my daughter and Grace being kidnapped burned through my retinas as a nightmare played out before me.
Janet and Oscar were speaking, but all I heard was buzzing.
I would stake my life that Josh was Zane.
The question remained—why Fran? What did she have to do with Josh’s revenge on Grace?
I rubbed at that nagging pain in my chest, feeling like the walls were closing in. I rushed out of the room, almost falling as my body trembled. Once in the hall, I blew out all the air in my lungs, pressing on my chest, hoping that sharp pain wasn’t about to stop my heart.
