I put the phone on speaker. Everyone gathered around the table to catch what Patty had to say. My heart was beating so hard, I felt like it was going to come out of my chest. I looked around the room, and people’s faces showed relief—which made me mad. There was no time to feel relief until Patty was in my arms, where she belonged.

I needed to get as much information as possible out of Patty. Then we could figure out where she was so we could get her back. “Patty…” My voice cracked; my emotions were swirling all over the place. I was relieved Patty was alive, but terrified because we still had no clue where she was. “I love you, my pixie. We will find you.”

“I love you, Sam. If I don’t—” Her voice cracked, and a sob came through the phone. The sound of Patty crying broke my heart. “If I don’t make it, just remember I will always love you.”

“Let’s not talk like that. We are going to find you. How did you get a phone? Did he leave you one?” I needed to get her talking about things we could figure out. It ripped my heart out of my chest to think she wouldn’t live past this.

“I bought a burner phone and attached it to a concealed purse. The purse was around my stomach,” Patty said between hiccups.

That’s my girl. I should have been mad she’d hidden the phone from me. But all I could muster was pride that she’d thought of something that had helped protect her.

Neal was the next to ask a question before I could figure out our next move. “Patty, did you buy a phone with GPS or a basic phone?” With Neal’s question, my hopes started to rise. She could pull up her location and let us know where she was.

Patty sniffled then spoke again. “I looked for one with GPS, but the store didn’t have any. They only had the basic phones stocked.”

I wanted to scream. It seemed every time we caught a break, we were set back again. I needed to figure out her soundings.

Patty’s voice was weak and tired. “I don’t know who it was. I had a quick cup of hot chocolate. I wanted some fresh air. I drank half a cup, and on the way back, I started to get sleepy. When I reached the elevator, everything was getting fuzzy. Someone walked up behind me and stuck a needle in my neck. I don’t know how long I’ve been out, but I woke up a couple minutes ago. Sam, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you… This is all my fault.”

“I’m not mad, pixie. I understand you have been under a lot of stress. Let’s just talk about how to get you home. I need you to tell me everything you can. If he comes back, hide the phone but don’t hang up.”

“I don’t know who took me. I woke up in a room that looks identical to mine at the penthouse. But all the windows are painted on the wall. The door looks like a steel vault at a bank. My right wrist is chained to the wall above my bed.”

I will kill that fucker. The only person that can tie down Patty is me. I needed to curb my anger. I didn’t want Patty to sense that I was close to losing my shit.

“Neal, pull up the cameras from Patty’s penthouse. I want to see a visual of her room. If this guy made a duplicate of Patty’s room, we might be able to use that to our advantage. Maybe we can find something to help her escape or take this fucker out.”

After taking a few breaths to calm down, I asked Patty to tell me about how she was tied to the wall.

“It’s like a cop cuff attached to a chain that connects to the wall. The wall looks like concrete. I think I’m in the basement. Do you know who—” Patty stopped talking, and I heard a bunch of scratching on the other side of the phone.

* * *

Fuck, fuck, fuck! He’s coming in. I quickly put the phone under the pillow and dropped to the bed to act like I was still sleeping. My goal was to figure out what he wanted without having to talk to him.

“I know the pills have worn off by now. Get up.”

That voice made all the alarms go off in my head. I hadn’t heard that voice since sending its owner to jail. He was hacking for a terrorist organization and helping them sell guns on the black market. Well, he was a scrawny kid back in the day. Maybe I can overpower him and get the upper hand.

I slowly sat up and tucked my legs under me on the bed. I wrapped my arms around me for extra comfort. “Why are you doing this, Brett? I thought you were in jail. I don’t understand why you killed all those other women.” I was trying to act brave, but my voice was betraying me and coming out shaky.

Brett’s face turned red, and he walked toward me. “We would’ve been running your father’s country and ruling the world if Neal hadn’t turned me in. I tried those other women—they looked like you. They weren’t you, so they had to go. I made this room for you, so you can be comfortable until we get to know each other again.”

“Neal didn’t turn you in—I did. See? We aren’t made for each other, so why don’t you just let me go, and we can call it a day?”

With a betrayed look on his face, he started toward me. I hurried and jumped off the bed, ready to take him out. I made it halfway to him before the chain stopped me. Brett punched me in the face. The force knocked me off my feet. I hit the ground with a thump to the ass. He hadn’t duplicated the plush beige carpet in my house. The flooring was concrete.

“I can’t believe this. You betrayed me. I need to go check on something. While I’m gone, figure out how you are going to make this up to me. I will be back in two hours. You will need to tell me what you will do, or I will do worse to you than I did to the women who looked like you. If I can’t have you, nobody will. Right now, you saying how you betrayed me makes me not even want to give you a chance to fix this.”

The overweight piece of shit stomped toward the door and slammed it behind him. It would have been better if I hadn’t pissed him off. At least I had two hours. Maybe Sam and Neal could rescue me before Brett came back.

* * *

I could hear the flesh crack and assumed Brett was hitting Patty. That took my last ounce of strength. I grabbed Neal’s laptop off the table and whipped it against the wall.

“What the fuck, man? Did that actually solve anything?” Neal screamed at me.

“Actually, yes. Sorry, I’m not taking this well. I can’t handle the fact she is getting hurt.” I sat back down in my chair to continue to listen to the conversation. “I will buy you a new one.”

Two hours was not a lot of time to work with.

Patty finally picked up the phone. “Sam?”

The sound of her weak voice was hard to listen to. Patty had always been a strong-willed woman. “Are you okay?”

“I want to come home. If I don’t make it—”

I cut her off. We weren’t going down that train of thought. “Stop, let’s work on getting out of the cuffs first. You said the room looked like yours. Is there a nightstand next to the bed, and is there anything in it?”

I heard shifting on the other side.

“Holy fucking shit, this guy is creepy. He’s been in my fucking bedroom.”

“What do you see?” I asked in a calming voice.

“I see everything I have in my drawer at home. I mean everything…” Patty whispered the next part, as if hoping no one else would hear. “He even has my same vibrator—that’s fucked up.”

“Sweetie, can you look in the drawer and see if you have a paper clip?”

I heard more rumbling from the drawer. “I got a bobby pin. Will that work?”

“Yes, I’m going to give you instructions on how to pick the handcuffs. Are you ready?” I couldn’t believe our luck.

“Ready.”

“The first thing I need you to do is bend the bobby pin to the left at a ninety-degree angle. Use the nightstand to help make the bend. Once you have that bent, bend the bobby pin again halfway past the first bend to the left for another ninety-degree angle. When you’re done, it should look like an S shape. Let me know when you have it.”

The silence on the phone was deafening. I didn’t want to rush her, so I sat and waited and waited.

“I think I got it. Now what?”

“Take the pin and insert it in the upper cutout of the lock, pointed toward the cuff’s direction. Once you have the pin inserted and tension, press the pick toward the cuff’s direction.”

“This isn’t working. Nothing is happening.” I could hear the strain in Patty’s voice, and she was starting to cry again.

Neal spoke up. “Patty, stop and breathe. Clear your thoughts, and keep trying. We need you to do this so we can get you out of there.”

Everyone was staring at the phone, waiting for her to crack into the cuffs. It took her about forty minutes before we heard a cheer come from the other end.

“Fuck yeah. Take that, you piece-of-shit handcuffs.”