Kate
My throat is burning from screaming.
No one can hear me.
This house is detached, and it is well made. With all the windows closed and the blinds down, I may as well be in a hermetically sealed box for all the good this noise I am making is doing me. But I can’t stop.
He has Reece.
I awoke to the terrifying thwack of metal against bone. Reece made the oddest sound. A sickening gurgle before nothing but silence. I knew then my stalker had found me, and I froze. Instead of running, or fighting, I laid still as stone under the covers while he sauntered into the room.
I saw his face. The man who has been terrorizing me for so long, is…ordinary. Horrifyingly so. Why is it that the most mundane monsters are the scariest?
Reece is like some sort of god, and I suppose I expected my tormentor to be devilish, larger than life in an evil way. Not to look like an accountant on his lunch break.
He was average height, and not big built, and for a crazy moment I thought maybe I could take him, but then he raised the thing in his hand and hit me with it. And the sick little fuck knew exactly how much force to apply. It knocked me dizzy, but didn’t knock me out.
Stunned, I couldn’t do anything as he bound me tightly to the bed, using thick, harsh rope he took from his bag. Then he pulled out a knife, and with me totally helpless, cut my nightdress from my body.
I thought for certain he would rape me, but instead, he shook his head as if in sorrow, and muttered, What a waste, before turning around and leaving.
How he managed to carry Reece out of the house I had no clue at first. What with Reece being massive, but then I remembered some research I had done for a story. I’d been looking up whether a small woman could carry a six-foot guy out of a burning house, and I remembered the videos I’d seen online of tiny women carrying big men. Apparently, getting someone much bigger than you into a combat lift isn’t all that hard, so yeah, he probably did that. However he managed it, the sick bastard took Reece, and left me tied up and naked.
Thank God there is an old-fashioned alarm clock on the dresser here. Someone who stayed before us must have brought it and I didn’t remove it, finding it ticked oddly reassuring at night as I dropped off to sleep. It meant I could see the time.
I’ve been stuck here for over six hours. Reece might well be dead, and I can do nothing to save him.
Tears roll down my cheeks as I confront the utter hopelessness of the situation. I expect my stalker will do whatever he has planned for Reece, and then come back for me. I try once more to get free of my ropes, but they aren’t budging, and my wrists are bleeding now from chafing against the wiry material.
I need a pee, and I know at some point I won’t be able to hold it any longer. Then I’ll piss myself in this bed, like the useless piece of crap I am, while the man who focused on me so long ago kills the man I’ve grown to love. And I do love him. I know it isn’t reciprocated and that’s okay, because it doesn’t matter. Reece has freed me somehow. Helped mend some broken part of me that couldn’t be near a man without my stalker’s vile words interrupting things.
Even if I never see Reece again, I make a solemn vow to live my life to the fullest if I get out of this alive. No more hiding. No more celibacy because of some stupid little man’s pathetic words.
I grind my teeth in anger, and scream at the ceiling so loud it hurts my ears.
There’s a huge crash below and I cut the noise. I bite off the sound, slamming my mouth closed so fast I taste blood where my teeth catch my lip.
Shit. He’s back. I start to run through crazy plans of how I can escape. Maybe if I pretend to be in love with him for real? Another great bit of knowledge from some research I did on stalkers, some can be kept calm for a while if you play along, give into them and pretend you want to be with them. Then, when he’s least expecting it, I can turn on him. Overpower him. Fucking kill him, if I get the chance.
Can I kill someone? I think with this guy, maybe I could. I only have to think of all the women he’s hurt. The sick, disgusting letters he wrote me, and what he may have done to Reece, to feel a rage so burning bright it’s cleansing.
“Kate?”
The deep voice doesn’t sound like the same guy who stood over me a while ago.
“Kate?” This time it’s a woman.
“Up here,” I shout.
My heart is beating a wild tango, and sweat breaks out on my body. Am I being saved? Holy crap, please let them be here to save me. More tears fall as I cry out again. “Up here.”
The door bursts wide open and Ethan, who I recognize from the Facetime chat a few days ago, and another dark-haired man, this one more severe looking, rush into the room before stopping.
It’s almost comical the way they both clock my nakedness at once and turn around, bumping into one another.
“Guys,” I yell at them. “I don’t care about the lack of clothes, the bastard has Reece. Can you come and untie me?”
Ethan turns back around, and stalks over to me. Another man enters the room, and this guy is hauntingly beautiful, and I recognize him from the photo Gina showed me, although it didn’t do him justice. I could write poetry about his face. He’s closely followed by a glamorous blonde, who comes straight to my side.
“Are you okay, Kate?” She’s staring at me with concern. “Did he…”
“He didn’t touch me. He hit me on the head and tied me up, naked, and left. I don’t understand it at all. He’s taken Reece, though.”
“We possibly know who he is,” Ethan tells me as he and the hard-faced guy work quickly at the thick knots on the ropes.
“Really? How?”
The man with the rough features speaks. “I’m Liam, Kate. This is Luka.” He points to the handsome man. Ethan you’ve chatted with online before, and this is Maggie.”
The blonde gives me a soft smile. “Reece has certain…skills. He can get into all sorts of information. He got into yours.”
What? What does she mean?
“Reece hacked your stuff, got deep into your business.” Liam takes up the story and the man’s words are as rough and unfeeling as his face. “It’s unorthodox but he did it to try and get this guy.”
His words cut me deep. I try not to let it show because I doubt Reece has told them about us, it might even jeopardize his job, but it hurts that he was screwing me and at the same time looking into my online private life. He could have told me.
“He then got into the other women’s info, too. You all banked with the same building society at one point or another. Too much of a coincidence to be ignored. A small-ish company in the scheme of things today. So, we thought, maybe this guy worked there.”
The glamorous blonde, Maggie, pipes up. “Except it didn’t fit the profile that either I or Reece’s other contact had built of him. I figured he’d be ordinary looking, but a risk taker. Someone who maybe started up his own business, or bought others and turned them around then sold them. Well off, not a billionaire, but wealthy enough.”
Liam takes over the story again. “We got Reece to dig a little further into the building society, and he found something interesting. A small tech company got called in by the society a few years ago to rationalize all their various computerized records. See, this building society still had some client records that had to be viewed on old-fashioned scanned documents. Some systems were ancient. The company they called in had software that meant all the various old files could be updated, modernized, and all the records put onto one system. The first victim we think we can safely put down to this guy, she got targeted a few months after this happened. The guy who owns the company does employ a few people, but he did the work for this building society himself, big client and all. We think he is our guy. He’s called Duncan Jacobs and if it is him, he’s fucking insane.”
It doesn’t make sense to me. How could someone’s bank details point to whether or not they were single? Then I stop and think. For me, it would be easy. All those ready-made meals for one, the specialist singles holiday I booked a year before I got the first letter.
“So, he targeted us via our bank details?” I ask.
Liam shakes his head. “Initially, but he went a lot further. He used those to trawl through and try to find single women. Then, from what we’ve guessed, he narrowed them down to a certain geographical radius. Then, he waited. He waited, watching these women, hundreds at a time possibly, until one of them signed up to some dating event or other. Every single woman he stalked had been at a speed dating event prior to it starting.”
Holy shit. The fucking effort this man went to, to make some woman’s life a misery!
“We think he would go to the events, meet the women, and if he liked them, liked the look of them, it would begin.” Maggie purses her lips. “He might have gone to hundreds of these things, and only ever picked a few select women. You’ve probably met him before.”
I try to think if I have. But he seemed so average I honestly can’t remember him. I met a lot of men on the couple of speed dating events I went to and only a few stuck in my memory. Either because they were massive creeps or because I liked them a little.
“I definitely don’t remember seeing him before,” I tell them.
“What?” The handsome guy turns his strangely colored gaze to me. “He let you see his face? When he tied you up?”
“Yes.” I’m confused now. Why does it matter?
“Sloppy,” Liam mutters. “He’s upset by something, not sticking to his routine at all. Why not take you? Why take Reece, and why let you see his face? Doesn’t fit with what the other victims who survived his earlier rapes told us. He never let them see his face. You see his face, and he means to kill you, and yet…he didn’t kill you.”
Maggie nods. “You’re right, Liam. Something’s upset him, thrown him off his game, made him careless.”
Ethan is pacing now. “This doesn’t make sense. Did he say anything to you?”
“Only that it was such a waste,” I say.
Maggie is watching me intently, and I see the moment she makes the connection. “Kate, did something happen between you and Reece?”
I glance around me. The ties are off now, and Liam carefully covers me with a sheet.
“It’s okay, Kate. Reece won’t be in trouble, but anything we don’t know can lead to a mistake in finding him,” Liam tells me.
“We…erm, we sort of…well...” I trail off and flush.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Maggie says. I flinch, but then realize she isn’t talking to me, she’s staring at Liam and Luka. “What is it with you guys and crossing the line with women you are working with, or for, in this case?”
“I crossed it first,” I admit.
“Well, he is kind of hot, if you like the man-bun thing, I suppose,” she says.
“What would you know? You don’t do men,” Luka retorts.
“I can still tell a good looking one from a dud,” she replies smartly.
“So, mystery upon mystery, and none of it helping us any. How did he know you guys were here?” Maggie continues. “And how the hell did he know you were together?”
“Did you indulge in any PDA’s?” Ethan asks me.
I frown at him. “Come again?”
He laughs. “Sorry, public displays of affection.”
Luka tosses a devastating smirk my way. “You’ll have to excuse him, he’s married to a woman almost young enough to be his daughter. He sometimes picks up on the millennial speak.”
I smile a little, but it’s forced. I can’t join in with their banter, and don’t understand how they seem so calm. Reece is in the hands of a maniac and they are joking.
Wracking my brains, a memory surfaces. “We did once. On the beach by the house here. We had a bit of a cuddle and a kiss after a swim. I didn’t see anyone around though, and this is a private road, so he couldn’t have seen us, unless he’d been on the beach, or the road. And it looked deserted.”
“Right.” Liam shakes off his laid-back persona and snaps a scary new one into place. “Ethan, you follow up on our leading suspect. Confirm his known addresses, any property holdings, business especially. Luka, you go and knock on the doors around here. Ask if anyone has seen a strange man hanging around in the last week or so, anything at all, however small. Mags, you help Kate get herself dressed and sorted. Let’s go.” He gives a smart clap of his hands and Ethan and Luka both go jogging out of the room.
Once they are all gone, Maggie sits on the edge of the bed and bends down to me. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you? I won’t tell them, and I won’t make you go to the police if you don’t wish to, but you can tell me.”
“No.” I shake my head, and tears start to fall. “In a weird way I wish he had because then Reece might still be here. I think he’s going to kill him.”
“Maybe, but I think he wants to play with him first, like he does with his female victims, otherwise why go to the effort, and danger, of leaving here with him? If he wanted Reece dead straight away, he’d have smashed his head in while he slept.”
The strong words make me flinch. “Sorry,” she says with a smile. “I tend to be a bit blunt at times.”
“Thing is, Kate, if he wants to play games, then Reece is more than well equipped to drag it out, and keep our psychotic friend on the edge, but not tip him over. These guys are trained to handle interrogation by Islamic State for God’s sake, I think he can handle this guy. He normally picks on people who will be terrified by him, and who will show it. Reece won’t do those things, won’t react in the same way this sick fucker’s usual victims do. It might buy him some time.”
Or…tip a madman completely over the edge. I don’t say it out loud. I can’t.
“Come on, let’s get you dressed.” She holds a hand out to me and helps me off the bed.
I let her lead me, all docile and meek, to the bathroom, where I wait while she turns the shower on. I grab a hair band from the cabinet and pull my locks up into a high, tight bun. I don’t have time to wash my hair right now, and step into the warm spray, where I go through the motions of washing myself.
I’m stepping out into a warm, fluffy towel Maggie is holding out for me when heavy footsteps pound up the stairs.
Great, the Rambo-alikes are all back. They burst into the bathroom, taking up all the damned space, and Luka looks straight to me.
“You bought something a couple of days ago, from a local shop in the next village.” He’s telling me, not asking.
“Yes. But I paid cash, I know not to use my cards.”
He nods impatiently, and then carries on. “Lady who served you, she lives three doors down with her husband. They have a lot of people come and go in this house, obviously, as families rent this place, but she noticed you and Reece in particular. She says she likes to sit looking out over the beach, and she saw you both down there a few times and thought you made a beautiful couple.”
I flush and glance away for a moment.
“Yesterday morning, a guy came into the shop, he was going around all the local villages and towns he said, looking for his missing wife. He showed her a photo of you. At first, she was hesitant but when he teared up and told her he wanted to know you were safe, so he could tell the kids, she relented and told him you were here. Then she panicked about him going apeshit if he found you were with Reece, so she spilled her guts. Told him he might not like what he found as you were a couple. Claims she didn’t want any trouble around here.”
“Fuck,” Maggie breathes the word out on a long breath. “That will be enough to push Stalker Boy over the edge.”
“It’s my fault,” I say.
“No, it’s not.” Luka smiles at me. “And if anyone can handle this, Reece can.”
I’m grateful for his support but Liam is giving me a cold, hard look. “He won’t necessarily handle it all that well. Me and him, we went through something once, it fucked us up. Both of us, and he deals with it by running, climbing, surfing.” His cold look turns positively glacial. “He deals with it by not being trapped in any way.”
He drags his gaze away from me and looks to the other two men. “You guys think Reece is so sorted, but don’t you notice he’s always running away? Always needing to get outside, be in open spaces? He won’t deal well if this fucker has got him tied up.”
My mind whirls. Reece let me tie him up. Oh my God. I didn’t realize it was a big deal for him. My feelings deepen again toward the man who came out of nowhere to affect my life so much.
“What shit did you go through exactly on that mission?” Ethan asks. “We know something happened, but we don’t know the details. Maybe it’s pertinent we do now?”
Liam shakes his head. “Not now, maybe not ever. Needless to say, it involved torture, lots of small, dark space, and me and Reece having to listen while a rescue target was destroyed over days.”
“I still think Reece can handle it,” Maggie says, ignoring Liam’s death-ray glare. “He’s stronger than you guys give him credit for. In a way, you all see him as the baby of the group, the one you joke with or about, and he’s not.”
“Professional insight that, is it?” Liam snaps.
“Yes.” Maggie holds her head up and stares him down. She’s got big balls, that lady. Liam scares the crap out of me.
Ethan’s phone rings and he goes out of the room. I can hear him murmuring but even straining can’t pick up the words he’s saying. When he comes back into the room, he’s grinning.
“Well, well, well. Guess who also owns a company that sells, of all things, sex toys, and has a warehouse forty minutes away from here?”
“Let’s go.” Liam heads out the door, the other two men swiftly following behind, Maggie taking up the rear, and me trailing them all.
When he reaches the door, Liam turns around. “Nope. You ladies are staying here.”
“Not safe,” Maggie says immediately. “He might leave Reece and come back here to finish Kate off— you can’t leave us. Unless you leave one of your men and then you’re down too many. You could let us come. After all, there’s one guy, you’re not going in to face an army.”
He frowns, and Ethan nudges him. “Either leave me here, boss, or let them come.”
“Shit.” Liam kicks the wall, but he stalks to the stairs without telling us to stay, so I assume we’re going.
“You’re staying in the car though, doors locked. You two can go with Ethan, and follow Luka and me.” He jabs a finger at me and Mags.
She rolls her eyes at me. “Personally, I don’t see what a girl finds so attractive in all this testosterone.”
“We’ll meet you at the car,” she says to Liam. “Kate needs to get dressed.”
I’d forgotten I’m only wearing a towel, and I shake my head at myself as I run to the bedroom to pull some clothes on. One strappy top, some knickers, jeans, and sandals later I’m ready to go.
“How do you know them?” I ask her as we trot to the car.
“My best friend, Cara, she’s with the pretty one.”
I don’t have to ask who she means. Neither Ethan or Liam could be called remotely pretty, Luka on the other hand is flat out beautiful. Reece is gorgeous too, in a sort of pretty way, until you look past his smile, and his sparkling eyes, and golden skin, to see the bulk he carries on his massive frame. Then he’s plain scary, but sexy-scary. If that is even a thing. My stomach flip-flops at the thought of him and I send a prayer up to a God I stopped putting my trust in a long time ago.
Please, God, please let him be okay. Don’t let him die because of me.