Chapter Nine
Sophie didn’t have to wait long. Hagar returned carrying a plastic bag, his smile quickly turning to a frown when he noticed she hadn’t touched the food. “You haven’t eaten. We don’t have time. You need to eat.”
He seemed a little agitated and she tried to placate him. “I’m feeling a bit sick. Can I take it with me?”
“Oh. Sorry. I don’t want you to feel sick. Don’t want to hurt you but I needed to get you away from those men. They don’t know how to take care of you the way I do.” He smiled, his eyes dipping to her wrist. “I’m glad you liked the bracelet I made you.”
She looked at the charm bracelet a fan had sent her in the mail and the cute charms turned sinister. “Y-you made this?”
“Yes. Yes.” He grinned and she was reminded of the young kids that came to her concerts. “It has a special charm, see?”
Sophie couldn’t stop herself from flinching when he reached down and pointed to the little silver house but he didn’t seem to notice her aversion to his touch.
“I put something special inside there. It helps me know where you are all the time.”
Oh god. He’d tagged her!
She wanted to rip the damn thing off. Throw it across the room. But she didn’t dare. Hagar might seem harmless on the surface but she’d learned he wasn’t without his resources to get her where he wanted her.
For now her best option was to go along with him and wait for the right moment to overpower him or escape.
“Um, I need to use a bathroom.” She didn’t except the necessity might get her out of this barn quicker than he’d planned. The more she kept him off kilter the better her chances of getting away.
“Oh. Yes. Yes. Silly me. You should change in the house. The toilet doesn’t flush but you can still use it.”
“Is it far?”
“No. Just through the trees.” He picked up the tray. “I’ll wrap your lunch while you change then we can leave.”
Pushing to her feet, Sophie found herself steady and the lingering nausea and dizziness minimal. She kept quiet when he led her from the barn and through a small group of trees.
The old house came into view and she instantly knew why the toilet didn’t work. Sagging roof, windows broken and holes in the outer walls told their own story.
“Right in here.” Hagar held the back door open. “The bathroom is through there.”
She couldn’t understand why he was so trusting but she wasn’t about to ponder it and instead headed to the bathroom.
“Here. Don’t forget your clothes.”
Turning, she found him holding out the plastic bag. Forcing a smile she said, “Thanks,” took the bag and rushed as fast as she could to the bathroom.
Locked behind the door Sophie’s mind raced with ways to get out of here without having to go with Hagar. Glancing in the bag she found an ugly grey shift dress in her size and a pair of shoes that she’d never be seen dead in. Chucking them aside she looked in the cracked mirror and decided other than being dirty she’d do the way she was. Besides, she didn’t want to wear anything that was from him. Starting with the stupid bracelet.
Tugging on the clasp, she grunted in frustration when the tiny clip took forever to open. Disgusted she’d worn it for weeks, she dropped it on the pile of clothes and scanned the room for a way out.
The window was too small to fit through and there wasn’t any other exit except the way she’d entered. Taking a breath she squared her shoulders and opened the door.
Silence greeted her.
Had he left?
Stepping into the hall she decided to explore the house and if Hagar found her she’d pretend she’d been searching for him. The living room proved empty except for an old armchair in one corner. Nothing she could use as a weapon. Two bedrooms, also barren of anything but dust gave her no hope of freedom either.
It was the third, and what she assumed was the master bedroom at the front of the house, which delivered the first glimpse of possible escape. Leaning against the wall in the closet was a shotgun.
With no clue how to use it she grabbed the weapon as the back door slammed.
“Sophie, honey, are you ready?”
A shudder rattled her teeth and her stomach rolled. “Bloody hell,” she muttered. “He’s a nut-job.”
“There you are.” He stepped behind her. Too close. “What have you found?”
Sophie scrambled to remember the moves Stone had taught her. Soft spots. Groin, eyes, throat, nose…
He reached past her. “Give me—”
She sank her teeth into his arm.
“Ouch!”
Spinning around she kicked up and hit him square in the balls with her wedge heel. As he bent over cupping his groin she swung the gun and smashed the thick barrel across his face. Blood sprayed out and he yelped in pain and dropped to the floor at her feet.
***
Stone was going out of his mind and pretty sure he was driving everyone around him insane while he was at it.
“Where the fuck is she?”
Nobody answered. Then again, no one had the million-and-one other times he’d muttered the same question in the last six hours, so it seemed unlikely they would now.
“We might have a lead.”
He spun around and stared at the local cop, deputy, whatever the hell they called themselves. He didn’t give a rat’s ass as long as they helped him find Soph. “What?”
“A group of high school kids were hanging around the back of Herschfield House—”
“Where?” Stone had no idea what that was, never mind where.
“The haunted house,” Officer Hansen clarified.
“The place where Soph went missing?”
“Yes.” He motioned a teenager forward. “Tell them what you saw, Drake.”
“A fireman carrying a woman over his shoulder climbed out one of the windows.”
“Carrying?” Stone asked.
The boy shrugged. “She looked asleep. She was all floppy.”
“Was she injured?” Stone asked the boy. If she was out cold…
He shook his head. “Didn’t look like it. There wasn’t any blood or anything.”
“He must have drugged her.” Jack moved next to him, speaking the thought running through Stone’s mind. “Makes sense when you think about it. No way Sophie would go with him without a fight.”
“He had to have injected her with something.” Stone could see it playing out in his head.
Hagar would have either been waiting for her or following her. The fact the boy said it was a fireman meant Hagar had been in disguise. Again. It explained why they hadn’t spotted him.
None of them would have looked twice at a fireman or a cop when searching the crowd.
“With all the noise and darkness, it’s unlikely she would have noticed him coming at her with a syringe, or she might have thought it was part of the show,” Jack speculated.
Stone turned to Ford and asked, “Have we got anything else?”
It was Hansen who answered him. “The station took a call yesterday morning from Mrs. Brindle about some suspicious activity around the old Hawsham place, west of town. We sent a car out there but the officer didn’t see anything or anyone around. I figured we should take a closer look. Besides the old homestead, there are a few barns and machine sheds that could be used to hide something or someone.”
“The guy didn’t check all the buildings?”
“Didn’t see a reason too. There was nothing to indicate recent activity.”
Damn sleepy little towns and their lack of urgency. Stone had to admit that thought was unfair, even in a big city the police might not have investigated further, under those circumstances. Soph hadn’t been missing when the call came in, and they’d deliberately kept the local authorities in the dark about her stalker.
“Then let’s get out there and take a closer look,” Stone demanded.
“We already did.”
“You went without telling me?” Ford asked.
“No offense, Mr. Moreland, but in spite of your skills and your company’s employment as Sophie Collins’s personal protection, you have no authority here. This is a potential kidnapping, which is a crime our department takes seriously. I personally led the search undertaken not an hour ago. There was no sign of Ms. Collins or her possible abductor.”
“I understand your position, and I’ll respect that we might have overstepped a few lines by being here without your knowledge. But this concerns two Australian citizens, one of whom is a criminal without the added charge of abduction. With the skills my men collectively have, I’m sure you can see why combining our resources would be in the best interests of all. Particularly in regard to the safe return of Sophie Collins,” Ford challenged.
Stone stood back and let his boss debate the merits of joining forces with the local cops. He definitely couldn’t be diplomatic about things in his current mental state of raw panic, and he couldn’t risk being shut out of the search altogether—which Ford had threatened to do again after he’d punched Jack in the gut.
Another local policeman rushed into the room and headed straight for the one now in a heated discussion with Ford. “Scott.” The newcomer addressed his colleague but glanced in Stone’s direction.
Hansen turned. “Ed. What have you got?”
“We’ve had a report of a man walking down the highway.”
“And this is of interest in the disappearance of Sophie Collins?” Hansen asked with a frown.
Ed’s mouth tipped up in a grin. “He’s being forced to walk toward town by a woman wielding a gun, according to the witness who called it in.”
“A gun?”
Ed nodded. “And he’s naked.”
Jack snorted behind him and Stone didn’t bother to hide his own smile as he asked, “What’s the woman with the gun wearing?”
“Her clothing matches the description of what Sophie Collins was wearing when she disappeared.”
“Have we got a car headed out there?” Scott asked.
“We have one on scene now. She refused assistance. In fact, she threatened to shoot Harley if he tried to arrest her ‘prisoner’.”
Stone couldn’t hold back a chuckle and Jack was outright laughing now.
“Wait,” Ford interrupted. “Are you actually saying Sophie Collins managed to get free and has in fact taken her stalker hostage and is in the process of bringing him into town?”
“Yes, sir. Although she refused to give her name to Harley, the woman matches the photo we circulated; he has no doubt the two people walking in front of his cruiser are Sophie Collins and Henry George Hagar,” Ed answered.
“This I have to see.” Ford headed for the door.
Stone stopped Ed when he turned to follow the others. “Is Soph okay?” he asked.
“Physically? I think so. Harley said other than being dirty and stubborn, she appeared in good health, which is why I told him to back off and follow,” Ed explained.
Relief flowed through him. If she was able to argue, Hagar couldn’t have hurt her badly. “How far out are they?”
“Harley said five minutes, max. Ms. Collins is making her kidnapper walk fast.”
“And she doesn’t want him cuffed and in the car?”
“Oh no, he’s cuffed. But she refuses to allow him the luxury of hiding in a car. Said something about needing to teach him a lesson in vulnerability and exposure.”
Stone smiled. He could understand Soph’s reasoning. Hagar had stripped her of her defenses and left her vulnerable and in fear for weeks. It seemed fair she return the favor.
“You coming?” Jack asked from the door.
“Yep.” Although now that he knew Sophie was okay, he didn’t feel the urgency of the last six hours. The longer they took to get to her, the longer she got to mete out her own brand of justice.
***
Sophie couldn’t wait to get out of the sun and have a cold drink. The warm water she’d found in Hagar’s stash of supplies had done little to alleviate her thirst and the hour walk in the late-afternoon sun hadn’t helped at all either.
She’d almost given in and let the policeman take them to town, but she’d come this far, and even with the miles she’d forced Hagar to walk naked, he hadn’t suffered enough. No. She wanted him to have to walk through the middle of town, where all the people attending the festival could get an eyeful.
At first she’d made him strip just because she could. The fear he’d obviously felt when he’d come too and discovered she’d turned the tables and held a gun on him hadn’t been enough for her. She needed him stripped bare, and it made sense to take his clothes, to remove that outer protection.
Her desire for revenge took her by surprise. She’d never been deliberately mean to anyone before. Maybe this whole stalker experience had strengthened her spine, because she wasn’t going to be putting up with other people’s bad treatment any longer.
Sophie was going to stop letting people take advantage of her.
Starting with her parents.
Sophie’s parents had only ever been interested in the money she could give them—that she ‘owed’ them—and even though they obviously weren’t on the same level as Hagar, they had, in their own way, bullied her over the years.
She’d even allowed her manager to talk her into doing things she wasn’t comfortable with.
Frowning, she recalled the last argument they’d had, the one she’d refused to lose. She’d gone to Reginald about the strange man following her and he’d freaked out and wanted to get her twenty-four hour protection. They’d argued for hours. She’d finally buckled and allowed him to have a security company install a new alarm system at her house and investigate the man she’d described.
Then again look where she’d ended up. Maybe she owed Reginald an apology for that argument.
Although it did seem as though she’d gotten out of this situation on her own in the end. Though she couldn’t deny the moves Stone had taught her had saved her life. She’d done exactly as he’d shown her; hit the soft spots on a man’s body he’d told her to hit.
She smiled when she remembered the way Hagar had groaned, his hands cupping his groin after she’d kicked him with all her might with her four-inch wedge heels. The same heels now rubbing her feet raw. Perhaps she should have accepted a ride from Officer Davis.
“Soph.”
Her head snapped to the side, her gaze colliding with Stone’s smiling hazel eyes.
“You still can’t do as you’re told, can you?”
“What?” She glanced around and noticed there were more men with Stone. Jack she recognized, as well as Ford Moreland. “Mr. Moreland.”
He tipped his head. “Ms. Collins.”
“I definitely remember saying you weren’t getting your hands on a gun, Soph.”
She bought her gaze back to Stone. “Well, no, you said I wasn’t getting my hands on your gun, but this isn’t yours, and to be honest, I think I can be forgiven for disregarding that particular instruction.”
Stone nodded but other than his sparkling eyes, his expression remained serious. “Did he hurt you?”
Frowning, she looked over at Hagar. Someone had thrown a blanket around his shoulders. “Hey. He’s still got to walk through the town square to the station.”
“I understand why you want that to happen, Ms. Collins, but I’m afraid I have to object. There are a lot of children at the festival and I’m sure you can appreciate the necessity of covering him up,” a policeman said. He wasn’t the nice office who’d spent the last few minutes following her in his car, but he seemed as though he was really sorry to ruin her punishment for Hagar, and he did have a point.
“Oh. I never thought of that.”
“Soph.” Stone had moved closer.
“What now?” she huffed in frustration. This wasn’t the way she’d planned things, and really, she just needed a drink of water.
“Give me the gun.” She stared at his outstretched hand then down at the weapon in hers.
“I wouldn’t have shot him.”
“I know.”
“I wanted to.”
“Understandable.”
“I couldn’t work out how to use it,” she whispered.
Stone leaned in. “He doesn’t know that, does he?” he whispered back.
She shook her head.
He laughed. Put his hand over hers and slipped the gun from her grip. “Come here.”
Sophie didn’t see him hand the weapon off but the next second she was wrapped in his arms and collapsing with relief and exhaustion.
Lifting her as though she weighed nothing, Stone scooped her up and walked to the car parked across the road. “C’mon. Let’s get you looked at.”
“I’m okay,” she murmured into his chest. “Just need a drink.” And sleep. She needed to sleep.