Gone (Deadly Secrets #2)(37)
“You are a fool for still being so in love with the ass,” she muttered to herself as she tugged on her coat.
And she was. A giant fool, because he’d made it more than clear over the last few days that he was no longer in love with her.
She didn’t bother buttoning her coat as she stepped out of the pub. Cool air whipped across her neck and down her spine, but she didn’t care. It gave her something else to focus on besides how clueless she was.
The sidewalks had cleared out, and darkness pressed in. Moving around a homeless guy standing in a doorway, she rounded the corner and headed for the deli. She hated this side street because the overhead light had gone out last fall and the city had yet to replace it, but it was faster than taking a different route.
Footsteps sounded behind her, and a chill slid down her back. Picking up her pace, she shoved her hands into her pocket and closed them around her key ring, just in case, wanting only to get her dinner and get home so she could forget about this miserable day. Just as she reached the edge of the alley, something slammed into her from the back, sending her stumbling forward. She yelped, and her keys and cell phone went flying. Before she could cry out, a hand slapped over her mouth, and she was jerked sideways into the darkness.
She struggled against the arm at her waist and the hand over her mouth. Tried to scream but couldn’t make more than a muffled sound as she was dragged deeper into the alley. The scents of filth and cigarette smoke filled her nostrils. The person who’d grabbed her pulled her past a Dumpster and hurled her to the side.
Her body hit the cement wall of the building with a crack, and pain spiraled all across her cheek as she ricocheted off the wall and stumbled to the ground. Groaning, she tried to get up, but something hard—a knee, she realized—pressed into her spine, keeping her pinned to the ground.
“You don’t listen very well, do you, anchor girl?”
Fear consumed Raegan, and her blood turned to ice when she realized she was trapped. She opened her mouth to cry out for help, but the pressure in her back intensified, spiraling pain all through her lower half.
“Well, you’re gonna listen now, bitch. Stop looking into things that are only going to get people killed.”
Tears burned Raegan’s eyes, and she tried to twist her head against the asphalt to see her attacker, but he pressed a hand to the side of her head, holding her still.
“So fucking pretty,” he said in an almost singsongy voice as he fingered her hair. “Yeah, you’ll listen this time, won’t you?” He stroked a finger down the side of her neck. One that sent a new terror straight down her spine. “’Cause if you don’t, I promise this’ll only be a taste of what I can do.”
Alec pulled up to the checkin station at the gate of the Santiam Correctional Institution and rolled down his window. Rain blew into his cab as the guard moved out of the small building, carrying a clipboard.
“Visiting hours are almost over, sir.”
“I know,” Alec said. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”
The guard frowned and looked down at his clipboard. “Inmate name?”
“John Gilbert.”
The guard scanned his paper, flipped it to the next page, then the following. Rain blew into Alec’s cab as he waited, sending a chill across his skin that did little to cool his blood.
“I’m not seeing that name on the list. Hold on.” The guard moved back into the small building and lifted a phone. Through the window, Alec watched as the man called up to the facility, a whisper of foreboding tingling along his spine.
The guard hung up and moved back to Alec’s window. “John Gilbert was released yesterday morning.”
A mixture of disbelief and dread churned through Alec’s gut. “He wasn’t supposed to be released until the end of the week.”
The guard shrugged. “Looks like he was let go early.”
Dread turned to fear, then to horror. Alec shoved the truck into reverse, whipped around, and peeled out of the gravel drive.
Because only one thought circled in his head.
The note on Raegan’s car yesterday hadn’t come from any of Gilbert’s buddies. It had come from Gilbert himself. He’d followed Alec to that coffee shop, had seen Alec and Raegan together, and had changed his plans to go after her instead of him, just as he’d promised Alec he would when they’d met. And if he’d tailed Raegan home after that, he could be watching her right now. He could be hiding outside her door. He could be waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Alec knew the fucker would do it too. He’d do it the minute Alec was gone and she was alone. Just as she was right this minute.
Every inch of Raegan’s body hurt as she climbed out of Anna Chapman’s Civic and looked back through the window at the twenty-three-year-old girl who’d been interning at KTVP for the last two months. “Thanks for picking me up from the police station and bringing me home. Sorry to bother you after hours.”
Anna tipped her head from the driver’s seat. “It’s no bother, Raegan. I’m just sorry you got mugged like that. I always think Portland’s so safe. I’m definitely not telling my mom about this. She’d want me to move home to Klamath Falls right away.”
Raegan tried for a smile, but her cheek hurt too much from being shoved into the asphalt to do more than scowl. “I appreciate it just the same. I would have called Jeremy, but—”