Sweet Jayne (3 page)

“No! Stop!” I scream as I scramble to my knees when he passes by me. “Let her go.”

He grunts in exertion at her struggling but has the ability to meet my stare. The eyes behind the mask are wild and crazed. I’m trying to get a better look at the man when he raises his knee in the air. The bottom of his gigantic boot slams into my cheek with the force of a hurricane. Blackness explodes in front of me, blinding me from the man who is forcefully kidnapping my friend, and I fall back into the grass, slamming my head against the ground.

As I try to regain my wits, I hear a car door slam once as he shoves her into the vehicle. Another slam sounds after he climbs back in. The SUV screeches into drive and hauls ass down the road. A wave of dizziness washes over me but I quickly roll to my side to try and read the license plate.

Too blurry.

Too far away.

Another blanket of darkness clouds my vision and I black out.

I’m not sure if it’s minutes or hours later when I hear Donovan’s concerned voice and I slowly regain consciousness.

“Nadia, baby,” he murmurs as he cradles my head in his hand. “What happened?”

My eyes are fixated on the road where Kasey’s half-smoked cigarette rolls around in the wind, the cherry still red on the end. When I don’t respond, he slides his arms beneath me and pulls me into them against his chest. Normally, I hate Donovan but right now, I need him.

I need him to hold me like Papá would have.

To tell me everything’s going to be okay.

For him to assure me that Kasey and the man who took her were all just a silly figment of my teenage imagination.

“Selene!” Donovan hollers to Mamá. “Call 911! I think Nadia was assaulted. Her nose is bleeding and she’s disoriented.”

His dark eyebrows are pinched together in genuine concern and it comforts me.

“Kasey,” I murmur and blink slowly. A massive migraine is wrapping its evil claws around my skull and crushing in on me. “He took Kasey.”

His eyes widen and he darts his gaze back down the street as if to see the vehicle that’s now long gone. When he turns to look back down at me, he presses a chaste kiss to my forehead and then pins me with a searing stare. “Shhh. We’ll tell the police. But you’re safe now, Nadia. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you.” He then curses, “Jesus Christ, it could have been you instead.”

I want to feel comforted that it wasn’t me but I don’t. All I can think about is her terrified expression. The fact that someone took her. How, if the police aren’t able to find her and soon, she’ll never get to hold the babies at the day care like she dreamed about.

Someone could abuse her. Rape her even.

And what’s worse, they may kill her.

Kasey was right.

She has no future.

Donovan carries me up the steps of our house where moments earlier he was acting like a pervert and fondling my ass. It seems so miniscule in comparison to what Kasey is now facing—being taken by some twisted predator. While I was annoyed and creeped out over my stepdad, she’s probably scared out of her fucking mind in the clutches of a lunatic. I really am just a spoiled brat. A girl who doesn’t know how good she really has it.

“Please help me find her,” I beg him with tears in my eyes.

He stares at me for a long minute, a frown tarnishing his otherwise handsome face. When he eventually snaps out of whatever thought held him, he nods. “I’ll do what I can, baby. I swear to fucking God, I will do everything in my power to find her.” The intensity in his vow to find a random girl who is a stranger to him shocks me. A newfound respect for him begins taking root deep inside me.

In this moment, I realize Donovan might not be so bad. The glimmer of the man he’d shown me earlier is making a reappearance. I see the promise in his penetrating gaze—a promise to make me happy. To indulge his little girl.

And if sucking up to Donovan is what it takes to find Kasey, then that’s what I’ll do.

I have to save her.

I swear to God, I’ll find and save her somehow.

She’ll have her future.

Her happy ending.

I’ll make sure of it.

Nearly ten years later…

H
ate.

A four letter word that has consumed nine years of my life.

Nine fucking years.

It’s dictated my every thought, my every action, and my every move. I’ve faded into a ghost of the person I was before and gladly taken on a new image. A new persona.

I’ve become a nightmare.

Sure, you could call me one of the good guys. But I know better. Despite my career choices and the way I carry myself for all to see, I’m something dark and bitter beneath the surface. Beneath the lopsided grins and cocky exterior, I’m a hell storm of fury and rage.

My fire burns for one person.

So bright and brilliant—exceedingly hot.

I crave to decimate everything in her path, including her.

I’ve made it my life’s mission to destroy hers. I don’t want to kill her. Nah, that’d be too fucking easy for the bitch. Instead, I want to take every single thing she cares about and ruin it. I want her to watch as I rip and tear her entire life to shreds, only to then stomp what’s left into the dirt.

She needs to pay for being a stupid, useless cunt.

“You still coming by on Saturday for the game?” Rhodes questions from the doorway of my office. “Ashley was pissed she made pigs in a blanket just for you, only for you to not show up last weekend. You know how emotional her pregnant ass gets, Ghost.”

I smirk at him and shrug my shoulders. Jason Rhodes and I go way back. All the way to our high school years. He’s one of the few guys at the station I actually like and don’t mind hanging out with. “I don’t know, man. You know how it gets this time of year. Everyone wants shit built so they can enjoy it for spring. I’ve already done two decks and a gazebo and we’re only two weeks into November. If I’m free, I’ll stop by.”

He shakes his head. “You work too much. What, being lieutenant and Chief’s bitch isn’t enough? You just have to spend all your free time building shit too?” His radio beeps and he responds that he’s en route. Before he turns to leave, he flashes me a mischievous grin. “Ash said Cassidy will be there. She’s been wanting to get back on your cold dick since you porked her at my thirtieth birthday party last month.”

“Blow me, Detective,” I grunt, grabbing my dick. “Don’t you have better shit to do than worry about my sex life?”

He chuckles and saunters down the hallway leading away from my office and calls over his shoulder, “Just think about it. Blow-jobs, lil’ smokies, and a lot of beer. What better way to spend a Saturday night?”

When he’s gone, the smile falls from my lips and I flip the file closed I’d been working on. I pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes. Just like always, my mind flits to her.

The bitch.

The one responsible for my sister.

Gut-churning hatred filled my insides.

With a huff, I open my eyes and start slamming files into my drawers. My shift ended a half hour ago and I’m tired as hell. I just want to go home, do a little research, and pass the fuck out.

Once my desk is cleared, I pull my drawer key from my pocket and open it. Inside is one single file. A file that I’ve obsessed over ever since I joined the Aspen Police Department five years ago. At the time, I thought it held answers to the questions that plagued me. I assumed I’d unravel the mysteries nobody else had been able to.

Instead, I found
her
statement.

I found
her
pictures.

I found
her
high-dollar lawyer’s business card and
her
stepfather’s information. Fucking Donovan Jayne of all people.

But nowhere did I find any clues about the prick who took Kasey. The stupid bitch simply watched while some sick fuck stole my sister and did nothing. Absolutely nothing. She watched as he—
the man who was dressed all in black wearing a mask
—shoved Kasey into his black SUV—
no make or model
—and drove away.

“I don’t remember.”

“I don’t know.”

Those two phrases were used more times than I could count in her report. But that’s a lie because I did count. In fact, I highlighted every single time she
didn’t remember
. All twenty-six times. And all eighteen times she
didn’t know
.

The rich bitch went on to have a fucking fabulous life.

Meanwhile, my little sister was probably dismembered and at the bottom of some fucking lake right now.

With a roar, I slam my fist on my desk, causing my cold cup of coffee to slosh and splatter onto the file. I flip to the back and run my fingers over the last date recorded. The last time I had eyes on the dumb bitch. She’d gone to college for a few years in LA. Then, she’d come back to Colorado to work at the Aspen Pines Lodge at the top of the mountain with Donovan. I thought it would be my chance. That I could finally seize the opportunity to make her life a living hell. I’d even put plans in motion to make that happen.

But then she fucking vanished.

For three goddamned years.

And I’ve been trying to locate her ever since.

My phone buzzes and I see a text from my mother which causes the stale coffee in my stomach to sour.

Mom: I miss you. Come see us at The Joint.

Rolling my eyes, I ignore her text and shove the file back into my desk. Once it’s locked up, I shoot her a reply.

Me: Maybe. Is asshole there?

I stand from my desk and stretch before swiping my keys from the corner. I’m not in the mood to see Dale today but I know Mom will just harass the fuck out of me until I come visit, so I decide to drop by for a few minutes to get it out of the way, on my way home from work. Before I leave my office, I do a cursory sweep to make sure nothing is out of place. Rhodes makes fun of me, says I’m a sociopath or some shit, but I pay him no attention. It’s that observant nature that makes me a good detective and what got me promoted to lieutenant at the early age of twenty-nine last year. My attention to detail is a trait of mine that has served me well in this life. I’d like to teach that bitch a lesson or two about paying fucking attention to important details.