Shelby's Secret (Once a Marine, Always a Marine Book 4) (22 page)

They all looked at the map spread out before them.

Damon came up to the table. “The license plate was stolen from a used car lot, five blocks from the stadium. I’m guessing the car is as well. That’s a dead end.”

Mike nodded. He figured it might be, but he was covering every base they had. “Thanks for checking.”

Daniel was talking and circling areas on the map. “Okay, great. Got it. Thanks, Lance.” He hung up and pointed. “Three abandoned warehouses are near the tracks and one is next to the train yard.”

“That one,” Mike said. “The one next to the train yard. That’s the one.” If this guy liked trains then just being next to the tracks might not be enough, he’d want to be in a place where he could look at the trains any time he wanted.

No one questioned him. No orders were given. No doubts expressed.

They functioned together with a single goal.

Find Shelby.

What happened with Larry Ashbrooke when they found him, no one voiced aloud. But there was a good chance he would never see the inside of a jail cell.

Chapter 18

Shelby had never considered herself one of those pathetic shrinking-violet types that faint at the first sign of trouble. But that was before she’d been kidnapped by a deranged lunatic who spent his time cutting up women.

Upon waking, she could only conclude her mind had shied so violently from a killer’s touch that it had just simply shut down. The last thing she remembered was the man undressing and touching her. She flinched at the memory.

Then she realized something. Her body had moved. She’d felt that flinch.

As slowly as she could, she opened her eyes. Her head was down, and she found she was looking at her chest.
And oh Thank God
, she thought to herself. She’d been redressed in one of her concert dresses. Flame red, the gown was covered with thousands of sparkly sequins. She wasn’t naked, and that seemed like a huge victory in that moment.

Shelby became aware of everything at once. Her mind was clear of whatever drug had been used, leaving her with a throbbing head and a touchy stomach. Her hands were tied on either side of her body. The rope cut into her skin. Her feet were tied together, but didn’t seem to be anchored to anything. She thought she was in a chair, but didn’t want to lift her head just yet to check.

And she didn’t feel—used. Not that she was foolish enough to think that wasn’t on the agenda at some point. Shelby just hoped Mike found her before that.

Before something worse happened.

She could hear humming in the distance, to her right. Turning her face very slightly, she saw someone lighting candles. Hundreds of them. The place was alight in the glow of so many burning wicks. Her head still throbbed, so she lifted it from where her chin rested on her chest, to ease the ache.

“I was wondering when you’d wake up. I was worried I gave you too much of the cocktail,” he said.

“What did you give me?” she asked, turning to get her first look at him. And fought off the surprise. “Robert? I mean, Bobby?”

He chuckled. And it was such a sinister sound to come from such a young man. He was all of nineteen, but Shelby had seen him working with and around the crew. More recently, he’d been learning how to deal with the lighting.

“Oh come on, Shelby Lynn, don’t play dumb. You knew those videos were from me.”

She didn’t know what to say or do. Somehow, shouting a denial and pissing him off didn’t seem reasonable, but acting out a role in his fantasy didn’t seem wise either. So she tried to play it safe. “Where are we?”

She looked around slowly, taking in the large space. Windows were placed up high, letting her know the sky was still dark. Small piles of crumbling drywall lay here and there, and the place had a smell she couldn’t quite place, but the odor made the hair on her arms stand up. Shelby tried not to gag at the smell of blood.

Not hers.

Bobby looked around as well, following her glances. Candles were lit on shelves, on the floor, and any other surface he could find. “This is my playhouse.”

Bile rose in her throat. “What do you want from me, Bobby?”

He stood in front of her, dressed in a long sleeve black shirt and matching pants. His hair was brushed back off his forehead. He smiled down at her.

The slap was unexpected and rocked her head to the side before the sting hit. The strike was on the good cheek, but the force made the bruised side burn as well.

“My name is Larry. Say it.”
 

His voice was deeper than it had been. Odd. “L-Larry,” she stammered as her eyes watered. “Why did you hit me?”

“I didn’t,” he said. Then he shrugged. “Charles did.”

Shelby was in more trouble than she thought. The man calling himself Larry was alone with her in the room. “Who is Charles?”

“He’s my cousin,” he answered. Then he went over to a set of cages sitting on top of a table. “These are Romeo and Juliet.”

Inside the cage were two furry little creatures. They looked like fat squirrels with runty little tails. Shelby had never seen chinchillas in person, but she knew that’s what they were.

“Fitting don’t you think?”

“What’s fitting?”

He cocked his head and sort of hissed out, “
She knows. She’s taunting you
.”

Shelby’s eyes widened as the man slapped himself on the head.

“No, she doesn’t. She’s not like the others.”

Bobby, Larry—whatever his name was—spoke in two distinctly different voices. As if he was actually talking to someone else in the room. He didn’t even seem aware of hitting himself in the head. Larry’s voice was younger-sounding and matched his looks. The other voice was the stuff of nightmares.

“Larry?” She hated to draw his attention back to her, but it seemed wise to keep him talking.

He moved closer.

“I’ve always liked those names, but I’ve never seen that kind of animal before. What is it?” If she played dumb and kept asking him questions, then maybe Larry would stay with her and the other guy wouldn’t reappear.

“They’re chinchillas. Charles got them from a girl, but he didn’t really like them so I took them. He used to tell me about them when I was in that place, and he said I could have them. They like me better. I can tell.”

“I bet they do,” she said. “Where is Charles now?”

“Listening,” Larry whispered. “He’s always butting in.”
 

He looked around as if he expected Charles to show up around the corner or from out of a different room. His action made her glance around the space.

“I call him the Shadow Man.”

“That sounds scary,” she whispered back.

Larry nodded. “He can be, and he makes me do things. . .” He trailed off and looked back over his shoulder. “But I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about us.”

Shelby took a deep breath and forced a smile onto her face. “Okay.”

Larry smiled back and reached out.
 

Shelby flinched. The movement was reflexive but she knew instantly that she’d made a terrible mistake.
 

His hands fisted and the smile twisted into something ugly. Even the sheen of his eyes flattened out. “
Bitch
,” he hissed in the deeper voice. He had his hand in her hair, pulling it viciously and forcing her head close to his. “
Don’t ever do that again. I’ll touch you when and where I like. Got it
?”

Tears pooled from the pain, but she didn’t let them fall. She tried to nod, but his fist only tightened in her hair. “Yes, I understand.”

“
I had to teach your friend how to act too
,” he said.

The pain was momentarily forgotten as he loosened his grip. Shelby stared upward. “What did you do with Abby?”

“
Who the fuck cares? Forget about her
,” he said. To emphasize his point, he punched her in the stomach.

The air whooshed out in a rush and would have doubled her over if she hadn’t been tied to the chair. This time, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling or the cry of pain from escaping. No one had ever hit her before—not in the face, not anywhere. The pain blended with the humiliation of just taking it and being helpless to do anything. It scared her that he could beat her to death and she would just have to take it. Dear God, was this what Abby had gone through? Shelby was sick down to her soul thinking about her friend.

“Stop it, stop it, stop it,” Larry said, his voice high and whiny—punctuated by a slap-slap-slap to his head. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her.”

“I just want to know what happened to Abby,” Shelby wheezed. “Can you tell me, Larry? Please?”

Larry squatted down and pulled a snowy white handkerchief from his back pocket. He gently patted her face, removing tears and black smudges. She was confused for a moment but then realized that he must have applied make-up when he dressed her. She was glad she’d been unconscious at the time.

“He doesn’t like me to tell secrets,” he said. “But he knows how I feel about you, so maybe he won’t mind.”

“I promise not to tell him,” Shelby said, making it sound like a co-conspiracy. The searing pain in her abdomen had lessened so she could talk without huffing out the words, but she was a bit worried about one of her ribs. It had taken the brunt of the punch, and didn’t feel quite right.

“He hit her. Over and over again, and then she stopped breathing,” he said. “I didn’t want him to kill her, but then he gave her to me, and I took her to my playhouse.”

Shelby held in the cry. Deep down inside, she’d known Abby was dead, but she’d held onto stubborn hope that her friend wasn’t. Not just because she loved Abby, but because of Rebecca. Their precious girl didn’t deserve to grow up without her mother.

He touched her arm.

Shelby was feeling so low that she didn’t even notice at first.

“She was special to you, so I made sure to bury her in that special place.”

Shelby nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered, even though she wanted to scream or claw his face. But she didn’t want his “Charles” personality to return. This young man in front of her was crazy—off his rocker, split personality, murderously insane, and anything she could do to keep him from killing her was a win. “Tell me about your videos. The ones you sent to me.” She tried to smile again, but was afraid it came out more of a grimace than anything else.

He didn’t seem to notice. “Did you really like them?” he asked. “Now you know why you can’t quit singing. You have so many songs about us, and I want to hear more. Forever. Just you and me.”

He stood again and pulled another chair over from somewhere behind her. Once he was seated in front of her, he leaned forward and caressed her face.

She was expecting his touch this time and held perfectly still. “I was only quitting because of—” she cut off. Shelby could have bitten her tongue off as nausea churned in her gut. Drawing his attention to her little girl wasn’t something she’d meant to do.

“Rebecca,” he finished for her. “I tried to bring her here for you, but I couldn’t find her. She’s so pretty, just like you. I wanted you both, but Charles wouldn’t let me stay and find her.”

The staggering relief she felt at his words would have driven her to her knees if she hadn’t already been sitting. Thank God. No matter what happened to her, Rebecca was safe.

“Those videos were really good, Larry. Tell me how you did them,” Shelby implored. She’d done so many interviews and shows during her time as a star that she could put enthusiasm into her voice easily, even when it was something distasteful.

Nothing she said mattered. She was just stalling for more time. More life.

***

“This is the place,” Daniel said, checking out the map.

Mike looked around. The site seemed right. The train yard was next door, and this was the only empty warehouse that fit the M.O., but something was off. He wasn’t sure what, but his gut was telling him this place was empty and had been for some time. He hoped he was wrong.

They’d arrived in two separate vehicles. Zach and Jesse were on the north side of the building, and Mike, Daniel, and Damon were on the south side. They had state-of-the-art communication and enough weapons to take out Osama Bin Laden again. What Mike wished they had more than anything was a magic eight ball that could tell him for sure he wasn’t wasting time. He didn’t know what kind of time Shelby had, but whatever she was enduring until he got to her was unthinkable. “Spread out. I don’t see the car, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t the place,” Mike said softly.

“You don’t sound sure,” Zach stated. The sound was a whisper in Mike’s ear, because Zach was somewhere on the other side of the warehouse.

“Doesn’t feel right,” Mike answered.

“Then let’s get in and out fast, and on to the next place,” Jesse said.

With that, they fell quiet. They all knew the same hand signals and thought the same way about approaching the building, so it was easy enough to fan out and take up their positions. Mike was going in first through the front, with Zach took the rear door.

Daniel had bolt cutters to snip the locks on the front, and he did it quietly. The door itself was a problem, but Damon took care of that with a can of spray lubricant. They had it open as quietly as they could manage and were inside in a matter of moments.