Sam and the others were downstairs, and there were probably at least a dozen cops watching the house waiting for her stalker to show up.
Only he wasn't going to show up.
He had found a foolproof way to lure her, to have her come right to him.
And shehadto go to him.
What choice did she have? If she didn’t, he was going to kill her sister.
She knew what she had to do. She would grab one of her sister’s coats, pretend she was one of them, they all looked alike so she should be able to pass as Clara or Aggie from a distance. She would swipe the keys of one of their cars and drive off around the block. The cops watching Sam’s house would hopefully just think it was one of her sisters heading off on an errand.
Naomi prayed it would work.
She had to let the stalker take her if it saved Ruth’s life.
But Sam was going to be so angry with her.
Maybe she should write him a quick note, apologizing and telling him she loved him. But she stopped herself, she had vowed that she would tell him she loved him the next time she saw him. She really wanted to stick to that vow. She wanted the first time she told him that to be when they were together, she wanted tosaythe words to him, see the look on his face.
She just had to pray she made it out of this alive, so she got the chance to tell the man she loved how she felt about him.
Naomi knew she had to be quick.
Sam could come to check on her any second and realize that she was gone.
If he followed her, he would spook the stalker and her sister could wind up dead—if Ruth wasn't already. She had been alive in the picture he sent to her phone, but there was no way to know when that had been taken. Or he could have killed Ruth as soon as he’d taken the photo.
So, she hurried down the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. In the hall, she grabbed Clara’s coat, then left her phone behind. She didn’t want to die, she just needed to save her sister, and if she left her phone behind, Sam would eventually find it and he’d at least know where she had gone.
No one stopped her when she walked out of Sam’s house. Her heart hammered in her chest as she walked down the front path fighting her every instinct to run and get to the stalker as quickly as possible. If she ran, she’d look suspicious, and she didn’t want to give anyone cause to stop her. She made it to Jonathon’s car without incident and had driven off around the corner in no time.
Pulling to a stop outside the house in the address she’d been given she saw a car parked in the driveway. She jumped out and scanned the area, she couldn’t see anyone, but the house’s yard was heavily overgrown giving many places to hide.
She headed for the trunk of the car and as she rounded it, she saw a piece of paper resting on top of the closed lid. The note said the car was unlocked and she could pop the trunk and find her sister. She did just that and a moment later she was staring down into Ruth’s terrified tear-stained face.
Her sister was still alive.
“Hold on, I’ll get you out,” she assured Ruth.
Ruth’s eyes grew wide, and she mumbled something through the tape on her mouth.
Naomi knew what she was trying to say but she didn’t have time to do anything about it before something hard connected with her head.
* * * * *
12:23 P.M.
“I'm just going to go check on Naomi, see if she’s getting some sleep,” Sam announced, standing and stretching. He wasn't used to spending so much of the day just sitting around. He didn’t share Naomi’s obsessive need to always be moving, but he was also a fairly active guy, however today he had dedicated to Naomi and her family, and he’d been rewarded by seeing her relax bit by bit as they just chilled and hung out.
“How’s she been sleeping?” Clara asked.
“Last night she hardly got any,” he admitted. He was so concerned about Naomi, she was hanging in there, proving that she was even stronger than he gave her credit for, but she wasn't invincible, the pressure was getting to her.
“Did she have nightmares?” Clara asked.
“Yes.” He wanted to let Naomi’s sisters know what was going on with her, but he had promised that he would only say something about the abuse if it turned out to be pertinent to the case, so he kept his mouth shut.
“It’s been a long time since she’s had one, this case is getting to her.” Clara looked worried. “You should go back to work,” she told her fiancé.