“I'm not leaving your side until this stalker is behind bars,” Jonathon said firmly. “And besides, this could be construed as work, you are a target of this killer, I'm making sure he doesn’t get to you.”
Sam chuckled. “Nicely played,” he told Jonathon. “Why don’t you guys start on lunch, if Naomi is awake then she should really eat.”
His heart felt surprisingly light as he headed to his bedroom. Sure, he wouldn’t be able to completely relax until this situation was resolved but knowing that there was a beautiful woman asleep in his bed,hisbeautiful woman asleep in his bed, was something he would never get tired of thinking about.
As he reached the top of the stairs, he noticed his bedroom door was open. He’d left it closed. That was the beginning of the bad feeling brewing in his stomach. Was Naomi up? If she was, why hadn’t she come and joined them in the living room?
He quickened his stride as he headed for his room, where he was greeted with his worst nightmare. An empty bed.
“Naomi?” he hurried to his ensuite, but it too was empty.
“Naomi?” he called again as he started checking the spare bedrooms. All of which were mockingly empty.
“Naomi?” he called once more as he took the stairs three at a time. When he’d woken last night to find her gone, she had been in his backyard, maybe she was out there again. “Is Naomi down here?” he demanded as he entered the living room.
“No. Why?” Nick sensed something was off and jumped to his feet.
“She’s not upstairs.”
“Is she gone?” Aggie stood too and clutched at Nick’s hand.
“I hope not,” he fumed. Surely she wouldn’t go off anywhere without telling him first.
“Maybe she’s outside,” Clara suggested. “You know how she loves fresh air when she feels stressed out.”
Sam was already heading for the back door. “That’s what I'm hoping. Nick, can you check the rest of the house?”
As he entered the kitchen, he half expected to see Naomi standing in his yard, the wind tousling her blonde hair, just as she’d been last night. But his yard was empty.
“Sam.”
Panic began to take hold when Nick called his name. Naomi was gone. He knew she was. How was he going to find her?
“What?” he demanded, following the sound of Nick’s voice to the front hall.
“Naomi’s phone,” Nick replied somberly, holding it out.
He didn’t want to take it. He didn’t want to believe that Naomi was gone. And yet his hand reached for it anyway. On the screen was a picture of Naomi’s sister Ruth tied up and in the trunk of a car. The attached message told Naomi to come alone. It also gave an address.
Sam didn’t remember running out of his house.
The next thing he knew he was running down the street. The address Naomi’s stalker had given her was only around the corner. If he could get there quickly enough, maybe he could stop her from being taken.
Footsteps followed him and he presumed Nick had joined him.
Rounding the corner, he saw a car screech out of a driveway just a couple of houses away.
“Naomi,” he screamed her name as he reached for his gun, knowing instinctively that it was the stalker’s getaway car.
The car tore off down the street, and Sam ran after it, he knew he couldn’t catch it, but he couldn’t seem to stop his legs from moving. He wanted to fire his gun at the car, but it was already too far away.
How could he have been this close and still lost her? If he had gone to check on her just a couple of minutes earlier, he would have arrived in time to stop the stalker from taking her.
Minutes.
He was going to lose the woman he loved over just a couple of minutes.
His life was destroyed by mere minutes.