“I don’t know his name,” he said as he threw back the covers. “But Grace was raped at a party two months before she was taken. She was drugged and assaulted by someone she knew, but was ashamed, thought no one would believe her, so she didn't say anything. By the time she realized she wanted to, she tried calling Jeremiah, but he was on a case, and she just left a message for him to call her. Then she called a sexual assault helpline and spoke to someone. The only people who know what happened to her are me and whoever she spoke to that day. That’s the connection, it has to be. We need to talk with the families of the other victims, see if any of them were sexually assaulted. And we need to get a list of everyone who works at the helpline because one of them is Emmanuel.”
* * * * *
3:58 P.M.
Her head was fuzzy.
That horrible kind of cottony feeling that came with being drugged.
Grace moaned as memories poured into her mind too fast, making her head throb to a painful beat, in time with her pulse that felt like it was thumping far too fast.
She remembered everything, the shooting, the car crash, Emmanuel shooting Barbara Lack, and allowing herself to be taken.
After that, her memories ceased. She knew that Emmanuel had hit her over the head to knock her out, but he must have also given her something to make sure she stayed asleep until he had her where he wanted her.
Which he now did.
Once again, she was his helpless victim.
Anger coursed through her, setting her alight, shoving away the lingering fuzziness from the sedatives, and making her burn with a fury she hadn't felt before. Of course, she had been angry when Emmanuel had abducted her the first time, but she had been much younger then, a lot more naïve, and she hadn't had as much to live for as she did today.
Today she hadeverythingto live for.
Matthew.
The man had saved her life when he and his partner stumbled by accident on Emmanuel’s house of horrors, but he had also saved her soul. She honestly wasn’t sure if she would be anything but a sobbing, hysterical basket case if it wasn’t for him. Her family meant everything to her, but they didn't understand what it was like to take a life when it wasn’t something you had to do as part of your job. That simple understanding from Matthew because of what he’d gone through with his stepfather had opened up her heart to him. He’d given her a gift he hadn't even realized when he’d trusted her with his pain, and in doing so had earned her trust.
Now Emmanuel might have killed the man she was falling in love with, and she wanted to kill him for it.
Fear left her.
What good was being afraid of dying when she was just as afraid to live without Matthew in her life?
Now she’d rather stand tall and fight to the death, even if killing Emmanuel meant she would die too.
No more fear.
Anger.
She needed to hold onto her anger, cling to it if she had to, so she could do what needed to be done.
“I know you're awake, my angel.” Emmanuel’s voice was accompanied by the touch of his hand gliding down her back.
Her bare back.
He’d stripped her clothes off.
Grace wasn’t quite sure why she was surprised, it was a typical Emmanuel move. He knew how to make her feel her most vulnerable and he delighted in doing it. Those first few months she had spent with him he’d kept her naked almost constantly. He’d wanted to manipulate her, beat her down so she had no choice but to comply with his orders if she wanted to survive. Eventually, she had learned that doing as he demanded was easier than fighting against him, and once she realized that, her life had been easier. Clothes, nicer food, hot water, more choices for things to do to pass away the long and lonely hours she spent locked in her room.
“Everything is going to be okay, we’re together again now,” he said as his hand moved to stroke her hair.
Forcing herself not to give in to the sick feeling in her stomach from his touch, she tried to take in as much as she could of her surroundings. She was on her stomach on something soft, likely a bed. When she tried to move, she found that all of her limbs were tied down.
She knew what that meant.
Emmanuel was ready to punish her.
Still, she wasn’t going to complain. All she had to do was stay alive. There was no way that her family wasn’t going to go all out to find her. This time they knew that Emmanuel was obsessed with her. Surely, they would figure out that she knew who he was. If Matthew was alive then maybe he’d tell them about her rape, and if he did, they’d have to figure out the link, surely.