Final Touch by Brandilyn Collins Read Free Book Online

Gary’s arms. “Brittany’s right. We needed to hear from them first. Well, we’ve heard.”
    Gary nodded. “We should schedule a press conference in the morning. Make a public plea for the return of our daughter. And beg every person out there to be on the lookout for her. Someone’s bound to see them.”
    Brittany glanced at Agent Scarrow, who was still talking on the phone. Sunday morning seemed eons away. It was only midnight now. She would not sleep. She could barely breathe.
    “Right. Thanks.” The agent clicked off the line and turned to Rayne and Gary. “The call came from a pay phone at a gas station just across the Nevada border.”
    Rayne’s jaw slackened. “Nevada?”
    Brittany stared at him. Where could the kidnapper be taking Shaley? Why?
    “Our office is calling in local law enforcement right now,” Agent Scarrow continued. “They’ll take fingerprints from the phone, see ifthey match any lifted from the van. They’ll also question employees at the station. If the place has working security cameras, the police can look at the tape.” He rubbed his hands together, energy bristling from him. “This is good. Gives us something to work with. And most importantly, we know Shaley’s alive.”

13
    F or the millionth time, I checked the clock on the Explorer dashboard. Just past midnight. Not long after the gas station, we’d left the freeway to take smaller back roads. For all I knew, we were going in circles. It was clear my captor took those little highways to avoid being spotted on major roads. Finally we’d been forced to hit the freeway again.
    Every minute seemed an eternity. Like time had stopped. My real life had stopped. My body felt numb. In my mind I tried to stay strong. Tried to figure out…something.
    I sat in the front passenger seat, not because I wanted to be anywhere near Monster Man, but because he told me to. He wanted me near him for company. I was supposed to help keep him awake so we wouldn’t crash. But I wasn’t allowed to turn my head and look at him.
    What did I care if we crashed? I’d rather die than live in some wilderness Montana cabin with this man. But I clung to one thought: I had to get back to Mom and Dad. And Brittany, and the band. I had to win my life back.
    We’d driven through the bottom tip of Nevada and into Arizona. We must have just hit a corner of Arizona, because not too much later I saw the state sign for Utah.
    Utah. Three states away from home.
    My feet were cold. I needed shoes. I rubbed one foot on top of the other. The rest of my body still ached and would hurt for days. I wasn’t in any shape to make a run for it if we stopped. Not at all. It wasn’t my strength that would get me out of this. It was my brain. Ihad to outwit Monster Man. And I had to fight back the panic that clawed at my throat every other minute.
    I focused out my window. The freeway looked desolate, few cars besides ours. Even so, my kidnapper didn’t drive over the speed limit. Wouldn’t do to be pulled over by a cop.
    “You’re supposed to be talking to me.” He hunched over the wheel, frowning at the road. Tiredness pulled at his mouth, his eyes. But a steely, dogged determination wafted from him, as if he were on a mission. As if he were right to kidnap me.
    I’m going to teach you spiritual truth, he’d said. The words chilled me. This man was deluded.
    How do you rationalize with someone who’s insane?
    “Talk!” he snapped.
    I jumped. My gaze shifted to his ugly profile. Would he hit me for looking at him?
    Strength, Shaley. Play along. Learn things you can use against him.
    I folded my arms and shivered. “So what’s your name?” My voice sounded dull, hopeless.
    “Joshua.”
    Joshua. A biblical name. Was it his real one?
    “Where are we going in Montana?”
    “To the cabin I built for us.”
    “But where in Montana? That’s a big state.”
    “Up near the Canadian border.”
    Ice flowed through my veins. What if he took me into Canada? How