find the record function. Was that it? The microphone icon? Cara tapped it without knowing for sure whether she’d guessed right. “Is there more? Do you have another tape for me?”
“Yeah.” The single word burst from the speakers, edged with ominous roughness. The beast was straining at his chain.
The laptop screen exploded with obscene images, each erasing the other at strobe speed, a shifting kaleidoscope view of dark acts and hidden desires. Cara could not be sure that the woman she saw tied to a chair was herself or that the hooded man in leather leggings and strapped boots was Branden.
The ugly show went on for several more seconds. It was all about anger. Humiliation. Punishment. The strong against the weak. There was no pleasure in it. Just a soul-consuming, self-degrading lust that overwhelmed all else. She couldn’t watch. Cara raised her hand to slam the laptop shut when the voice spoke again.
“You can make it stop forever, Cara.” There was a fractional change in the tone. The voice was less robotic. Faintly coaxing. “Branden has to meet with me. You have to make him do it. By himself. You can’t watch what happens. Just get him there.”
She heard herself whisper. “How?”
“We will talk again. But first I want to show you that I’m real. Look out the window.”
And be shot at? No way. She went sideways off her chair to the floor and crawled under the window.
“You look sexy on all fours. I want you like that, Cara.”
Oh, God—was he watching her?
“Yes, Cara. I can see you. The camera light doesn’t have to be on for me to see you. You don’t know much about hacking, do you.”
The robot was back, droning again. But she caught a tinge of pride in his icy voice. She was in shock. He could see her. She’d read about such a thing before. The ability to hack into someone’s computer and observe them without so much as a video light to give you away. She just figured that was something the FBI did, not your everyday stalker. But she should have known that given the CGI-enhanced videos he’d produced, this guy wasn’t an average anything.
“You don’t have to answer. And I can see you’re too smart to stand up. But I want to show you something. Peek at the black building. Sideways. From where you are. Right across from your window. Do you see.”
In less than a second, a thin red line traced a shape on the shroud of netting. It was a heart. Imperfect but a heart. The laser outline burned inside her eyes before it vanished. Cara closed them.
“From me to you, Cara. I told you I wasn’t far away.”
Chapter 24
Cara fell back, collapsing onto the floor. She stayed down for a few agonizing seconds, her mind a blank, in shock, her senses numbed by fear. Her eyes stayed closed until she dragged in a raw breath and summoned up the nerve to crawl below window level toward her phone.
What if he saw her? What if he had a rifle? She would know the answers when she reached up to the table. Cara propped herself up on one forearm and fumbled near the laptop. She could see it but not the phone.
There was nothing but the smooth surface of the table. Then she had it. Cara flattened herself to the carpet, clutching the phone, expecting the zing of a bullet overhead.
There was only silence.
She breathed out a prayer of thanks, knowing good and goddamn well she wasn’t out of danger. She started to dial 911, then hesitated as she envisioned how that conversation would go.
Please state the nature of your emergency. A heart? You saw a heart out your window? And someone sent you nasty pictures? That’s all?
The cops wouldn’t rush over.
But Branden would.
All she had to do was call him.
She wanted to. Just thinking about calling him made her feel better. Safer. She knew he’d do everything in his power to protect her. But there was a madman after him. A madman that was trying to use her to get to him.
Branden has to meet with me. You have to make him do it. By himself. You can’t watch what happens. Just get him there.
No. She couldn’t tell Branden. She knew him. She knew he would meet the man. To stop this. To protect her.
And in doing so, he’d put himself in danger.
Cara knew what her stalker wanted, and it wasn’t to chat with Branden or even to extort money