REprisal - Kathy Coopmans Page 0,7
absolutely nothing to me.
“What do you think you were going to gain today? Do you think he’s going to betray me? Help you escape, maybe?”
I shake my head ‘no’ as best I can with her gripping my throat.
“No!” she screams.
Spit flies in my face as her eyes bulge out of her head. Jesus Christ, she is warped out of her damn mind!
“You fuck with me one more time, just one more fucking time, and I will take Journey away from you. You’re damn lucky I haven’t taken her yet. The only reason I haven’t is because I don’t have the time to take care of the little brat. But so help me God, I will take her away from you and fucking kill you if you ever, and I mean, EVER speak to Trent again. Do you understand me?”
I simply nod. At that, she releases her grip on my throat. My hands fly up to my chest, which heaves in and out rapidly gulping air. While I am still trying to catch my breath, she wrenches the bedroom door open and shoves me inside, slamming it shut and locking it behind me.
I stumble badly but catch myself before I fall to the floor, a grin spreading across my face. I may be losing my ever-loving mind, but it felt so damn good to set off her inner alarm. To make her jealous over Trent. In the space of one day, my plan has been set in place. Now all I have to do is find out exactly where we are, and get Journey and I the hell out of here.
“Life is dreadfully unfair, isn’t it, Mother?” I say to the thin air as I wipe the last bit of blood off of my face.
“One of us is about to leave this little party, Tina, and I’ll bet you that twenty million dollars you will never see that it sure as shit won’t be me.”
Chapter Three
Zack
“Son of a bitch.” I rest my elbows on my desk, my head in my hands. “Where are you, Clove?”
Glancing up at the bulletin board in my office, I scan over every picture I have of my sister from the day she was born until the day she was kidnapped by that sick fucker. I’ve covered every base trying to find her. It’s not the cop in me that knows she’s alive; it’s the brother in me.
It’s been over a year since I last heard from her. The minute I knew she was gone, the department had an APB out on her and Trent Calloway quicker than flies on shit. Nothing, nada, not a trace of her since we walked into that house where I found my brother-in-law and James motherfucking Calloway both lying in pools of blood. We haven’t missed a thing, not a goddamn thing, and yet here I sit going over every piece of information – from blood samples, to tire tracks, and everything in between – over and over for more than a year making sure we haven’t missed a clue.
I have these weird epiphanies, flashes of her screaming, crying out for help. Every damn day when I climb out of bed, another piece of my heart has been chipped away not knowing where she is.
Whatever I am missing is staring me right in the face. It’s here on this board, goddamn it, or in this pile of files on my desk. Why in the hell can’t I see it?
Trent’s not smart enough to do this on his own; that much I have figured out. His dad wasn’t, either. Every stick has two ends; Trent and his dad are on one end, and someone else is on the other. But who? Who in the hell would want to do this?
“That’s the twenty million dollar question, isn’t it?”
Snapping my head away from the pictures, my attention focuses on the familiar voice of my partner Martinez, who has spent just as much time on this case as I have. He blames himself for my sister’s disappearance almost much as I do.
“Shit, I’m talking out loud again. I swear to God I’m losing it, man.”
“You look like a walking corpse, dude.”
“Thanks, motherfucker. Tell me something I don’t already know.” He pays no attention as he strides in, sitting opposite of me at my desk.
“You’ve been here for hours again haven’t you?”
I don’t bother to reply since he already knows I have. I simply shake my head in frustration.
“There has to be someone else in on