“Kyle, it’s bad. There are more pictures here. Of the two of you. His walls are covered with pictures of her and there are stacks of letters everywhere that he’d written to her but never sent. His obsession with her has grown.”

Kyle hung up, shaking with rage, terror burning the backs of his eyes. He looked at Matt who was there with him. “If that bastard hurts her in any way, I’ll kill him.”

“I’ll help you. But she’s going to be all right.” Matt said, hoping he wasn’t lying.

Maggie woke up in a strange room, disoriented. Her head hurt like hell. Blinking to try and clear her vision so she could figure out where she was, she quailed when Alex came into her line of sight. Suddenly, memory of what happened earlier rushed back, filling her with terror.

“Alex, please, let me go. This is crazy. Let me go and I won’t call the cops, I promise.” She desperately tried to recall the advice from the self defense course she’d taken the year before.

He laughed and kissed her forehead and she tried not so show her revulsion. “Oh sweetheart, I’m not letting you go. You’re mine, silly. I’m sorry I had to hit you. Is your head all right?” Maggie tried not to panic as she listened to him. His voice was so odd, dreamy and high pitched. It frightened her, filled her with dread. He was obviously insane.

“What do you think, Alex? Can you untie my hands at least? My shoulders really hurt and this angle is making my back twist.”

“No, I can’t risk it. But I’ll help you sit up and get you some Tylenol for your head.” He gently moved her into a sitting position and left the room, coming back with a glass of water and two tablets. “Here. Open your mouth and I’ll help you.”

She clamped her lips shut tight and shook her head. God only knew whether or not he’d drugged or poisoned the water or even if the pills were actually Tylenol.

“Maggie, why are you being so difficult? Look.” He held the pill up so she could see the factory stamp and he brought the bottle in as well. “See, here’s the bottle. The water is from the tap. It’s well water. The cabin is on a well. I wouldn’t hurt you, Maggie. You can trust me.”

She narrowed her eyes at that ridiculous statement.

“Suit yourself, then,” he said with a sigh. He sat the glass and the pills down. “Let me know if you change your mind. Seems silly to hurt out of spite.”

She snorted but didn’t say anything else.

When he reached out to caress her face, she shrank back as far as she could go until she hit the wall. Nausea and revulsion roiled in her gut, fear threatened to drown her. She gave herself a mental slap. She had to keep it together if she was going to get out of this mess.

“I love you, Maggie. I just want to touch you.”

“Alex, get away from me. This has gone far enough. Take me home.”

“You are home. Our home.” He smiled dreamily and got up.

“Where are we?”

“This is our cabin. Our honeymoon cabin,” he answered and walked out of the room.

She felt woozy and her world became fuzzier and fuzzier until at last, she lost consciousness again.

It was three in the morning and many of the Chase household slept on couches and sitting up in chairs. Kyle, his brothers, father, his uncle and Maggie’s father were in the dining room sitting at the table, looking at pictures.

“Damn it! Where is she!” Kyle raged. They’d stayed out searching for hours and had found nothing.

Shane had come back to report on the situation. They had surveillance camera footage from the ATM machine at the bank. Alex took the maximum two thousand dollar withdrawal. In the background, after they’d blown it up, Maggie was clearly lying against the front seat, her eyes closed, a bloody trickle from her scalp down her face.

“Kyle, this was at five twelve, about forty-five minutes after she’d left here. We’ve narrowed the time frame down considerably. At least we know roundabout when she was taken.”

“But she could be d-dead by that time. Her eyes are closed,” he replied, barely containing a sob. Edward moved to hold his son, bracing him with his arm around his shoulders, lending him strength.

“Son, if he’d killed her, he’d have gotten rid of the body. She was probably unconscious. She was alive then, we have every reason to think she’s alive now. Alex is obsessed with her. He doesn’t want to kill her. He wants to possess her. She’s a smart cookie, she’ll do what she has to to stay alive.”

“And what will that be, Daddy? What will he do to my girl?” Kyle whispered. “We have to find her. Where could he have taken her? God, I never should have let her go over there alone. We were talking about buying a house together. About her moving into my condo and selling her place and buying our own.”

“That’s it,” Shane said, looking up at Edward. “Daddy, can you run a title search? See if Alex has bought any property in this and the surrounding few counties since September?”

Peter stood up. “I can. Let me run into the office and check,” he said, looking relieved to be able to help in some way and Shane followed him out the door.

Polly came into the room. “Honey, it’s three in the morning, why don’t you get some sleep? We’ll wake you if anything changes.” She stroked a hand over his hair, trying to comfort him.

Kyle stood up. “I can’t sleep while Maggie is out there being held by that sick bastard!” he shouted and Edward hugged him tightly and Kyle broke down and wept.