Page 127 of Twilight Tides
“Kelly!” I hurried into the back room, horror thrusting my heart into overdrive at the sight of Kelly’s kicking legs disappearing out the back exit. “Kelly!” I didn’t think. I just ran after her, shoving the heavy fire door with all my might. Istumbled out, and fear coalesced with rage as my stepdaughter was dragged roughly down the street behind the store. “Kelly!” I raced after her as she struggled against a stranger’s grip, his large hand covering her mouth, her eyes flaring wildly when she saw me.
The man who had her was bald and wore a suit. I drank in his hawklike profile and sharp cheekbones, trying to place him. I’d never seen him before in my life.
I did note he was twice my size, but it didn’t matter.
All that mattered was my stepdaughter’s safety.
As he angrily hauled Kelly toward a black vehicle sat in the no parking zone, I realized the back passenger door was open and waiting.
There was no time to think, to consider. I just knew I had to stop this before he pushed her into the back of that SUV.
“No!” I screamed, running at him, beating him across the head with my swinging fists, ignoring the splintering pain ricocheting down my hands.
He dropped Kelly to protect his head, and I tried to reach for her, to pull her to her feet so we could run, but strong arms banded around my waist and pain blasted up the back of my skull.
I was disoriented, dazed for a second as the world spun.
Then a door slammed and there was darkness.
Clutching at my throbbing head as my body jerked forward, I reached out to stop myself from falling and realized I was somehow in the back of the car.
“London! Help! Someone help!” The distant screams had me scrambling to look out the back windscreen.
Kelly stood alone in the middle of the street, screaming and sobbing after me. I saw a woman approach her just before I was physically hauled from the window and forced back upright into a seat.
The man.
The man who had taken Kelly glowered at me as he sat on the bench beside me. “Sit and be quiet,” he demanded in an accent I couldn’t place.
Nausea roiled in my gut. “Who are you?”
“I said be quiet.”
When I tried to ask again, he smacked me across the face, my lower lip catching on a tooth. At the taste of blood and the ringing in my ears, I shut up. My mind raced loudly, though.
I think I knew who he was.
Deep down, I knew.
However, if I thought too hard on where I was going, I’d buckle under the fear.
I couldn’t buckle.
Murray and Kelly and Nee and Taran and all our friends needed me to stay calm so I could figure my way out of this.
MURRAY
The screaming alarmed me as Greg, the customer we’d pissed off last night, ranted about our shipment system. But it took me a second to realize I recognized those distant screams, and I suddenly couldn’t even hear Greg over the blood rushing in my ears.
“Greg, I’m sorry. I need to call you back.” I hung up on my spluttering customer as I strode toward the screams and looked up the dark alley between the boutique where I’d left my daughter and wife and the neighboring pet shop.
“London! Help! Daaaaaad!”
“Kelly?!” I bellowed. Fear sent a rush of adrenaline coursing through my body as I took off up the alleyway. Suddenly my daughter appeared at the other end, a woman I didn’t recognize standing next to her on the phone, gesturing wildly.
“Dad!” Kelly rushed to meet me, slamming into my arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Kelly? Kelly?” I pushed her gently back, searching her for injury. “Kelly, where’s London?”
