CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Beth
Beth had no trouble getting the girl. She was alone listening to her music at full blast like most pre-teens do. Her mother had gone to the store to re-stock their home from their vacation. All Beth had to do was to sneak in the open window, put the rag with chloroform on it over the girl’s face and drag her out. Now she was tied up to a chair in the middle of the living room in Beth’s father’s old home. Her choice of hideouts may be a bad one but it was the only place she could think to go. Her mother had left this place as soon as she got out of the hospital and moved in with her sister. Since it was paid off, she kept the place because she was saving it for Will.
An hour after she had taken the girl, the call she was waiting for came in. “Where is my niece? You better not harm her.” Shawn sounded pissed. More so than she had ever heard.
“She’s safe. And she’ll remain that way as long as you come alone. Any sign of others and she dies. As soon as you are dead I’ll release her in a place where she can make it home on her own. And no guns are to be brought here. Come in street clothes and leave your off duty gun at home as well. Is that understood?”
“Where do you get off thinking you can do this and get away? Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into? I don’t need anyone else to help me take you out. Now tell me where you are so I can finish this.” Shawn was really getting hot under the collar. She could tell he wasn’t playing around.
“We are at my father’s house. I’m sure you remember where that is. You arrested him.”
“Stop screwing with me. I’ve arrested a lot of people. Either give me a name or an address.”
“Charles Henderson. We’ll be waiting. You have…”
“Let me talk to Sam. I want to know she’s okay.”
“Uncle Shawn.” That was all Beth would allow her to say. She hung up the phone and threw it in the fireplace where she had a fire burning just for the phone. She knew Shawn wouldn’t relay the location to anyone out of fear of losing his niece. But she wouldn’t put it past Sheriff Anderson to trace the call with or without Shawn knowing. The girl’s mother worked for the Richmond County Sheriff’s department and was sure to be begging to be involved.
Shawn
I hung up the phone ready to scream. I knew the voice on the other end of the line had been Sam’s but she sounded so scared and small. Anger and fear gripped me by my chest. All I could think about was getting Sam somewhere safe.
I turned around and stormed back into the house. Having run out of the room when Carolyn got here, I had yet to feed. Without a word I put my arm around Courtney and led her into Dad’s office. Mark was right behind us. It took all I had to pace myself while feeding. I was in such a hurry to get going, I had to work at controlling myself. I was also weaker than I thought I was. I didn’t want to take too much blood. That wouldn’t do any of us any good.
After feeding from Courtney I took a short break to catch my breath. I ended up being pulled away from Mark by Adams. Guess my control wasn’t very good after all. I made sure Mark was okay and after saying I’m sorry about a hundred times and being waved off by Mark telling me not to worry about it, he understood, I changed into street clothes and Adams, Casey and I headed out to get my niece back and put Beth behind bars.