Edward's POV is coming right behind Bella's.
The room was pitch black, the darkness consuming everything until I felt like I was in a void. I didn't know how long I'd been there, just that it was long enough for me to regret only having a granola bar for breakfast. I didn't know what Newton wanted, but I had no doubt that it was him. He'd spent plenty of time bragging about how he'd gotten away with raping countless women for countless years, until I came along and interfered.
I was stiff from sitting in a hard chair for so long, my arms wrapped in duct tape behind me. My feet were taped to the legs of the chair, but thankfully he'd uncovered my mouth. My claustrophobia had been in full force when I was trapped in the trunk, with no light to see by. There was no air, and I panicked for several minutes before forcing myself to calm down and take light, shallow breaths.
I'd tried to search for an emergency handle, but it was just so dark. Finally, I thought I'd found it near the lid, when the car stopped. I cried, literally cried my eyes out to think I'd been so close to escape. I tried to wipe my face with my bound hands and laid calmly, waiting for him to let me out. He must have gone in the house first, because it felt like forever before he finally popped the trunk, more tape in hand.
The fact that he was arrogant enough not to even bother hiding his face froze my blood, disturbing me to my core. Either his ego was enormous to believe he wouldn't be caught, or worse, he'd never let me go alive. The look in his eyes was an evilness so ingrained it rose from his DNA; only his victims would ever see that expression. He had a regular face, pleasant enough. Nondescript, non threatening. At least until he grinned at me, and my stomach lurched in disgust.
"Should have let that guy rot in prison. Should have stayed out of it." He yanked me out of the trunk, and I scraped my leg on the edge of the opening. I cried out against the tape, but he just kept smiling.
"Even got my uncle in there to make sure he threw him in solitary and left him distraught and suffering."
He left me bound to the chair. I wasn't sure why, or what he had planned. There weren't any windows for the light to filter through. As my eyes adjusted, I could make out shapes that appeared to be work benches. I remembered him dragging me through the kitchen to the back of the house, what looked like an old victorian.
My heart rate spiked as I realized I was in a workshop full of tools. They could be used to escape if I was lucky. Or, if I was unlucky, he could use them against me.
EPOV
Working at the Innocence Project was amazing. The staff was friendly; the volunteers came and went, but they all had such compassionate hearts. I'd spent enough time with Liam and Leah to know that they would make great lawyers when they graduated.
My cell phone vibrated from inside the desk drawer again. It'd been doing that off and on for a few hours, but I'd been ignoring it. I was trying to make a good impression.
The thought that someone might need to get ahold of me led me to open the drawer and peek at the number listed. It wasn't anything I recognized, so I closed the drawer back.
It was half an hour later when the phone perched on the edge of my desk rang shrilly. Something prickled at the back of my neck, and I snatched the receiver up.
"This is Edward Cullen."
"This is Commissioner Swan. Charlie. Bella's father."
He sounded so fucking flustered, something I knew from Bella was not like him. My grip tightened on the phone until my knuckles protested. "What's wrong?"
"Bella is missing. She didn't show to an appointment she went to alone, and her detail was found bludgeoned." My heart lodged in my throat, right before plummeting to my gut. Anger flashed, but I reigned it in. They were supposed to protect her.
"What can I do? Name it, and I'll take care of it."
"We found her employee car near the building she was heading to, but no sign of her. Newton is most likely in his police issue, but he's removed the GPS and left it at her office near Black."
I scrubbed my hands over my face. "Is he okay?" I reluctantly asked.
"For now, until I find out how he was taken by surprise. Then we'll see how he's doing. If he had anything to do with this, he's going to find out what hell feels like." He sighed heavily. "I have my sons out looking, the local fire department is looking when they're out on calls, but there's only so much they can do without interfering with their own jobs. Emmett's squad is undercover, asking if anyone saw anything. So far, there's only a witness that maybe thinks they saw her and a guy go down an alley and get in a dark car with dark windows."
"Do we know of any locations owned by Newton or his family? Maiden names an old house could be hiding under?"
"I have someone on it."
Now I sighed. "Let me inform Ms. Zarowsky, and call my parents. I don't know what we can do, but we'll be there within the hour."
I hung up with him and called the house. When mom answered, I told her I needed her and dad at the police station downtown, and I didn't want to hear about Dad being too busy. Mom was surprised, but I told her it was an emergency that had to do with Bella. She understood, even if Dad never would.
Ms. Zarowsky was out of the office, but I told Liam and Leah, and they came with me. The station was crawling with people, and I asked the desk sergeant for the commissioner's office. Dad walked in the double doors with Mom on his tail as a short woman with curly red hair came to escort us to our destination.
"Edward, your mother said there was an emergency. What's going on?" Dad's voice was perplexed, no alarm coating his tone.
I refused to answer him until we were in the elevator with the doors closed. Then I turned on him with a sneer. "Bella has been kidnapped by the rapist that set me up ten years ago. The one you refused to believe existed until Bella shoved the evidence in your face."
His eyes widened, his jaw going slack. My mother gasped, her arm going around me. I turned my back on him as the elevator opened, and we filed down the hall to a wood paneled office that was full of people, in uniform and out. There was a separate conference room with the door open, and it was crowded too, with laptop computers and mountains of paperwork on the table. Someone had dragged a white case board into the room, and it had pictures of Bella and an unknown man on it, as well as two vehicles and two license plates.
I moved to the board, involuntarily drawn in. I passed people on their phones or typing away, finally coming to a stop in front of the pictures. My hand went up to cover Bella's face, my fingers trailing lightly over the lively grin. But my gaze was pulled to the man's picture, seeing him for the first time.
That was the man still trying to ruin my life. This time, I had to make sure he was stopped.
I know what we all want to see happen to Mike, and you are some creative people with your torture ideas.
If you haven't seen it already, I have a new story posting on Mondays. It's suspense/crime.
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