Nightmares from Within (26 page)

I jumped up and ran to the bathroom hoping that he was in there. When I found it empty my heart plummeted. Tears burned my eyes and blurred my vision when a manic search of the apartment showed that Jordan was gone.

I had to find him.

I grabbed my phone to call him but my hands were shaking so badly, it took three tries to key his number in correctly.

“
Fuck!
” I screamed when his voicemail picked up. “Jordan, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this…
Please
.”

I disconnected the call and hit redial.

Voicemail again.

A strangled sob escaped my throat as I stood in my living room with my hands tugging the hair at my scalp in frustration. I was seconds away from a full blown panic attack when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.

I ran to the dining room table and snatched up the folded piece of paper.

Crimson,

Sorry I didn’t wake you but you looked so peaceful and I didn’t want to bother you. Had a break in the case so I’m heading to the station to check it out.

I’ll call you later today. Love you, baby.

xx

-J

Shit
. Dropping the letter to the floor, I bolted to my bedroom and threw on whatever clothes I grabbed first. I had to get to Jordan. I’d already lost Cassie; there was no way I was going to lose Jordan too. I couldn’t handle another person I loved dying.

I’d just shoved my key in the deadbolt to lock the door when a noise behind me made me pause.

“Hello, beautiful.”

I knew that voice. I recognized his cologne. Before I could turn to see who was behind me a cloth covered my mouth and nose. I didn’t even have time to let out a scream before the acrid smell overwhelmed my senses and darkness enveloped me.

Jordan

This list of people who had installed commercial impact doors in their homes had come in early that morning. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was pull myself away from Taylor’s soft, warm body that’d been wrapped around me like a blanket, I had to leave for the station to check it out. I needed to get this guy before he had the chance to hurt anyone else. Taylor had already lost so much at the hands of The Poet. I couldn’t let her lose anyone else.

Stevens and I spent several hours running background checks on each of the names on that list and had come up with jack shit. The frustration was nagging at me and the dull throb of an impending headache pounded at the back of my eyes.

There was something there. I knew it, but I couldn’t
see
it. I felt like the answer was staring me in the face and I couldn’t figure it out.

“We need a break,” Stevens exclaimed. “I feel like I’m going cross eyed.”

I sat back in my chair and rubbed at my tired eyes. “Yeah, man. You’re right.”

He stood from the desk and stretched, straining the buttons on his shirt to their breaking point. “I’ll grab us some lunch from Benny’s. Be back in a few.”

I waved my hand distractedly. “Sounds good.” I was so fixated on finding The Poet that I couldn’t concentrate on much else.

Once Stevens left, I pulled out my cell to call Taylor, needing to hear her voice to calm myself and clear my head. She was the only one who could help me do that.

“Damn it,” I muttered when I realized that the battery had died some time that morning. I plugged it in to charge just as someone came running up to my desk.

“Jordan…” I turned to see Daniel breathing heavily like he’d run all the way to the station. “Something’s wrong.”

I shot out of my chair, sending it scraping across the floor with a loud screech. “Taylor?” was all I asked.

He nodded his head before shoving both hands through his already disheveled hair. When he didn’t say anything else I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and jerked him so close we were practically nose to nose. “What is it? What’s happened?”

He started shaking his head manically, mumbling, “I don’t know. I don’t know,” over and over. “Something’s not right.”

“What’s not right, Daniel? I need fucking details!”

“It’s a feeling…I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve got this gut feeling that she’s in trouble. I tried calling her but she’s not answering her phone. I went by the diner and Benny said she didn’t show up for her shift so I came straight here since it was closer. I didn’t know what the fuck else to do.”

I’d never seen him so out of sorts and I’d learned enough in my time with Taylor to know not to dismiss a gut instinct. If Daniel felt something was wrong then something was
definitely
wrong.

Just then my cell phone pinged, alerting me to a new voicemail. I snatched the phone from its charger and hit the button to listen. When Taylor’s scared voice came through the line the blood running through my veins turned to ice and the breath left my lungs.

“Jordan, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this…
Please
.”

I grabbed my keys and bolted for the door just as Stevens came walking through. “What’s going on?” he asked as soon as he saw the look on my face.

I didn’t stop walking as I called out, “It’s Taylor. I’ve got to go. I’ll call you as soon as I hear something.”

I ran full speed to my car in the parking lot and turned it on as the passenger door flew open. “I’m coming with you,” Daniel demanded. I didn’t have time to argue, I just needed to get to Taylor.

The few minutes it took to get to her apartment building were the worst minutes of my life. Daniel and I burst through the doors like the devil was on our heels. I made a bee line for the elevators and pounded the button in rapid succession while Daniel headed over to Gary. I didn’t know what he was saying to the old man but I didn’t give a shit. I just needed to get up to her apartment.

I jumped into the elevator before the doors had a chance to open all the way. Each second it took to reach her floor took a year off my life.

Please let her be asleep. Please let her be asleep, I chanted to myself.

But as soon as the doors opened onto her floor I knew my prayers weren’t going to be answered. The door to Taylor’s apartment stood open and her keys hung out of the deadbolt. I rushed over and shoved it the rest of the way open, stepping over her purse and its spilled contents along the way. She wasn’t answering her phone because she didn’t have it. It was lying on the floor of the hall with the rest of her belongings.

“Taylor,” I called out, already knowing I wasn’t going to get an answer but trying anyway. I ran through the apartment, quickly discovering it was empty then rushed back downstairs to the lobby. The only thought running through my mind was that I couldn’t lose her.

I ran to Gary, ignoring the tears in the old man’s eyes and started throwing questions at him. “Who’d you let up to Taylor’s apartment this morning?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“N…no one, Mr. Donovan.”

“Bullshit! Someone has Taylor and they couldn’t have gotten to her without going through you first. Now who the fuck did you let up?”

Gary looked like he was seconds away from a heart attack but I couldn’t find it in myself to care.

“I swear! No one’s even been by asking for her. I haven’t seen anyone but the residents and…” His voice trailed off and his eyes grew wide.

“What is it?” Daniel asked. “Who else has been here?”

Gary’s eyes darted back and forth between me and Daniel. “There are workers painting and installing new tile on the ninth floor but they don’t come through me. They use the freight elevator to come and go.”

“I need a list of every crew member that’s working on those units.
Now
!”

As Gary clicked away at the computer on his desk, I started pacing back and forth.

“Jordan,” Daniel called out, stopping me mid stride. “I don’t know if it’s related at all, but there was a guy in the diner the other day.” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as a chill ran through me. “Taylor tried to brush it off as just some guy with a crush but she…
Christ
, I don’t know…she seemed a little freaked out.”

It was like a light bulb went off over my head as the memory came back to me. “Was the guy’s name Bryan?”

“Yeah! Yeah, it was Bryan.”

I stopped listening to what he was saying and pulled my phone from my pocket. “Stevens,” I said as soon as the call connected. “Was there a guy named Bryan on that list?”

“Hold on, let me check.” The sound of papers rustling came through before he spoke again. “Yeah, it’s right here. Bryan Ackerman.”

I ran behind Gary’s desk and scanned through the list of names he’d printed off for me. Just as I suspected, there wasn’t a Bryan anywhere on that list. He’d been stalking Taylor and snuck in with the crew working construction on the ninth floor. Gary hadn’t seen him because he’d gone through the freight elevator. I grabbed a pen and spoke to Stevens, “Give me his address.” I scribbled it down as he rattled it off.

“What’s going on, man? Is Taylor okay?”

I was already heading out the door, leaving Daniel and Gary behind. “I’m ten minutes out. Call it in and get as many cars as you can over to Ackerman’s. I think this guy’s The Poet.”

It wasn’t an assumption. I knew it in my gut that we had found our guy.

“No shit?” Stevens asked.

“No shit. And he’s got Taylor.”

Taylor

“Wake up, sweetheart.”

I came to feeling groggy and weak but my senses were in tune enough that even in the darkness I knew exactly what was happening. And I had to make sure the outcome was different from the one I’d seen in my nightmare. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to Jordan.

“Come on, beautiful, wake up for me.”

I shook my head, trying to wipe away some of the haziness and took a fortifying breath of damp air to try and prepare myself for the hell I was about to have to endure.

“Bryan, where are you? I can’t see anything.”

The mattress dipping down let me know he was close. “I’m right here, love. Don’t worry, you’re safe.”

Keeping up the act was making me physically ill, but if it was what it took to save Jordan then I’d do it. I’d do anything for him. “Oh, thank God. I thought you’d left me alone. Can you turn on a light so I can see you?”

“Of course, anything for you.”

I heard him moving around and sucked in a deep breath to stem off the waves of nausea I was experiencing. I heard a brief click then the room was illuminated in an eerie yellow light. I looked around at my surroundings trying to find anything that would help me. Gray concrete surrounded me on the floor and all four walls. The room didn’t have a single window anywhere. The only way in or out was through the steel door that I’d seen in my vision. In the far right corner of the room there was a filthy, rust stained sink that had definitely seen better days. The only furniture in the cold room was the disgusting mattress that I was laying on and a small bedside table with a shade-less lamp sitting on top of it.

Next to the lamp sat a book that had clearly been read dozens of times. The spine was worn and cracked and it looked like some of the pages had been torn out. I blinked past the fuzziness that still affected my vision and took a closer look. It was a book of poetry. I could only guess that that was the book he’d torn poems from and placed in the hands of each of his victims.

The sight of it sent a shiver down my spine but I tried my best to mask it. “Where are we?”

Bryan reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and it took an enormous effort to keep myself from cringing at his touch. “I know you’re probably scared right now, but you’re safe. I promise. I’m so sorry if I frightened you.”

I forced my lips up into a smile that I hoped looked sincere. “You didn’t frighten me,” I lied through my teeth. “I’m just so glad you found me.”

“I knew you were the one for me the second I saw you. You have the same haunted look in your eyes that I see every time I look in the mirror.” My body locked at those familiar words. They were the same words from my dream. “You’re not like the others. They tricked me.” His expression grew dark and angry as he spoke about his past victims. “They lied to make me believe they were something they weren’t but in the end they were all the same…disgusting whores. Every woman in my life has disappointed me.” The anger quickly morphed into something else and he looked at me with a loving smile. I was repulsed. “But you’re different. I know I can trust you. When I saw you talking to that filthy slut from the diner I felt an instant connection.”