❦❦

Nik's assistant brought coffee at his request and she handed me a steaming cup of espresso. "Thank you." I murmured taking it from her. My body was so reliant on coffee that even the aroma of it made my senses come alive. I was about to take a sip when the door of Nik's office opened.

Alex stood in the doorway but didn't walk in. "We just got an alert from Andrew Holmes phone carrier that he's turned his phone on."

His words had Nik leaping out of his chair. "Told you they'd slip up and make a mistake." He cracked a satisfied smile at me before asking me to come with him.

I followed him and Alex down a plushy carpeted hallway and into a huge room that was buzzing with activity. A large U-shaped desk was in the middle of the room, which was equipped with high-tech computers, laptops and all the other exclusive gadgets needed for investigations.

More than a dozen people were huddled over computers, some tapping away furiously at their keyboards and others talking into headphones. Huge flat screens covered nearly every inch of wall space and showed live security feed from all over the country.

"Sir." A woman addressed Nik, her voice laced with urgency. "We just got a match on the truck Michael Ryder and Andrew Holmes were driving. One of our choppers spotted it abandoned on the outskirt of the city."

"Tap into the security cameras and find out what they did after leaving the vehicle."

"I'm afraid there aren't any cameras in that area, sir. But two choppers are canvassing the surrounding area."

"Keep monitoring the surveillance footage. They are bound to pop up somewhere." Nik instructed and walked up to a guy who was at the back of the room. He had three computer screens in front of him, all switched on. "Elliot. What have you got?"

Elliot tapped on his keyboard and a map of Los Angeles appeared on the right screen. It was dotted with red flags that marked all the cell towers in the state. "Andrew Holmes turned his phone on about five minutes ago. As you know, every active phone emits a low-power signal and connects with the nearest cell tower. I'm tracking his location by localizing the pings emitting from his phone and triangulating his position."

"How long will it take?"

"Just a couple of minutes." Elliot answered Nik's question as he turned his attention to the middle screen. "Unfortunately for us, he doesn't have a built-in GPS in his phone. If he had then I would have been able to get his exact location."

Nik glanced at me and gave me a reassuring nod. "We are close, Jason. I'm sure Andy is still with Michael and Kate so by tracking his location we are also finding out where she is."

I nodded and stepped off to a side not wanting to be in their way. Taking a deep breath, I pushed my hands deep into my pockets. My heart was leaping in my chest. I held on to the hope that had sprung to life within me.

Elliot tapped away on his keyboard for a minute before turning back to the screen that showed the map of Los Angeles County. He clicked on a flag that stood for a cell tower in South Pasadena. A circle appeared on the screen. "I've got him." He announced excitedly. "Or at least, his general location." He moved the cursor over the circle. "He is somewhere in this area. I can get an accuracy up to 10-mile radius from the tower."

"Good job, Elliot. And contact the pilots and update them on the new perimeter set." He then turned to face a woman who was sitting a couple of feet away. "Karen, pull up a live satellite view of the area and look for any potential hideouts."

"Already on it, sir." She replied without looking up from her computer. "There are several rundown buildings. Twenty-one to be exact."

Elliot got up from his seat and moved over to where Karen was. "Narrow it down to buildings in East. Considering the location their vehicle was found in, I'm guessing they are hiding somewhere in the East."

She nodded and tapped on her keyboard a few times. "Okay, we are down to one location. A warehouse in an abandoned industrial area on the outskirt of the city. It's located within a 15-minute walking distance from where their vehicle was found."

Nik frowned. "Elliot?"

"It's our best bet, sir. But just to be sure they are keeping her in there, we could send out a stealth chopper or a quadcopter with thermal imaging and scope out the interior of the warehouse."

"Do it."

Even though I was aware of how efficient Nik's team was, I was still surprised when less than fifteen minutes later Elliot announced he had got the thermal images of the warehouse.

"The images show that there are three people in the warehouse. Look." He moved his cursor on the three yellow and red blobs that stood against a blue and grey background. "One appears to be motionless in a room at the back while the other two seem to be moving in the front." He gave a satisfied look to Nik. "It's definitely them."

"Kate..." Her name slipped out of my mouth as I stared at the motionless blob on the screen.

Nik turned to face Alex, who was standing beside him. "I need a team briefed and ready to leave in five minutes."

"Right away, sir."

Nik fired off several instructions to Elliot and Karen then turned to me.

"I'm going with you."

From the look on my face he must have known there was no way to stop me. He nodded. "Let's go get her."

❦❦❦

❦Kate❦

It couldn't have been more than one hour since Andy left after tying me up, but it felt like hours had passed. I lay curled up on the mattress, my knees drawn against my chest in an effort to keep myself warm. From my position on the bed, I could see a fleece blanket that was flung over one of the empty crates in the room. I told myself I should crawl out of bed and get it but my body was too weak even to move.

Fatigue and exhaustion chilled me to the bone and I fell into a restless sleep. I dreamt that I was lying in Jason's bed, my head resting on his chest. The moonlight streaming through the open French doors casted our bodies in a silver glow. One of his hand was wrapped tightly around me and the other one was entwined in my hair.

Suddenly the whole room was flooded with sun light and I lifted my head up from his chest to look around. We were still in bed, but instead of the bedroom we were now on a tropical island with turquoise blue water and a white sandy beach that seemed to stretch for miles. Tall palm trees were swaying gently in the soft salty breeze. The beauty of the island held me awestruck.

"Where are we?" I asked Jason in wonder.

He lifted himself up into a sitting position so that I was straddling him. "We are in paradise, baby." His blue eyes had turned turquoise green in the sun and he smiled, his dimple flashing at me.

"Paradise?"

"Hmm." He murmured distractedly as he pulled me tighter against him. When he started nibbling on my bottom lip, I sighed in pleasure and wrapped my arms around his neck. He possessed my mouth in a kiss that was so achingly tender and beautiful that when he drew back I felt positively lightheaded and dizzy.

"I love you." He whispered against my lips, his forehead touching mine.

My heart swelled up in happiness hearing him say the three words. I opened my mouth to tell him that I loved him too but suddenly a thick blanket of fog crept up from nowhere and enveloped us in darkness. A few seconds later it lifted and I found us standing in my living room.

Jason's face was a mask of agonizing pain, his eyes filled with so much suffering. "Please, baby. I'm begging here." His voice was hoarse. "Don't give up on us."

I wanted to reach out and comfort him. Tell him how much I loved him. Tell him that he was all that I needed. But I couldn't move or even make a sound. It felt as if a hundred invisible fingers were wrapped around my throat, choking the life out of me.

I woke up gasping for breath. My whole body was trembling and I was drenched in sweat despite the cold room. The dream had been so vivid I could still feel Jason's arm around me. Could still see the pain on his face as he begged me not to give up on us.

The dream stirred up the memories of the night I broke up with him. He told me that night that I was breaking his heart but I had so cruelly told him to leave. My heart ached as I thought of how selfishly I had hurt him. I had been so horrible to him, so intent on protecting my own heart that I hadn't even cared if I broke his in the process.

I wished I could turn back time and go back to that night and change what happened. I wished I could take back all the hurt I caused him. But now it was too late. If Michael killed me like he had promised, then I would never get the chance to tell Jason how I felt about him. He would never find out that I was pregnant with his baby.

Closing my eyes, I tried to block the nasty thoughts. I told myself I should not give up hope. I was going to get out of here alive. I knew with absolute certainty that Jason wouldn't rest until he found me.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I looked down at my tummy. I was still not over the shock of it. It was surreal to think that a baby was growing inside me. I mentally berated myself again for failing to recognize all the pregnancy signs that I had been having since the past week.

I wondered if it was going to be a boy or a girl. An image of a baby boy came to my mind, with blue eyes, brown hair and dimples. An exact miniature version of Jason. I couldn't help smiling at the thought. Or it could be a baby girl who took after me. Either way I knew I would love the baby infinitely.

So caught up I was in my thoughts, I almost didn't hear the noise coming from outside the locked door. My whole body went alert when I recognized Michael's voice. I didn't quite catch what he was saying but I realized he was furious. Standing up, I shuffled towards the door on wobbly legs. Pressing one ear to the locked door, I listened intently.

"We should get out of here." It was Andy's voice. "They must have figured out our location by tracing the signal from my phone. We don't have time."

"The cops must be crawling all over the place looking for us. If we leave we are walking right into them." Michael's voice echoed over the blood pounding in my ears.

"So what then? We sit here waiting for them to come find us?"

"We wouldn't be in this situation if you had just fucking listened to me and ditched your phone in the first place." Michael shot back angrily and I heard something crash.

Understanding dawned on me as to why he was so furious. He had found out that I had switched on Andy's phone. It hadn't occurred to me before, but right then I remembered Jason telling me that anyone could be traced using their phone as long as it was switched on.

The day he thought I had gone missing he had asked Nik to track my location via my phone. Hope fluttered through me when I realized what I had unknowingly done. By switching on Andy's phone, I had probably made it possible for Nik or even the police to track my location.

Just then I heard a key being inserted into the door lock from the other side. Before I could move, it burst open and Michael strode in. His face was mottled with anger and his eyes looked murderous.

Fear resurfaced inside me, my heart rate spiking. He grabbed me by my arm and hauled me against him. Feeling as if my shoulder was pulled out of my socket all I could do was whimper in pain.

"You fucking goddamn bitch." He spat in my face, his voice shaking with fury. "Did you think you would get away with it?" He struck me hard across the face with a fisted hand. Intense pain exploded behind my eyes making my vision blur. His next blow was on my open mouth and I cried out as my bottom lip tore open.

He kept landing blow after blow on my face, screaming and cursing, and I knew he wouldn't stop until he killed me. My eyes rolled back in my head and my whole body went slack. If not for his death grip on my forearm, I would have fallen on the floor.

I wanted to fight back but my body was too weak to even put up a struggle. And since my hands were tied behind my back I was completely helpless. The stabbing pain in my skull was so intense it was taking every last bit of strength I had left even to keep my eyes open. Blood oozed from the cut on my lip and the metallic taste of it filled my mouth as I coughed and spluttered.

He suddenly shoved me away from him and I went down, my kneecaps hitting the hard floor with a loud thud. The agonizing groan that left my throat was cut short when he kicked me brutally, driving the tip of his shoe hard in my stomach. All the wind was knocked out of me and my eyes watered. The searing pain that tore through me almost knocked me unconscious.

I screamed at him to stop, begged him but my cries seemed to excite him and he continued to kick me again and again. Helpless and defenseless, I curled up in a ball to protect myself, to protect the life that was growing inside me from his assaults. As I lay there wheezing and whimpering, the only thought in my mind was that he was going to kill my baby and I was unable to do anything to protect it.

My battered body had gone numb with pain and I kept swaying in and out of consciousness. My ears were ringing and when Michael's shoe connected with the side of my head, my already swollen eyes closed.

I saw myself walking on the same beach that I had dreamt of earlier. In the distance I saw a figure sitting on the warm sand and my heart soared recognizing Jason. I broke into a run, the wind blowing my hair in all directions.

When I approached him, he looked up and his mouth tugged upwards in that sexy half smile that made my insides melt every time. "You're just in time to catch the sunset, baby." He said reaching for my hand and pulling me on to his lap with a soft tug.

As I sat wrapped in his arms, watching the sun dip lower in the horizon, I felt giddy with happiness and contentment.

A part of my mind kept telling me it was not real. I was just hallucinating. My mind had transported me to my happy place to block out the pain I was receiving from Michael's beating. But I didn't care if it was real or not. I was with Jason and that was all that mattered.

Suddenly I heard someone calling my name. It felt like it was coming from a distance and then I was being lifted out of Jason's arms by a man I had never seen before. He kept telling me I was safe and he was going to get me out of there.

I tried to struggle, to tell him that I didn't want to go. I wanted to stay with Jason and watch the sunset but I couldn't move my lips. I was beginning to feel pain again. My whole body felt like it was convulsing violently. The last thing I heard before I slipped into pitch blackness was the sound of someone yelling for a medic.