Page 129 of Secrets in the Deep

Melanie Prior.

She lay beside the island, on her stomach, blood matting the hair at the back of her head.

Fuck.

He crossed toward her, Glock against chest, gaze taking in the house around him, looking for movement. When there was none, he dropped to her side and lifted her wrist just as Zac entered the house.

Dull thuds hit the pads of Ryan’s fingers. “She’s alive.”

Zac dropped to her other side. “Go. Search the house. I’ll take care of her.”

Ryan stood as the door opened and the rest of the guys filtered in, each of them armed and alert. He pointed two fingers and separated them, a silent signal for his team to split up and sweep the house.

Ryan started with the pantry, then the laundry. When he stepped back into the kitchen, he noticed Emily’s phone on the kitchen counter.

Everything in him rebelled at the sight. But he didn’t let that stop him. He stepped outside, checking every crevice of the yard.

Empty.

He was just stepping back inside when his team returned to the living room.

“Empty,” Ethan growled.

She wasn’t here. She wasn’t fucking here!

A moan sounded from the kitchen.

“Easy,” Zac urged, as Melanie tried to roll over.

“My head,” she breathed.

Ryan closed the space between them and lowered beside her. “Melanie, it’s Ryan.”

“Ryan?” she frowned, sitting up slowly, her fingers gingerly touching her head, and Zac’s hand on her back. “What happened?”

“That’s what I was hoping you could tell me. We got here to find you on the floor and Emily gone.”

Melanie’s eyes widened, a bit more clarity in them now. “Gone? What do you meangone?”

“She’s not here. Her phone is, but she isn’t. Did you see what happened?”

“No, Emily was making coffee, and I was talking to Roscoe when?—”

“Roscoe was here?”

“Yes, why?” Melanie looked from him to Zac. “You think he did this?”

“Yes.” A muscle in Ryan’s jaw twitched. “He hit you and took Emily.”

She shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t?—”

“Hedid. And I need you to tell me if you know where he might have taken her.”

“I…I don’t know. He only ever talks about his stupid movie.”

“If he were trying to finish the movie, where would he go?”

Melanie frowned, only for a second, before her eyes widened. “Just after we’d learned Preston was stabbed, after it was announced the movie was being canceled, I had a drink with Roscoe at the bar. I told him how sorry I was that he didn’t get to finish the film, that maybe one day he would. He said, ‘I know I will.’ And he was talking about how the final edit will be even better than the original.”