Page 101 of Beautiful Killer

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Zeke

“They found a cell phone, looks like he was colluding with some guy named Robert Grant. They hit Sunny’s together. Kyle broke in and Robert was driving the getaway car. Going by their texts, Robert was the one that found the place, knew they’d score big,” Jude said.

I’d gone to Sunny’s house, but she hadn’t been there. I’d also driven by her shop, but it was all locked up. I’d tried texting and calling—no reply. I’d also tried her sister. Nothing there, either. Sunny could just be avoiding me, she told me to stay away, but honestly, I was starting to seriously worried. “Do they know anything about this other guy? Any leads on where he could be?”

“He doesn’t have a previous record, and he’s moved on from his last known address.”

“Fuck.” I thrust a hand through my hair. “I need to find Sunny.”

“Still nothing back from her?” Van asked.

“Nothing.” I pulled my keys from my pocket. “I’m going to her sister’s. She hasn’t been replying to my messages, but maybe she’s there.”

I was across town and banging on Julia’s door twenty minutes later.

No answer. I banged again, but there was no sound of footsteps. No low hum of a TV.

I shoved my fingers through my hair and stared that the door. Fuck this. I was done waiting. Right now, I had nothing to go on. No way to find Sunny, and I was getting desperate. I pulled my lock picks from my wallet and had the door open in less than a minute. I strode in, headed for the alarm system to disable it, but it wasn’t tuned on. Julia knew better than that. This didn’t give me a good feeling.

The living room and kitchen were empty. There was a laptop on the counter. Maybe they’d gone away or something, I wouldn’t blame Sunny if she wanted to leave town, get the hell away from me. I opened it, hoping it wasn’t password protected. Neco was the go-to guy for shit like this, but I wanted to get into her email. If they’d gone away there could be flight or accommodation information.

I waited for the laptop to boot up . . .

Someone whimpered.

I spun around and headed toward the sound. The bedroom. Pulling my gun from the back of my jeans, I pushed the door open. Shit. “Julia . . .”

She was on the bed, bound and badly beaten. I rushed over and gently pulled the gag away from her mouth and started on the rope around her wrists. “Who did this?”

Tears were streaking down her face. “Bobby, my ex. Oh God, Sunny . . .”

Oh fuck. Please God, no.“Where is she?”

“He . . . he found out she was pregnant and . . .” She sobbed. “He lost it. Sunny . . . she left everything to me in her will. She’s got no one else and Bobby . . . he freaked out. H-he’d said stuff to me when he was high, b-but I never believed him. He hurt me, but I never thought he’d be capable of that.” She grabbed at the front of my shirt. “I never believed him. Now it’s too late.”

She was hysterical and it was taking everything in me not to shake the shit out of her and make her tell me where they were. “You need to tell me what’s going on, Julia. Where is she, where’s Sunny?”

She was clawing at me. “Help her. Help her!” she screamed.

“Julia,” I barked. “You need to calm down, or I can’t help her. I need you to tell me where she is.”

She sucked in a shaky breath, a sob bursting past her lips. “Bobby, he took my phone, he texted Sunny and told her I needed to talk to her. I wouldn’t do it, and he . . . he got angry. I tried to stop him. I tried.”

Bobby.

“What’s Bobby’s full name?” I gritted out. “His last name, is it Grant?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Robert Grant.”

Fuck.“Where was he meeting her?”

She managed to get it out past her sobs.

I gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “What’s he going to do, Julia?”

She started shaking, so hard her teeth were chattering. “He’s going to kill her, so I get her money . . . then he’ll kill me, too.”