Ocean of Lies (romantic suspense)

Chapter 2

Callie was gone.

"Will you send someone?" Luke asked into the phone.

Callie was gone.

Sydney brought a hand to her cheek, feeling the skin that had been cut on the pavement. Her fingers reached for her lily pendant on her bruised neck and she slid it back and forth across the chain, the motion comforting her racing heart.

"That's not fast enough," Luke said.

Callie, with her pink dress stained red, laying in the back of a van.

Hurt. Taken. Gone.

"I can't let her stay here that long. It's too dangerous. She'll give her statement in the morning."

She should have fought back harder. She should have brought a weapon. She should have done something.

"Hey. You still with me?" Luke asked. He was right in front of her. The black motorcycle jacket he had on matched the darkness of his eyes as he watched her.

"I thought you left," she said, remembering how he'd departed the bar hours earlier. In any other situation, she would have been embarrassed to have noticed a detail like that.

"I came back." There was a strain in his voice. "Do you need anything?"

"No."

"Do you have a way home?"

"I'm staying here until they come."

"Who?"

"The police."

"They're not coming."

She tilted her chin in confusion. "Why not?"

"It's gonna be over an hour before they arrive and I'm not letting you stay out here that long. You can give your statement in the morning."

"My sister was just kidnapped! They can't send someone now?"

"They're probably dealing with something else right now. They don't have the resources to deal with kidnappings when we have no idea where the van went." He frowned. "This isn't Heatherwood."

"So what are you saying?"

"She's gone. At least for now."

Panic shot through Sydney's chest. Callie wasn't gone. She couldn't be. Luke had given the police the van's plates. It just happened minutes ago. The masked men couldn't have gotten far. If she had her weapon, maybe she would have gone after them herself.

Maybe deep down, she knew Luke was right about Rutland not having the resources to help her, but she couldn't accept it. "You're wrong. You can't know that." This was Callie they were talking about. She couldn't just be gone.

"I was a cop. I do know."

More tears formed. "No, no, no..." Sydney mumbled as she took another step back and reached for her phone.

Her dad would know what to do. He had connections. He knew people.

Even though it was the middle of the night, he picked up on the first ring. "Sydney? You okay?"

"Papa," Sydney wheezed with relief, her Russian accent only coming out with that one word.

"What? What happened?"

"They took her. She's gone. These men, they—they came in a van, they hit her, and now she's gone."

"Who? Callie?"