The Search for Lily Myers ✓

40 | Strategize

For a second, Henry couldn't speak. He stared at Amelia in shock, as if she'd just sunk a knife into his stomach and he was watching himself bleed out. Then—

"But—that can't be true."

She met him with a steely gaze. "Can you tell me with total certainty that she wasn't the girl with him in the bar tonight?"

The silence that filled the room as his expression crumpled was all the answer she needed.

"How would he even know who she is?"

That part she wasn't sure about. She knew that predators sometimes chose their victims at random—at least that was the impression she got from all of the true crime shows she'd watched—but it didn't feel like that would be the case for someone he was keeping hostage, someone who he wanted to play a months-long game of psychological cat and mouse with.

Despite the fact that she clearly didn't know him at all, Amelia was somehow certain that Colton would be doing this for the emotional high he got from the chase, not for a literal ransom. After all, if he was looking for payment, he'd want her to be found. He would have put it in the letters. Ironically, money was one of the very few things in life he didn't chase after—he'd inherited enough of it from his parents.

"You, um," Amelia stammered. "You said she had a job, right?"

"Yeah—an internship. She's studying social work, so she was helping with kids who were being removed from bad family situations for neglect or abuse or–"

Amelia felt like she'd been punched in the gut. "As in situations where police officers might show up?!"

The color drained from Henry's face. Then he was on his feet, swearing not so under his breath as he grabbed his clothes off the floor and started throwing them back on. Had he started changing in front of her in just about any other situation, all Amelia would have been able to do is admire him, but she was too shocked to think straight and a blink of an eye was all it took for him to be fully dressed again.

She wasn't even sure why he'd immediately gotten dressed, as if they were about to run out the door somewhere right this instant.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "Even if I'm right—and that's a big if—we still don't know where she is!"

But as she said it, Amelia realized that she was certain about this. Who could hide a person's whereabouts better than the man who no one, or at least no one who could touch him, would suspect? Who could skirt around the law better than the man who knew it inside and out?

And why would a woman stop her car on the side of an empty road after dark in the first place?

If a cop had pulled her over.

Henry had whirled around with a heat in his eyes more intense than anything she'd seen in him before. He came to her, gripping her shoulders with a desperation that almost scared her, looking at her like she was their only salvation.

"Where is she?" he begged. "Please—you have to think."

"I don't–" She scrunched her eyes shut, fighting back the tears that wanted to pool in them. Think, Amelia. "I need a minute—I'm sorry."

Lily couldn't just be hanging around in Colton's apartment; that much was obvious. He had to be completely sure that no one could accidentally stumble across her, that not a living soul would see her unless he wanted them to.

Where could he go that would be that isolated?

Her eyes flew open. Hollow House, of course. Even if someone trespassed on the property, surely they would stop short of trying to get into the house itself. No one in their right mind would want to break into that creepy place.