He turned to Mickey, a brawny but simple man he’d hired a handful of times when he felt that he was entering a potentially dangerous situation. Early on in the business, he’d learned that for the right amount of money, Mickey would do whatever needed to be done, no questions asked.

But he needed sleep in order to think straight. He’d simply keep the girl locked up until he fleshed out his plan.

“Just watch her. Make sure she stays put.”

Mickey stepped closer, looked in the closet. He smiled, revealing a lack of good dentistry. “She’s pretty.”

“Don’t touch her.” The man’s round face fell with disappointment and he amended, “Not yet.”

He didn’t want Mickey to be too rough with the girl before Dianna was here to witness it. He almost smiled at the image of the rich, blond TV star bitch being forced to watch the brute sodomize her sister.

Fortunately, he thought as he went to get some sleep, it wouldn’t be long before both he and Mickey got exactly what they wanted. Mickey could have the girl.

And he’d have his revenge.

CHAPTER SEVEN

DIANNA HEARD someone say, “Take deep, slow breaths,” and realized Sam was counseling her in a gentle voice as she stood in the comforting circle of his arms.

It was the very last place she’d ever expected to find herself.

“You need to sit down.”

She wanted to race straight out of the hospital room to search for April, but he was right. She’d be no good to April until she calmed down and came up with a clearheaded plan.

Sam helped her back onto the bed and covered her legs with a blanket, then got her a cup of water and made her drink it.

Her mouth was dry despite the water. “I’m scared, Sam.”

In her early years at the TV station, she’d taken night classes in elocution, learning to keep her voice even and moderated. She barely recognized this squeaking anxious woman talking to Sam as herself.

“Where is she? What did she say?”

“Some guy grabbed her, but she got away and was calling from a gas station.”

“Did she tell you which one?”

Her hands began to shake. She might have created an amazing career and bank account for herself during the past ten years, but even as a broke eighteen-year-old overwhelmed by the crowded city streets of San Francisco, she’d never been this frightened. This freaked out.

“The line went dead before she gave me any other details. Oh God, who could have grabbed her? And what if he’s hurting her right now?”

“You can’t let yourself think like that. I promise you, we’re going to find her.”

Relief flooded through her, even though he was only trying to make her feel better.

“I’m going to need you to tell me everything you can about April, past and present, so that I can help you figure this out.”

Dianna was afraid that every additional second that ticked by could have terrible consequences for her sister. But at the same time she knew she had to think through the situation as calmly as possible. Thank God Sam was here to help her.

With everyone else, she’d always felt that she’d had to gloss over her problems with April. For so long, she’d been afraid of the press picking up the story and running with it and she hadn’t wanted to give away any potentially damaging information. Not to her various boyfriends over the years. Not even to her close girlfriends.

But Sam was different, wasn’t he? After all, he could have sold her story a long time ago, told everyone about her trailer park roots, about her drunk mother, but he hadn’t. It was safe to come clean with him.

“April and I have problems. She hates all of my rules. She says I’m too strict. I’m pretty sure she moved to Colorado to get away from me.” Her tongue felt like dry leather inside her mouth and she took another sip of water before continuing. “I saw her last night at a café in Vail for the first time in a couple of months, but I was too hard on her and she stormed out.”

Sam didn’t look surprised by anything she was saying.

Did he really know her that well? Did he still know her better than anyone else ever had—or ever would?

“What did she want when you saw her at the coffee shop? Money?”

“No. But I gave her some anyway.” She pressed her palms to her eyes. “She wants me to treat her like an adult, but how can I when all I ever see when I look at her is a four-year-old girl crying for me to save her?”

“Don’t blame yourself for doing whatever you need to do to take care of her,” he said softly. “She’s not the only one who was put through the wringer by your mother. You were, too.”

She pulled her hands away from her eyes, amazed all over again that Sam was sitting in front of her. And that he was helping her through another of the most difficult moments of her life.

He’d been there when she and her mother had almost gotten stuck in their trailer during the wildfire. He’d been there when she needed help with April’s case. And he was here now.

At least for the next few minutes, she wasn’t alone.

“How do you always manage to be here right when I need you?” she asked in a whisper.

His eyes darkened and her breath went as she waited for him to respond.

“What did you and April argue about?” he asked instead of answering her loaded question.

Disappointment flooded her. He obviously didn’t want to get any closer to her than he had to.

He was right to keep his distance. She knew she should be doing the same thing, and yet his smackdown still hurt. Like crazy.

Fortunately, it was also a good reminder that he hadn’t always been there for her. Like after she lost the baby, for instance, when he’d all but disappeared from her life.

In any case, what was she doing focusing on anything but April?

“She’s living on a commune,” she said in answer to his question about her argument with April. “I wanted her to come back to San Francisco with me and she refused.”

If Sam was shocked about April living in a commune, he didn’t show it. “Did she tell you where the commune is located?”

Fortunately, April had thrown a few details at her before storming out of the café. “No, but she did tell me that it’s very controlled. That they don’t let just anyone up there and visitors need to have special permission. She said there aren’t any roads and they don’t like trespassers. She seemed to think the isolation was a good thing.”