"Jack Orange?"

"Yes." The voice didn't sound familiar. Or it sounded like any male who could have been calling. He felt like he didn't know anything anymore. "Who is this?"

"I just called to talk." The man sounded like he was smiling and something deep inside Jack knew that wasn't good at all.

"Who are you?"

"I think you know who I am."

Already he had a picture of this guy in his head. He was like a more bloated version of his high school history teacher. The teacher would come in and lecture for an hour about holocausts and smile the entire time. Only his history teacher had been very thin. Just from a couple of sentences, Jack pictured this guy as a plump man. He didn't know why. He was there, on the other end of the line, his plump red cheeks all pulled back, those white teeth, almost perfect enough to be dentures, gleaming out from all that rosiness.

And this man had Gina.

He either had Gina or he had done something with her.

"If I knew who you were then I suppose I wouldn't be standing here so confused right now," he said. His heart was really beating now. Already, his head raced with ideas of trying to track the man by this phone call. Of trying to pick up some sound from the other end that would allow him to place it. The sound of kids playing in a playground, or a siren from a fire engine, or a train. Anything. But he didn't hear anything except for the man's somewhat labored breathing and, perhaps, the sound of his cheeks pulling back from his gums in that hideous grin.

"I wasn't talking about my name. I was thinking more generalized. You know who I am."

"You have Gina."

"That's right, Jack. I have Gina."

"But why?"

"Geez," the man said. "What would a man want with an attractive young lady? I could go into detail but I feel like that would be insulting your intelligence."

"You better not hurt her."

"Don't start with the threats. Not yet. I'm the wrong guy to be threatening, Jack. Besides, maybe you're too late. Maybe I've already hurt her."

"What do you want?"

"Do you honestly want to hear about what I want?"

"If it's money, whatever, just don't hurt her."

"But what if that's what I want? What if I want to hurt her? What if I want nothing more than to hurt her? Hurt her and do things with her?"

He resisted the urge to go off on the man. He couldn't afford to do that. Maybe if they were standing face to face... but they weren't. He was in the dark. Mr. Grin held all the cards. One card in particular.

"Besides," Mr. Grin said. "Don't offer me money. I know you don't have any of that. I know quite a bit about you."

"Again, what do you want? You wouldn't have called me if you didn't want something."

"Did you and Gina have fun last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"f.u.c.king. Jesus, you're obtuse. Did you have fun f.u.c.king last night? That was the last time you did that, wasn't it?"

"How do you know that?"

"She has a nice little mark just below the neckline of her t-shirt. That's mighty big of you, to keep things like that away from the public eye. We wouldn't want her friends and coworkers or, G.o.d forbid, the public to think she was a nasty little s.l.u.t."

Jack's heart continued to rage and anger surged up through him. At the very least, he thought, this man had removed Gina's shirt.

"But, you see, Jack, Gina is a nasty little s.l.u.t. Bet you didn't know that..."

Jack desperately wanted to say something but he didn't think anything he could say would help his cause.

"Know how I know she's a nasty little wh.o.r.e?"

"How?" Jack spat.

"Because I've f.u.c.ked her. I've f.u.c.ked her quite a bit. And I want to keep on f.u.c.king her but you are threatening that. You're threatening to get in the way of all of it."

Now other thoughts were spiraling through his brain, none of them good, and he found himself inexplicably mad at Gina, even though he knew what this man said couldn't be true.

Or could it?

Immediately, he began thinking about the opportunities she may have had to cheat. Then he stopped himself. That wasn't really the issue now. That could only be a distraction. What he had to realize right now was that she was in danger and he needed to find her. He needed to help her.

"See, Jack, she's made it very clear to me that she would like to stop f.u.c.king me and keep right on f.u.c.king you."

"That's impossible." He couldn't help himself.

"Well, that's what I thought too. How could anyone want to stop f.u.c.king me..."

"You know what I meant."

"Oh, you mean it's impossible that she could be f.u.c.king someone else?"

"Yes."

"She's a very resourceful gal, that Gina. Anyway, I feel like you're not really listening to me anymore."

"I'm listening."

"Okay. So, in short, I don't want to stop f.u.c.king her. I like her p.u.s.s.y. I like the way she... shaves it."

A vice clamped Jack's heart, imagining Gina in some sicko's house, stripped down for his perusal and pawing.

"Now, I'm willing to take this like a man but I can't just bow out completely. What kind of man would bow out completely, without a fight?"

Jack found it very hard to breathe.

"Why, I'll tell you... it wouldn't be a man at all. It would be a p.u.s.s.y. I am not a p.u.s.s.y, Jack. You are a p.u.s.s.y."

This childish insult almost made Jack laugh out loud.

"So," Mr. Grin continued. "I've decided to give you a chance to find me. And I've decided to let you in on the rules."

"The rules?"

"Yes. The rules. Ready?" A brief pause. "If you go to the police with this, Gina is dead. Not just dead but tortured, degraded, humiliated... and then killed. And don't kid yourself by thinking I won't know if you go to the police. I will be the third person to know after yourself and the person who answers the phone at the station. So don't even think about that. Unless you like to hear Gina scream."

"Don't hurt her."

"You sound like a broken f.u.c.king record."

"What are the other rules?"

"That's really the only one. You have twenty-four hours to find me. That's the other one. After that, we will be so far away, you'll never be able to find us. You won't even know where to begin looking. Gina'd be plenty upset but, over time, I think she'd get used to it. And if you find me, one of us is going to have to die. So, therein lies your big ethical decision. Do you forget about her, convince yourself she's a lying s.l.u.t and let us get on with our lives together? Or, once you find me, are you willing to kill another human to keep the one you supposedly love? Or, do you sacrifice her by calling the police and doing the 'right' thing?

"What'll it be, Jack?"

"I'm going to find you. And I'm going to kill you."

Mr. Grin laughed on the other end. "Well, then, I guess you'd better get busy, hadn't you?"

Then he was gone. Disconnected. And Jack stood there in the living room, thinking how beautiful it had been that morning. But that now seemed like forever ago. This was not the same Jack who had stood there before. This Jack felt like he was actually mad enough to kill someone else. And that was something he had never felt in his adult life. He had also never even considered the fact of Gina's fidelity. He had trusted her with every ounce of his being. He didn't know if the call changed that. He desperately wanted to go out to the car and start driving, looking for her, but knew he had to put his thoughts in order first.

He took a deep breath and sat down on the recliner.

In twenty-four hours, he was either never going to see Gina again or someone was going to die. Both of those things burned him to his soul.

Nine.

He had never been so confused in his life.

This whole scenario just seemed preposterous. Really, who did this happen to? He knew there were some people who found themselves, continuously and repeatedly, in odd situations. Trouble maybe. Some people were born trouble. It was like something in their brain just didn't function like other people. They always went about things the wrong way or did things they didn't really have any business doing in the first place.

Sitting in the recliner, he took a deep breath.

He was not one of those people. In his twenty-odd years on this planet, he had led a relatively trouble-free existence. He was born an only child and he didn't think there were that many kids who could complain about too much attention. No, he received just the right amount of attention. That was why his parents had only had one. Not for any physical reason and not because they wanted to dump all of their attention and affection on this one single human. No. It was because they had their own lives when he was born and didn't plan on throwing both of their lives and interests away to focus on a slew of children. If they were strong individuals they felt he would be a strong individual. And he liked to think he was, for the most part.

He made it through school without being bullied. He could have easily gone to college if he wanted to but that seemed dull. He wanted to get out of the house. He wanted to be on his own. If he went to college that would be like tying himself to his parents for four more years, at least. Maybe this lack of trouble he had was more a sense of purposeless directionlessness.

Relationships were easily come by and just as easily buried in the dust. He didn't think of himself as an abnormally cold person but, realistically, he found himself with a girlfriend when he wanted something else to bury his c.o.c.k in besides his hand and, eventually, he inevitably tired of this person because there was a lack of connection. None of them mentally turned him on. And he didn't think any of them could manage to physically turn him on day after day. Until he had met Gina. From the time he met her he knew there wouldn't be anyone else. If she didn't feel the same way about him in the long run and left him, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop her and he knew he wouldn't give up women but he did know she would be the girl who every further girl would be judged against. It wasn't any one thing he could put his finger on unless, maybe, it was mutual understanding. He knew what she wanted out of life. She knew what he wanted out of life. They made each other laugh. Life was better when they were together.

And even though they had lived, showered and slept together all this time, he still found her mysterious. Occasionally, he would find himself wondering what she was thinking, knowing it probably wouldn't be what the average person was thinking. The way she moved, sometimes the way she talked, was completely different for him. He couldn't even exactly put his finger on it. It was like her smell. Something new and different and entirely her own and infinitely pleasing.

Now he found himself, absurdly, without her.

Was it possible she didn't feel the same way he did? If she didn't, it wasn't something she had ever mentioned. She had, many times, said things like, "When we get married..." or "When we have kids..." As though these were things they both knew were going to happen. And he had never intervened on those musings. Had never given her any reason to believe he wanted anything different.

Unless maybe he had just waited too long. That happened, he guessed. Women who wanted to get married waited for the boyfriend to propose and if he didn't do that in some mysterious allotted time only she knew about then maybe she grew cold and moved onto someone else.

But that just didn't seem possible. They had always been open with each other. About everything. Or so he thought. He guessed one person can never truly know someone else and maybe that was what this all boiled down to.

Now he had to think about finding her. Somehow this made him feel cheated. It made him feel singled out. Like G.o.d hated him or something even though he didn't really know if he even believed in G.o.d. This was an unrealistic challenge. One he felt like he shouldn't have to be going through. There were things he knew would come up. Jealousy over past loves. The threat of one of her coworkers, maybe. One who seemed to have much more in common with her. One who was able to spend more time with her. One who was a better match for her. Maybe they would develop different interests. Maybe she would get tired of him working too much overtime at The Tent.

He did not delude himself into thinking there wouldn't be arguments even though, thus far, that hadn't happened. Maybe they didn't know how to argue. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she thought he hated arguing so much she couldn't truly open up to him, feeling like he would just say anything in order to avoid arguing.

He found himself the G.o.d of a whole world of maybes.

Maybe he should get off his a.s.s and start looking for her. He could sit here in his chair and think his head off but that wasn't going to get him any closer to Gina.

G.o.d, this was just so f.u.c.king ridiculous.

He shouldn't have to be doing this.

It was really difficult to wrap his mind around something this insane. A needle in a haystack. And while he knew Gina, while he thought he would probably have definite ideas about where to find her, he knew nothing about her captor. Were they even in Alton? He didn't know, but he didn't think they could have made it too far. And were they even on the move? Would he be looking for a fixed location or would he be chasing them?

Okay. He had to think. He had to think about her and he had to keep the rules in mind, even though it was so f.u.c.king difficult to even take the rules seriously. This meant he couldn't really let anyone know she had been kidnapped because that person would undoubtedly go to the police. And he didn't have much time to work with so he had to act quickly.

First, he would go to her work. He didn't know what tact he would use but he would find some way to question her coworkers. Hopefully, Maria would be there. She was close to Gina's age and sometimes, she and Gina went out and did stuff together. If she was having an affair, Maria would know. Then it would just be a matter of getting her to betray her friend and let Jack know who the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was.

He didn't really know what he could do after that. She wasn't exactly a social b.u.t.terfly. She liked staying home just as much as he did. He guessed he could try her brother, Sam. He lived in Alton so he was relatively close. Her parents were out. He didn't want to worry them this early in the game. Maybe he could even try old Tim Fox. He thought he recalled her mentioning that he still lived somewhere around here. h.e.l.l, it was entirely possible Tim Fox was her captor. The man on the phone didn't really say he was currently f.u.c.king Gina. He had only said she had decided to stop f.u.c.king him and start f.u.c.king Jack. She had been in the decline of her relationship with Tim when he had met her.

More like stole her way, he thought.

Okay, yeah, maybe he had stolen her away but he didn't see how Tim Fox could be upset or bitter about that. From what Gina had said, he had a woman on the side too.

Whatever. It was time for him to go out and do something about it. If he lost Gina...

He didn't even know what would become of him. He didn't know what he would do. Spend the rest of his life looking for her, probably. So far, ever since meeting her, whenever he saw himself in the future, she had been a part of that future.

He opened the front door, ready to go, but things didn't look very good. Not good at all.