Remember Me
The Heart Never Forgets…
When world renowned psychic, Madelyn Rose, accepts a missing children’s case on the Navajo Reservation, she believes it is a case she is more than capable of solving. What she never expects is for Detective Bronx Daniels to dredge up images of their shared past life and challenge the foundation of her future. In the wide-open spaces of the Arizona desert, Madelyn and Bronx are forced to rely upon each other for survival as they race to save the abducted boys from the will of a madman. But with her life on the line, will Madelyn risk it all for a love that crosses time?
A split-second decision had changed the course of her life. If she survived this, she would tell him, everything. Maddie trembled as her arms were staked onto the freezing desert ground. She fought her captor, struggling against the bonds he placed upon her body. Fear slithered through her system. A part of her, that section of herself trained in connecting with spirits and others essences, understood the gravity of her situation. Her vision was coming true.
And she knew him. His eyes no longer hid the darkness inside. The masked veneer of civility had disintegrated and revealed a fanatical monster within.
Why would he do this to her?
The scratchy rope abraded her wrists, digging into her flesh. Maddie kicked furiously, attempting to keep her legs free of the binding as he began tying a length of rope about them. The moment her legs were secure she knew it was game over. There would be no escape from the feverish glean on his face. The mad man pummeled her midsection with a solid jab and she saw stars. She gasped as the pain whooshed all the air from her body. Dazed, she felt the rope secure her legs. The hope she had for escape dwindled and she knew her time was almost up.
Regrets paralyzed her. She had never told him. Explained what she had seen about the two of them. Maybe if she had been completely honest with him, things between them would have been different. He might have trusted her more.
Maddie prayed help would arrive in time even as she sensed deep within her soul that the grim reaper patiently awaited her demise.
“Why are you doing this?” she beseeched him, attempting to make sense of everything that had happened to bring them to the point. There had to be some way she could break through the madness overriding his senses.
“I will remove Satan’s stain from this earth with your death,” he swore with the devotion of a fanatic on an unholy crusade.
A silver blade flashed in the first few rays of sunlight streaming into the canyon. Maddie cringed, aware that she couldn’t stop the forthcoming pain. She whimpered as she felt the cold blade against her forearm. He pressed the blade into her skin.
Maddie screamed. Pain lanced her body. Tears formed and flowed down her cheeks unchecked. She kicked her feet, struggling to dislodge the knife, and end the agony searing her arm. She felt blood pour from the wound as he dragged the blade farther down her arm and she shrieked as the anguish intensified a thousand-fold.
“Stop, please,” Maddie begged, ashamed of how easily she buckled under torture.
He smiled. Her pain, her cries filled his countenance with satisfied glee. The blade, slicked with her blood, was withdrawn from her arm. She whimpered in relief. Hoping that he would see reason and stop this madness.
And then the torture truly began as he carved crosses on her legs and her other arm. She felt the blood stream from each of her wounds. Her body throbbed, every new slice of the knife added to her agony until she no longer cared whether she lived or died. She just wanted the pain to stop.
He laughed the whole time. Her blood pooled around her, she felt her strength diminishing with each slash of the knife, and knew in her bones that there was no hope for rescue. Her life was over. Death beckoned with greedy fingers to take her into her unwilling grave.
“Had enough Satan’s whore?” the man snarled in maniacal elation.
“Screw you,” she spat with what little energy she had left.
The mad man snapped at her words. The blade thudded on the ground. His fingers, the skin so soft, slid around her throat and squeezed. Maddie struggled for air. Her arms were useless in their blood loss and could no longer grasp at her restraints. She was losing. Her heartbeat slowed, thudding sluggishly in her chest. And she knew her time had come. His grip tightened. She thought she heard her name screamed as everything went dark.
And her life flowed into the cold desert ground as her heart stopped.
