The Day I Kissed An Older Man by Cher the Cherished

Melody had never used the card Lucas gave her, and her first purchase was for a sum of a million dollars. 'What on earth did she buy?' he wondered.

A million was a mere blip in Lucas' coffers, but that same amount was an utterly out-of-character purchase for Melody. He knew her well enough to know she would never touch his money unless it was an emergency.

Sensing that something was amiss, he dialed Melody's number. The silence on the other end was not normal.

He frowned and contacted the film crew to ask if Melody was at the set.

The crew member answered, "The shooting ended early, so she left. I think she mentioned wanted to visit a bookstore."

Lucas hung up and wondered why Melody would switch off her phone on a trip to the bookstore.

He called home and was told that Melody was not there. The situation was getting more and more difficult.

He got up, flung open his office door, and barked out an order to Edmund, "Locate Melody's phone! I need to know where she is!"

"Yes, sir!" Edmund answered when he sensed the urgency in Lucas' voice. Though he did not know what happened, he felt that it was not the time to ask questions and swiftly directed the technicians to start searching.

being school dropouts. However, it never occurred to them

balance on his phone. "A million bucks is

buzzcut saw things from

her for more, and she had to delay them for as long as

was a smart man, and she believed that he would notice that something was amiss from

a gargantuan amount of effort to locate the

"Sir, we've found her!"

"Based on satellite images, your wife's phone seems to be at this unmarked location. I did a

his eyes. "How far is it, and how long will it

come to an hour's drive

long! Is

telling what those kidnappers would do to Melody! Lucas could not afford to wait

route would be to take the elevated highway and then the mountain road. This will cut our journey time in half, but the narrow and winding mountain road

and had decided to take the quickest option. "Take the smaller

price to pay for reaching there as quickly as