by Willow Rose
Carter had said he had one more card to play, one he believed would smoke them out. He wouldn’t share it with Matt in detail, but Matt got the feeling that it was bad news for Eva Rae.
Chapter 53
Sydney took a late-night yoga and meditation class, while I stayed in the guesthouse raging over Christopher Daniels and the way he believed he knew me. The fact was, he didn’t know me at all.
I kept glaring down to the end of the property toward the cottage that was all boarded up. It had me curious. What was in there and why did it have to be boarded up? There hadn’t been a hurricane going through since Irma two years ago. Had they simply just never removed them? Because they didn’t use it?
Or was there something in there that they didn’t want to see the light of day?
Sydney came back after it had gone dark, looking all blissful and relaxed. She took a shower, then threw herself on the bed next to me with a deep sigh.
“My God, I needed that. You should have come, Eva Rae; it was so good, and so empowering,” she said.
I looked at her, thinking about what Christopher Daniels had told me earlier, then forced a smile, trying to push down the feeling of jealousy I felt toward her and always had felt since she came back into my life. I wasn’t going to let this control me or let Sydney sense it. I could deal with my guilt and blame on my own. I didn’t need their workshops to help me. Christopher Daniels might think he knew me, but he didn’t know me at all.
“I just feel so refreshed,” Sydney said and dried her hair gently with the towel. “Like I’m brand-new. I really like it here. It’s been a while since I felt so good about myself.”
“That’s great,” I said, not meaning it.
“You know what Christopher told me?” she asked.
“No, what?” I said, wanting to roll my eyes, but refraining from doing it. I didn’t want her to know how I felt about him and all his so-called insight.
“He said something that really resonated with me deep down. And I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but he told me it would be good for me to tell you. He told me that I was secretly blaming you for being the one who wasn’t kidnapped back then at the Wal-Mart. I mean, our dad did grab you first, and then he took me instead. According to Christopher, that has been bothering me all my life, and secretly, I’ve been blaming you for it. And I’m jealous of you for having grown up with our mother. I grew up lacking one my entire life, thinking she didn’t want me. It’s tough once you get to that age where you really need her, especially as a teenager, you know? I mean, who was I supposed to talk to about getting my period, huh? Dad? He blushed when I even asked him to buy the pads I needed.”
I stared at her. “You think Mom talked to me about periods?”
“Didn’t she?”
“Mom barely talked to me at all. I would scream for her attention but never receive it. She could freeze me out for days at a time. She couldn’t even look at me because it reminded her of what had happened. After you were gone, it was like I didn’t exist to her anymore.”
Sydney looked at me with compassion in her eyes. “Oh, dear God, Eva Rae. I didn’t know.”
I shrugged. “How could you? You weren’t there.”
I rose to my feet, feeling all kinds of emotions stir up inside of me. I hated to admit it, but Christopher Daniels was right. I was upset about Sydney getting to grow up with our dad and leaving me alone with our distant and cold mother.
Dang it, he was annoying.
Chapter 54
I sat outside of our cottage for a long time, maybe a few hours; I didn’t know. All I knew was that I felt angry and sad at the same time and that I was sick of feeling this way. Yet I didn’t know how to get rid of it, how to solve it. Maybe I should take one of his workshops?
As I sat there, looking up at the stars and the night settled everywhere, I suddenly saw activity down by the boarded-up house. Two people with flashlights approached it, speaking in low voices.
I looked at my watch and realized it was two a.m. Why were they up and walking around down there?
I rose to my feet, then hurried across the lawn, past the two other cottages, then stopped when I got closer. I watched them from afar as they unlocked the door and opened it. When they had entered, and the door was closed behind them, I ran up to the cottage and stood by the window, leaning my ear against it.
I heard whimpering coming from behind it. Someone was crying. Crying and pleading with them.
“Please, let me out, please.”
My eyes grew wide. Someone was being kept in there? Against her will?
“You can’t get out,” a voice said. “You must finish what you came here for first.”
“It’s part of the cleansing process,” another voice said.
“Please,” the woman said.
“Remember what Christopher said,” the first voice said. “It’s for your own good.”
“I know,” the woman said. “I know.”
“Don’t you want to reach enlightenment? Don’t you want to get rid of your old persona and become like new?”
“I do. I really do.”
“Then you must let go of your old ways. Your excessive pride is holding you back. This is the only way to become free from it.”
“I know. I know.”
I can’t believe these people. They’re keeping her in there? Locked up? And then they tell her it’s for her own good?
I gasped lightly as someone placed his hands on my shoulders. I stood up straight while he held me tightly between his hands.
“Oh, my, still so tense,” he said.
Christopher Daniels!
I froze in place while he leaned over my back. I could feel his body really close to mine as he whispered in my ear and breathed down my neck.
“You really need to learn how to relax. I can teach you.”
“Just like you’re teaching that woman in there?” I said.
He laughed, then closed his arms around my neck, a little too tight for my liking.
“She’s in there voluntarily,” he said. “No one forced her.”
“How long has she been there?” I asked. “Voluntarily?”
“Does it matter?” he whispered. I felt his lips close to my ear, and it made me very uncomfortable.
“I heard her pleading to be let out, yet they didn’t do it. Why is that?”
“Because she doesn’t know what is best for her. It’s part of the process, to strip her of her pride. But no one said it was going to be easy. It’s our job to make sure she doesn’t give up in the middle of the process.”
Dear God, what is this place? We need to get out of here before it is too late.
His arms were still wrapped around me, and he was holding me tight. I wanted to get out of his grip, but he wasn’t letting me go. Instead, he chuckled as I struggled to get loose.
“Your life is just one long struggle, isn’t it?” he asked. “It doesn’t have to be. It could be so much easier.”
“Let me guess, if I give in to you and your ways?” I said. “What else do you keep locked up in this place? Do you have any young girls here too? Kidnapped young girls?”
Finally, he let go of me. I panted and turned around to look at him, breathing agitatedly.
He stared at me. The way he looked at me made me feel uncomfortable, and I backed up. Our eyes locked for just a second, and I took off running back to our cottage.
Chapter 55
“I think Christopher Daniels is the Iron Fist.”
I had barely slept all night. Once my heart had calmed down enough for me to find a little rest, the many thoughts in my mind wouldn’t let me sleep.
“Excuse me?” Sydney said.
She was sitting up in bed when I entered her room and sat down next to her. She looked gorgeous, even when having just woken up. It annoyed me.
“Why would you say something like that?” Sydney continued. “He’s been nothing but nice to us.”
“He’s keeping a girl locked up in t
he cottage down by the end of the property. I heard her plead for them to let her out, and they wouldn’t. Then he came and put his arms around my neck, tightly, like he wanted to hold me down.”
“That’s a technique he uses,” she said. “To make you connect with the Earth again. He did it to me yesterday too.”
“The guy is a sleaze bag,” I said. “Why are you defending him?”
“Why do you keep accusing him? Need I remind you we’re staying here for free while the entire police force is looking for us because of you.”
I stared at my sister, biting my lip.
“I still think he’s the Iron Fist.”
“You’re insane,” she said, then grabbed her burner phone. I had asked her to get rid of her old phone now that they knew she was with me. It was too easy to track.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” she said. “I have to check my emails. I assume this thing can access the Internet?”
“It can. I only bought those that can, assuming we’d need it. The data is prepaid for by cash. But do you have to check your email now?” I asked. “It’s risky.”
“Yes, I need to do this every now and then. Since I have been on the run with you, I have been completely off the grid, and I need to check in to make sure there isn’t some big offer for the role of a lifetime that I’m missing out on.”
“Be careful,” I said. “They might send you a link for you to click, but it could give up our whereabouts.”
She gave me a look that reminded me of Olivia. It almost made me cry. I hadn’t realized until now how much those two actually looked like one another.
“There’s an email from my agent,” she said and pressed on the display of the LG burner phone. I had bought a ton of them at Wal-Mart before we left, so we could get rid of them as soon as we were done using them. I had purchased the most expensive ones since they would be able to do more, like use navigation and access the Internet, but they were still only thirty bucks per phone.
“Oh, dear God,” Sydney said.
I looked at her, and her face turned pale.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She lifted her eyes, and they met mine.
“They’re threatening me to turn you in.”
“They’re what?” I asked.
Her eyes teared up. “The police have contacted my agent and told him that if I don’t turn you in, they’ll go to all the newspapers and magazines and tell them I am a suspect in a murder case. So far, they have kept it from the public that they are looking for me too, but now they’re willing to leak it if I don’t turn you in. It’ll ruin my career. Oh, Eva Rae, I don’t know what to do.”
Chapter 56
“What is happening? Where are we going?”
It was in the early morning hours, and Olivia and Tiffany were sitting on the floor of the blue van. The armed guards had woken them up around sunrise and told them to get in.
Sitting next to her, Tiffany whispered the words to Olivia. Olivia didn’t look at her. She fiddled with the hem of her jeans that had become ripped from the many hours working at the factory. The jeans were so dirty you could barely see the blue color anymore. Olivia’s black Converse were worn out, and her pinky toe was poking out the side.
“Olivia?” Tiffany said. “Where are we going?”
Olivia shrugged, then looked away.
“Please, Olivia?” she said. “What’s happening?”
Olivia took in a deep breath, then finally looked at the girl. She reminded her so much of her younger sister; she almost teared up just looking at her.
“Remember that I said that sometimes we do other stuff besides work at the factory? Well, this is it. This is the other stuff.”
“But what is it, Olivia? What are we going to do?” Tiffany asked, her lips shaking.
Olivia shrugged. She had grown to care for the girl. Even though she had promised herself she wouldn’t, it had happened anyway. And now she was worried about her. It was the last thing she needed right now, to have to worry about someone else besides herself. But spending days with this little girl, having no one else to talk to, she had done what she decided never to do. She had gotten to know her. And now she feared something might happen to her. She wanted to protect her.
“Just follow my lead when we get there,” she said. “And don’t ask questions.”
“But…?”
Olivia sent her a look, and she stopped. Olivia felt her hands begin to shake as she worried about what was ahead.
They soon ran into a roadblock, and they could hear the driver talking to an officer outside, while the guards signaled for the girls to be very quiet. The talk lasted a few minutes, and Olivia had to bite her lip hard to not scream for help. But when looking at the guards’ guns, she knew there was no way she dared to do it. They would only kill her.
Someone walked up behind the van, and they heard voices. Hope filled Olivia and made her stare at the door, praying they’d open it and find them all.
We’re in here; Please, help us!
But the door never opened, and soon the voices faded out, and the van started back up again. Olivia felt her heart hammering in her chest as she stared at the guards with their guns. Sweat was springing from her forehead as she slowly realized they had passed the roadblock. A tear escaped her eye as her hope dwindled.
When the van came to a halt again, she gasped and looked up toward the door that was opened, and a face appeared. Their leader smiled widely at them.
“It’s time, girls.”
They rose to their feet and walked in a line out of the van, Olivia making sure that Tiffany was right behind her. Once outside, they were told to stand in a line up against a wall. The area around them was void of people. The guards had new clothes for them to wear along with plastic bags and sharpened pencils.
“Now, some of you have done this before and know what to do,” one of them said, staring each and every one of them into the eyes to make sure they understood. “The new ones follow what the rest do. As soon as you’re inside, you place the bags, hiding them under a chair or a bench, and then you poke the bag right before you leave and rush back outside, where we will be picking you up at the back entrance.”
The bags were handed to them, and Olivia took hers along with the pencil. Tiffany stared at the bag between her hands with the liquid inside of it. Olivia could tell she wanted to ask questions but held it back like Olivia had told her to. The guards and the leader didn’t like them asking questions. Olivia had seen them beat a girl until she could barely walk because of that. If you wanted to survive, you just did what they told you. Those were the simple rules to follow.
The leader came up in front of them, then walked down the line and pointed at one girl, then at another.
“This one. And that one. And…?”
The leader stopped in front of Tiffany, then placed a hand on top of her head.
“This one.”
Olivia’s heart stopped when she saw it.
“No!” she yelled and stepped forward, nostrils flaring. There was no way she could let this happen.
The leader stopped. A furious set of eyes landed on Olivia.
“Do you want to take her place?”
Olivia swallowed, then looked down at Tiffany, who was crying now. Olivia nodded.
“I’ll take her place.”
“All right,” the leader said. “As you wish.”
As they had changed and began walking in a straight line, Tiffany tugged at Olivia’s shirt.
“What was that? What did you do?”
Olivia exhaled. She felt her hands begin to shake.
“Every time we do this, they choose three girls who will be the ones who go in first. They usually don’t make it out alive. Our leader wanted you to be one of them, but I took your place.”
Chapter 57
They were told to merge into the crowd and look like any of the other children there. They had given them uniforms to wear and had even given them backpacks on their backs to make
it look like they were just kids going to school. The grown-ups pretended to be teachers and wore skirts and carried briefcases.
Olivia walked with the two other girls toward the crowd entering the school, then blended in with them, and she lost sight of the two others. They were instructed to be the ones to go upstairs and place the bags there. By the time they made it downstairs, the girls down there would already have poked holes in their bags, and it would be too late for them to make it out. Olivia knew the drill. She had done it twice before.
But the other two times, she had been among those to survive. This time was different. She had chosen to sacrifice herself.
Olivia’s hands were shaking as she followed the other children inside. She had no idea what had become of Tiffany since she had stayed behind and would enter with the four others, the ones that were going to survive. One of the adults looked at her, and she could tell she was scared too. But there was no way around it. The first time, on the train, one of the girls had tried to run before they got on the train. Two guards grabbed her and took her away. They never saw her again.
What they did was terrible; Olivia was well aware that it was. She knew the bags held a gas in them and that it killed people once it was released. She looked at all the kids hurrying to class, grins on their faces. She saw the girls chatting by the lockers, happily, only worried about the next test or maybe a boy, not knowing what was about to happen. She felt such terrible pain in the pit of her stomach.
How was she supposed to do this to them? They were nothing but kids like herself.
“If you run and we find you — and we will find you — you will be killed. If you talk to anyone, you will be killed. If you refuse to do as instructed, you will be killed. Is that understood?”
Those were the words before they sent them off, just as they had been the two other times. Olivia had listened to them, shaking, and she hadn’t dared not to do as she was told. She had wanted to survive.
