“That chair you’re sitting on isn’t chained to the wall or the floor,” Zee said. “If you could move closer to me, I might be able to reach through the bars and untie you.”
Jessie pushed up and forward, a hopping motion. The chair moved forward at least an inch, then nearly toppled over.
“Not so fast, stupid.” Laughter followed.
“Sorry,” Zee said.
Jessie scooted her chair a half inch at a time toward Zee’s cell. Arlo had warned her that Zee could get violent. Without meds, there was no telling what she might be capable of, but that was the least of her problems.
“Hurry,” Zee said. “He could return any moment.”
Natalie had crawled closer to watch. Jessie had seen stories about the woman who had been taken from her home in the middle of the night. She looked nothing like the pictures her husband had provided the media.
Jessie hobbled onward, her legs shaking. She wasn’t sure she would make it, but then Zee reached out with long arms and helped pull her along, dragging and turning the chair so she could work on untying the ropes. The girl was strong. Jessie could feel her fingers pulling and tugging at the rope, determined to free her.
Footsteps above, and then a scraping noise stopped Zee midmotion. “He’s coming.”
The woman in the other cell dropped to the straw-covered ground and scrambled to the corner, where she curled into a ball like a pill bug.
Jessie thought Zee would run off to a far corner, too, but her fingers began to move at a quicker pace, frantically working the knots in the rope. Pulling. Tugging. Loosening.
Jessie was helpless to do anything but sit there. She pulled on her wrists until Zee yanked her hand, making it clear she wasn’t to move.
She thought about Olivia being home alone, how worried she would be when Jessie failed to return before dinner. She thought about Colin. Once he heard the message she’d left him, he would find her. He’d find them all.
A door creaked open, allowing a sliver of light inside.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, so loud they shook the rafters.
The young man standing before Jessie looked exactly like the image reflected in Zee’s sunglasses. A regular-looking guy, average in height and weight. He wore denim pants and a plaid shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, as they had been in the picture she’d shown around. His hair had grown some since and hung straight and limp past his ears, one of which was missing a chunk of flesh.
It was him. Her attacker.
He set a tin bucket on the ground, then lit two oil lamps, smiling when he caught Jessie’s gaze. It was only then that she was able to catch a glimpse of the underlying evil within.
Through it all, Zee continued to work at the ropes. Nothing was going to stop her. She wanted her freedom.
Forrest Bloom walked over to her. He slapped Zee’s hands away, grabbed the chair Jessie was sitting in, and dragged it back across the room away from Zee.
“How many more people are you going to bring down here?” Zee asked. “It’s getting a little crowded.”
Zee’s fingers were wrapped tightly around the metal bars when he walked back to her cell. He clasped his hands over hers and held tight. “Feeling claustrophobic, Zinnia?”
She yanked her hands free, then swiped them across her pants as if to rid herself of his germs.
He chuckled, then left her alone, turning his attention back to Jessie.
Jessie lifted her chin. “I called the police. They’ll be here any moment now.”
“No, you didn’t. After I knocked you over the head, I was able to use your thumbprint and check all calls made before I shut your phone off. But not before I wrote down Olivia’s name and number so I could pay her a visit later. You know—tonight or maybe tomorrow. Whenever I happen to get bored.” He lifted a brow. “And believe me—sooner or later I always get bored.”
The idea of this man going anywhere near Olivia made her chest tighten. “There are people who know where I am,” Jessie said as she fiddled with the rope, felt it give. “This is the end for you.”
“Oh, really? Who do you mean, exactly? Do you think it will be that lunatic crime reporter you’ve been hanging out with? Is he going to save you?” He rubbed his chin. “Hmm. The one who doesn’t remember who he is or where he’s from? We both know it won’t be that cop friend of yours . . . the one who arrested Zee’s father as a suspect in the Heartless Killer case. He’s way too busy to come looking for you.”
“What are you talking about?” Zee asked. “How would you know any of that? You’re a liar.”
He smiled at Zee. “I watched the news. I have Internet. I’m not a mental case like you.”
“Is it true?” Zee asked Jessie. “Was my father arrested?”
“It’s true,” Jessie said. “I spoke to him this morning, told him I would find you.”
Forrest Bloom clapped his hands. “And you kept your promise. Good job, Jessie Cole.”
“My dad doesn’t like being trapped in confined places any more than I do,” Zee said before she shook the bars again, making a racket. “Let me go, you fucking monster!”
Forrest’s facial expression changed in an instant. He lifted both hands and shook the metal bars right along with her. “You’re the fucking monster!” he yelled. “When are you going to get that through your fucked-up brain? Where are all those people you talked about that were going to come out here and mess with me? Huh? Where are they, Zee?”
She backed away. “You’re an ass.”
“You’re a coward,” he shot back. “If you could see yourself now, you would realize all those voices in your head are just worthless thoughts in your brain. Nothing more.”
“Shut up!” Natalie shouted. “Just shut up! Both of you!”
“Well, would you look at that,” Forrest said. “The only daughter of the most inept social worker ever to live has some life left inside of her.”
“What’s your endgame? What’s the purpose of all this?” Natalie asked as she pushed herself to her feet, struggling to stay upright as she walked his way. “Did you bring us all here as payback for the things your daddy did to you? Is that why we’re here? Did anyone ever tell you that two wrongs don’t make a right? Did you ever stop to think that you’ve become worse than the man who you spent your whole life despising?” She snorted. “How can that possibly make things better for you?”
Forrest turned away and walked back to the stairs.
Jessie felt the ropes loosen. She continued to work her hands, rolling her wrists, ignoring the areas where the rope had chafed her skin. Almost there. Just a little longer and she’d be free.
“Where are you going, Forrest?” Natalie asked. “Off to get the hose again? Or do you have more spiders to toss at us? They were delicious, by the way, kept us nourished, thank you very much. What new-and-improved torture have you worked out in that demented mind of yours?”
Forrest stopped, his foot resting on the first step. “I’m going to rip that tongue right out of your mouth.”
“Oh no!” Natalie cried, her tone lined with sarcasm. “Please don’t do that!”
Jessie tried to ignore the scene playing out before her. She needed to focus on getting free. Maybe Natalie knew that. Maybe she knew exactly what she was doing.
“Did you get kicked out of college because you were as dumb as your father always said you were?” Natalie asked him. “Or did one pretty girl too many turn down your unwanted advances? I mean, come on—nobody could love a boy like you. A boy his own father couldn’t love.”
Forrest had continued climbing the stairs as Natalie hurled every taunt imaginable at the man. Once he reached the top, his steps were loud stomps above their heads.
“I think that’s enough,” Zee said in a low voice. “Getting him mad is one thing, but he’s going to kill you.”
Jessie looked over at Natalie then, and she could see it in the woman’s eyes. That was exactly what she wanted. This wasn’t about escaping. She had given up. She was ready to die.