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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vanessa
Vanessa’s head felt like it would explode as things started to form in front of her. She recalled being taken and being knocked out. That meant she was somewhere now that she didn’t know. She peeled her eyes fully open to get a view of her surroundings.
The light was dim and shining in through cracks in wood planks. The floor was covered in bits of hay and dirt. It smelled of hay, too, and the lingering scent of some sort of animal. Were there still animals here?
She didn’t hear any voices. Maybe the wind was blowing outside, but she wasn’t sure if she was hearing that outside or in her head. She was tied to a chair. Ropes dug into her skin at her wrists, which were secured behind her. Her ankles were each bound to a leg of the chair.
She had to get free or she was dead. She pulled at the ropes, seeing if any were loose. Not one so much as budged. She thought about trying to crash to the ground and break the chair, but it was metal. It couldn’t break apart like wood.
She tried to see the walls and space around her. It was definitely a barn of some sort, with stalls lining either side and an open section in the middle, where she sat. Was there anything sharp that she could rub against to break the ropes? She tried to hop closer to one wall to get a better view. Even a loose nail could help, if she had some time to work at her ropes.
She scooted once, twice. The metal scraped on the wood floor. But then another sound stopped her cold.
She held very still to be sure, but she’d know that sound anywhere. Opal. Crying.
If she was here, they’d taken her, too, from the safe house. They’d found her and found out all of their plans to keep things secret and safe. Was Hunter being harmed, too? Had Jeremy figured out that he wasn’t planning to kill her?
Things were much worse than she’d even thought. Obviously, they could find Vanessa. She’d been sitting at home, looking like she was waiting for Hunter to come. And she knew that Jeremy knew where she lived. It wasn’t a real shock. But she’d thought the farm house with Mari’s parents was safe. If they’d found Opal, no one was safe.
The door banged open loudly. The same three men that had come after her stormed into the room carrying Opal.
“Mommy!” she screamed and continued thrashing in their arms.
They tossed her down and she landed on the hard ground with a thump. She rubbed at her arm, still crying, and scampered over to Vanessa.
“Oh, look who’s awake,” one of the men said.
Vanessa didn’t recognize the voice. She didn’t have time to try to figure out an escape plan or a way to keep Opal safe. The man jabbed her arm with something sharp. A needle. As he pushed down the plunger, everything started to fade to black again.
Her blood pounded loud in her ears. They would hurt Opal, and she would be unconscious. She tried to fight it, tried to keep her eyes open and will herself to stay awake, but the drugs were too strong. She was helpless. There was nothing she could do for her daughter.
Opal’s voice, calling her name in a terrified whisper, was the last thing she heard.
# # #
Hunter pulled up to the apartment complex and saw swarms of cops pouring in and out of the building. He jumped out, not even bothering to lock the door behind him or make sure it was closed fully. The yellow line of caution tape meant nothing to him. He jumped over it, and took the stairs two at a time.
Her door was wide open. It wasn’t just open because cops were all over, either. It was hanging on its hinges by a few shards of wood. Someone had kicked it in. His gut clenched. So many horrors might lay beyond that door.
He pushed past the cops, ignored their protests, and barged into the apartment. There were clear signs of a struggle. A lamp knocked over, a bullet hole in the wall. Who’d done that? He saw no bodies.
He went room by room, frantically searching. Nothing in her bedroom, nothing in Opal’s room, nothing in the kitchen or bathroom.
“Hey, you can’t be in here!” a cop yelled at him.
“Where are they?” Hunter asked, finally coming to a standstill in front of the cop.
“Who?”
“Vanessa, the woman who lives here. There was a man here, too, Nicholas. Where are they? Did you find them?”
“What’s your name?”
“Hunter. I’m Vanessa’s boyfriend.” He wasn’t sure if that was really true. They hadn’t discussed it or made anything official, but if they were in love with each other, they were something, weren’t they?
The cop nodded. “We didn’t find her, but Nicholas was here when we arrived. He’s pretty shaken up, but from what we could gather when we interviewed him, she was taken.”
