Her Last Day (Jessie Cole #1)(79)

“That’s Natalie,” Zee said. “And there’s a man named Dog in the locked cell over there.”

“Natalie Bailey?” Jessie asked.

“Yes. Are you here to save us?”

The sight of the two women made Jessie want to cry. She’d found Zee and now Natalie, too, yet she was powerless to help them. She’d fucked up. Never should have gone charging into the barn before calling 9-1-1. “I’m sorry,” she finally said. “Someone’s locked inside a box outside. My only thought was to get her out of there. I never should have—”

“She’s still alive?” Zee asked.

“Who?” Jessie asked. “The girl in the box? Is it a child?”

“I don’t know her age. I never saw her, but I know the madman found her on the side of the road and locked her up after she disobeyed his orders.”

“My husband is Mike Bailey,” Natalie said. “Do you know if he’s alive?”

Jessie inhaled slowly, swallowed, then looked at the woman who had moved closer now. She was so very thin. Her ribs jutted out, and the skin framing her haunted eyes was a sickly grayish yellow. “He’s alive,” Jessie told her. “Your husband has been all over the news asking for help to find you.”

Natalie began to sob, her body shaking uncontrollably.

“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.”