Immediately, Ted got on his radio.
“Josh was probably here to finish off Ryan,” Duke said.
“My thoughts exactly.”
“Any luck with the kid?” Duke asked.
I wiped sweat from my brow. “Ryan told us that Sabine is looking at property in Freetown. Odd, right? You think she dropped us a clue?”
“Kidnappers usually don’t share information that specific,” Ted said as he waited for a response on his radio. “Ryan also gave us another breadcrumb. Lopez smelled like horse shit. I’ll have my team cross-reference properties either for sale or recently sold, specifically farms.”
Could we be so lucky? My fear was we wouldn’t find Grace and Fran in time.
Ted began talking about procedure, about doing things by the book.
But criminals—including me—didn’t follow the rules.
As soon as I got back to my vehicle, I was driving to Freetown. I would search every inch of land until I found Grace and Fran.
31
GRACE
The smell of animal manure burned my nose hairs, as if I were covered in it.
“Grace,” a soft voice whispered. “Grace, wake up.”
I knew that voice. But from where?
“Please,” the girl cried. “Wake up.”
My eyelids fluttered open, and I couldn’t see through the blurriness.
A chalky and bitter taste made me gag as my head throbbed. I tried to sit up, but the dizziness was too much. I grabbed on to what felt like a metal cage. Instantly, I was thrashing around, eyes wide open, pulse pounding endlessly in my ears, and sweat sliding down my spine. The metal bars vibrated with each desperate movement, sending hollow echoes through the barn’s musty air.
Slowly, my vision cleared, the darkness giving way to thin shafts of dusty daylight that filtered through the weathered boards.
My memory followed suit, playing out like a horror movie in my head.
Don’t panic. Breathe. You’ve prepared for this.
My inner voice was right. I’d learned techniques to escape a cage if I ever found myself in one again. Yet I couldn’t think clearly.
I balanced on my knees, rocks poking into my skin as I felt my body to be sure I had clothes on. The last time I woke up in a cage, I was in only a bra and panties. But I was still in my jeans and now-dirt-ridden white sweater.
I quickly took inventory of my surroundings.
A line of cages went on as far as I could see in a barn that had seen better days. The air was thick with fear and desperation, heavy enough to almost taste. My fear, my desperation. But also that of the girl still calling my name, begging for my attention.
I followed the voice, my gaze sweeping over girls huddled behind sturdy metal bars. Some were in bras and panties, their skin covered in mud. Others were fully dressed and as clean as if they’d just arrived, terror evident on their pretty faces.
But when my attention finally landed on the blonde across from me, relief and horror commingled, making my heart stutter then surge to life despite my prior knowledge that Josh had taken Fran.
“Are you okay?” My voice didn’t sound like my own.
Her long, wavy hair was tangled in knots, like some asshole had had his way with her. But thank God she still had on her clothes.
Tears slid down Fran’s blotchy cheeks. “I’m scared,” she cried, those familiar green eyes—so like her dad’s—filled with terror so profoundly strong that I wanted to kill the bastard who had shattered her perfect world.
