Page 135 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
Please let him make a mistake. Please. Please. Please.
From my position against the far back wall, I could see through the storage room’s door and into the hallway. If I could just make it out and up the stairs, I’d be free. There were people working upstairs. I just had to get to them.
If it was the evening shift, someone would be in the ER. If it was the night shift, the nurses would be on the second floor. But even if I didn’t see any of the staff, if I could just make it upstairs to a phone, I’d be safe.
I focused on finding my opening, desperately trying to block out the fear in my mind. I was going to make a run for it. He hadn’t tied my legs, so even if I couldn’t get my arms free, I could still run. I might have to come back for Maisy.
The sound of the stair door opening again snapped my eyes to the doorway. I was expecting Alex Benson to stroll through with another life on his hands. But it wasn’t Benson. It was Ida.
“Ida!” I screamed. “Help us! Run, please get help!” Hopefully, my warning would give her a few extra seconds and she’d have a head start on Everett.
My shouting stopped when she grinned at me. She wasn’t running. She was down here on purpose.
“Scottie’s done,” she told Everett. “Benson left to prep the site for these two. Here’s another dozen pills.” She handed him a little baggie full of oxycodone.
“Good,” Everett said. “Stash them over in the corner with the others and then go back upstairs. Wait for me to call. I need to do a few things here before we’ll be ready to leave.”
My heart plummeted into my stomach with crushing disappointment. All hope was lost.
Not Ida. Please not her too. I had respected her. I had liked her. I had trusted her. Now that was dead. She was an evil stranger who’d betrayed me and betrayed Maisy.
This nightmare just kept getting worse.
With her task complete, she looked at me and snarled, “Bye, Gigi.”
Her whisper sent chills through my spine. The weight in my chest was getting heavier and heavier. Every passing minute things were getting worse and the fear just kept building.
How long had she had been helping Everett steal pills from patients? She’d been smuggling them right out from under all of us. No wonder Mr. Johnson hadn’t responded to the oxy. He hadn’t gotten any.
To think of all the patients these two had seen over the last year, all of the pain that they’d endured because they’d been given fake pills. It was sick and cruel.
My head whirled to Maisy as she stirred on the bed, the plastic crumpling and squeaking as she shifted around.
“Oh, good. Now that she’s awake, we can move this along,” Everett announced.
Maisy looked to Everett and then over to me on the floor. Her eyes filled with panic when she saw the plastic ties around my wrists.
“Maisy, love,” Everett said, walking to the bed. “I want you to understand that your actions have brought this upon you. You should have terminated this pregnancy. I told you I had no interest in fathering a child. But no matter. The fetus will not be alive much longer.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a prescription bottle.
“You’re going to take these,” he said. The pills rattling as he shook the bottle. “You might survive them. That fetus won’t.”
“No!” she screamed but stopped when he whipped out a hand and slapped her.
“You will. Or I’ll slit Gigi’s throat right in front of you.”
She shook her head frantically and pushed herself as far away as she could.
This wasn’t a nightmare. This was hell. Maisy and I had been kidnapped and taken straight into hell.
He leaned his body over hers, pinning her to the bed, and started prying open her mouth.
“Stop!” he bellowed.
She was kicking and clawing at his hands, twisting her head out of his grip.
The sound of her screams filled my ears. I had to get us out of here. I had to stop this madness. I wouldn’t let him force those pills into her mouth and take us to the “site” that Benson was preparing.
