Page 133 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
“It’s got to be something to do with this kid. My gut’s telling me he’s the link. I’m going to the hospital to talk to him myself. Meet me there with Sam,” I ordered.
Once I got a reluctant Rowen situated with my team, I got in my truck and flew into town. Scottie Pierce was going to tell me what the fuck was going on, even if I had to beat it out of him.
I woke up alone on a cold cement floor, lying on my side with my hands bound behind my back.
Everett and Benson had taken me to a basement, judging by the small rectangular windows topping the concrete-block walls. Tall metal shelves lined the room, stacked with extra medical supplies. In the corner, a bed was wrapped up in plastic.
We were at the hospital.
I had never been in the hospital’s basement before. During my initial tour, my boss had pointed to the basement door but hadn’t brought me down here. The basement door was right by the staircase that led upstairs to the second floor. I’d walked by that door countless times but never through it.
My body was shivering violently, both from the cold and my fear. When Everett took me from the farmhouse, I hadn’t been wearing a coat and my feet were bare. It was freezing cold lying here on the cement floor in only a pair of torn jeans and a long-sleeved olive thermal.
How long had I been here? I’d taken off my watch to cook dinner. No light came from the basement windows, but it was dark so early these days that didn’t tell me much. It could be six o’clock in the evening or three o’clock in the morning.
I hoped that Rowen was okay and Jess had found her in the garage. That Everett hadn’t changed his mind and gone after her once I’d blacked out.
How was Jess ever going to find me? My phone was on the kitchen counter. My car was parked in the driveway. And unless Everett left a trail of breadcrumbs for Jess to follow, which I highly doubted, he wouldn’t know the first place to start looking.
I laid my head back down on the floor and curled my legs tightly into my chest, trying to keep as warm as possible. My head jerked up to the doorway as a loud metal door slammed shut. The thud of boots echoed off the cement walls, louder and louder, as footsteps came my way.
Everett strode into the storage room, followed by Benson. He was carrying a woman in his arms. But it wasn’t just a woman.
It was Maisy.
Her blond head was tipped back, a gash on her temple. Her arms and legs were dangling by her sides.
Oh my god! Please let her be alive.
“Well, well. Look who’s finally awake,” Everett said with a snide grin.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
He watched me struggle to sit up. His glare was filled with hatred. I was looking at a stranger.
He wasn’t the Everett I knew, the nice, handsome doctor I’d worked with for over six months. He wasn’t the quiet or shy man Maisy had dated this fall. There wasn’t a trace of the compassion or kindness I had seen in him before.
It was all gone.
Replaced by anger and arrogance. His eyes were cunning and evil. This was absolutely not the Everett I knew.
“Gigi, always so curious,” he said. “You’d have been better off to be like our dear Maisy here. Stupid. Benson, put her down over there,” he ordered, pointing to the hospital bed.
Benson dumped Maisy on the bed. She drooped down, not moving a muscle, but her chest expanded with a breath. Unconscious, but alive. I hoped that whatever they had done wasn’t hurting her baby.
“Please, Everett. Don’t hurt us. I don’t know what’s going on but please just let us go,” I pleaded.
“Scottie told you about me, didn’t he? I knew it when I saw you walk out of his room. You were putting it together.”
“Putting what together?” I asked.
“Don’t play stupid, Gigi. It doesn’t suit you. You know full well that I’m the one supplying the junkies in town with prescription pills, not to mention half of the high school students. Scottie just couldn’t keep his mouth shut, could he? Well, we’ll be taking care of him tonight too.” The snarl on his face was pure evil.
“What? He didn’t tell me anything! I swear, Everett! I don’t know what’s going on. Please. Please just let me and Maisy go,” I begged.
“Don’t lie, Gigi.”
“I’m not. I swear! I don’t know anything. Please, Everett, please don’t hurt us. Maisy is pregnant. I have a little girl that needs me. Just let us go,” I begged again, my eyes filling with tears.
