The two women nodded.
“We puked every night for the first week,” Avery admitted.
Fear swept over me, and I sat, letting my body absorb this horrid reality. The adjustment would prepare me for whatever horrors were waiting around the corner. Kain’s past surfaced in my head, and anxiety stiffened my shoulders. This was what he’d experienced.
“They’re also sex trafficking,” Hailey said. “I saw men escorting some of the women into an unfamiliar room. I heard crying and screaming and pleading. And the next day, they were gone.”
“I heard a client liked Connie, so Tony agreed to sell her. She was still here with us in the complex when he told her the news. Connie begged to go home, but she didn’t make it through the maze.”
“A maze?”
“If they catch you escaping, they usually kill you. But sometimes they give you a chance to escape if you beg them enough. I think it’s their sick way of traumatizing you before they kill you. There’s no escape.” Terror filled Avery’s eyes. “The maze is in the woods. It’s filled with deadly traps.”
The more the women talked, the more helpless I felt. Kain’s horrible experience flashed into my memory. The fearthat had overwhelmed him was doing the same to me. He had to escape through a maze too. How could I escape?
Despite the doubts, I had to stay positive. I held Kain’s face in my vision. Love filled my chest, followed by sadness. He needed to know how I felt about him, that I was sorry for doubting him. I should have confessed my love to him, because from the look of things, I might not get another chance.
Don’t give up just yet.
I was about to ask them who oversaw this place when noises sounded outside the door.
Avery placed a finger to her lips and rushed back to bed with Hailey. Avery grabbed a book on the nightstand while Hailey took a brush to her hair.
A man with brown hair entered, glanced at the women, and turned his attention to me. He stood about five-eleven and wore dark pants with a T-shirt that showed off his tattoos, but they weren’t as intricate as those on Kain. Kain also had more muscles than this man. At first, I didn’t recognize him, but when he smiled, my heart plummeted.
He was the man who had ordered the pots of bleeding hearts.
“It’s you, William Bell,” I said, my heart racing. “The one who loves bleeding hearts.”
“Hello, Eva. You’re so perceptive. Call me Tony.” He stepped closer, staring at me with intense eyes that sent a whisper of a chill across my skin. “Nice to have you join the organization. You’re going to help us harvest these beautiful bleeding hearts.”
“Why?” I asked, referring to why he wantedmeto harvest flowers.
But he wasn’t thinking that. “Because they’re my favorite flower.”
I knew I shouldn’t ask, but the question came outanyway. “Are you the man murdering women and placing bleeding heart flowers in their hands?”
“It’s not murder,” he said with a straight face. “I’m sending them off to the afterlife. They’re at peace now.”
I opened my mouth to retort but closed it when I realized something wasn’t right with him.
“Let’s go. I’ll show you the greenhouse, and then you get to help the others package some products.” He glanced at Avery and Hailey. “You’re responsible for teaching Eva and making sure she adjusts well. If she fails, you fail.” A smirk crept onto his face. “You don’t want that to happen, do you?”
“No, Tony,” Avery and Hailey said together.
Chapter Forty-Six
Eva
My heart pounded in my chest as I followed Tony down a hallway with cement walls, tile flooring, and fluorescent lighting. We passed several rooms with metal doors, but they were closed. I heard crying coming from the rooms, and nerves stirred in me.
Were there captives in those rooms?
As Tony walked beside me, a pensive look spread across his face. The deep lines on his forehead and those around his eyes made him look older than Kain. I doubted Tony captured me only to care for the bleeding hearts. Was he after Kain?
If I were going to die here, I’d want to know everything. And if I escaped, then any information could assist Kain.
Inhaling a quiet breath, I looked at him. “Why did you kill them?”
