“You do remember me,” he said with a satisfied sigh as he reached down and fiddled with something, the move bringing her attention to the thick metal cuffs wrapped around her wrists.
“Where am I?” Ashlyn asked in a daze only to have to close her eyes and slowly exhale when her head started spinning faster.
“My family’s legacy,” Caleb said with a satisfied sigh as she felt him shift next to her before her hands were suddenly pulled above her head by the chain, forcing her to sit up or risk having her shoulders separated.
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t the tavern,” Ashlyn said, groaning as her head dropped forward as she felt her arms being yanked above her head.
“It’s part of the underground railroad that my family ran. I found it by accident when I was ten. I was playing on the rocks by the waterfall when I found the small opening on the other side of the rock wall and climbed through it. I wasn’t sure what it was until I found this room,” Caleb explained as Ashlyn forced herself to open her eyes only to forget how to breathe when she found herself staring in familiar blue eyes.
She-
“You killed my mother,” Ashlyn said hollowly as she found herself staring at her mother, who looked exactly the way that she remembered her all those years ago.
“Ashlyn,” her mother said with a watery smile as she reached over and cupped her face with hands only to yank her hands back when Ashlyn gasped in pain as cold dread tore through her head and raced down her spine.
“You were the little girl in the backseat,” Caleb said, sounding intrigued while Ashlyn sat there, unable to take her eyes off her mother, barely aware of the tears streaming down her face. “I remember you, too,” he said as he finished securing her handcuffs above her head.
“You were the one that got away,” he said as he stepped back, drawing her attention and-
“I’m afraid that I might have killed him,” Caleb said, shrugging it off as Ashlyn felt her stomach drop when she spotted Shayne passed out on the floor across from her. She tried to go to him only to have her chains pull up tight, yanking her back against the stonewall behind her.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Ashlyn demanded as she ran her eyes over Shayne, taking in the blood pooling around him.
“Stopped him from ending our fun too soon,” Caleb drawled as he made his way across the room and double-checked the thick metal cuffs wrapped around Shayne’s wrists before hechecked his pulse. “He’s hanging in there, but it’s only a matter of time,” he said, shrugging it off before he made his way to the back of the room, drawing her attention to find a metal table with four sets of chains secured to the sides.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” her mother said as Ashlyn took a moment to take in their surroundings and found her stomach dropping as she took in several of the missing women standing against the wall to her right, watching Caleb with terror in their eyes before she forced herself to take in the rest of the room, noting the old rusty chains hanging from the walls, the driver’s licenses proudly displayed on the wall of all the women he’d killed, and the extension cords running across the ceiling above providing power to the bulbs lining the ceiling.
“You said you remembered me?” Ashlyn asked as she found herself staring at Shayne, telling herself that he was going to be okay.
He had to be okay.
“You were the little girl in the bookstore.”
“It was my mother’s store,” Ashlyn mumbled hollowly as she sat there, realizing that her uncle had lied to her.
“Which is why I went back there looking for you, but you weren’t there,” Caleb said, sounding truly disappointed.
“Why were you looking for me?” Ashlyn asked, watching Shayne for another moment before she glanced to her left to find Caleb taking his time selecting a knife.
“Because I realized after I killed your mother that I grabbed the wrong female,” Caleb said, making her frown.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ashlyn found herself asking as she watched her mother make her way across the room to check on Shayne. She watched as her mother touched Shayne only to make him flinch seconds before he released a pained groan.
“Looks like someone’s awake,” Caleb said, chuckling as he examined a large knife before putting it down and picking up one with a serrated edge.
“Ye’re fucking dead, lad,” Shayne bit out on a groan as he forced himself to sit up so that he could lean back against the wall as he placed his hand against his side.
“Probably,” Caleb said, not really sounding all that concerned.
“Please get her out of here before it’s too late,” her mother said as her terrified gaze once again found her.
“I’m working on it, lass,” Shayne said, his gaze never leaving her.
“Already working on your escape plan?” Caleb asked, sounding really freaking amused, probably because no one had ever managed to escape before.
“Something like that,” Shayne murmured before taking in the rest of the room.
“I’m curious about something,” Caleb said, drawing her attention to find him watching her curiously. “How did you find me?”
