Page 165 of Running to You

But Levi didn’t answer with more than a tiny shrug of his narrow shoulders.

At the feel of a hand on her back, she turned, and her mother pulled her close. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

“None of this is your fault.” Eliza gave her a one-armed hug, not willing to put her son down. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“Not much,” Mom said, which didn’t make Eliza feel better.

“How did they find you? Do you know?”

“I think from my planner. I saw one of the men with it, and the cabin’s address on the Cape was in there. I meant to bring it with me.”

The planner. Sam had had it in his hands when he and Eliza had been attacked at Mom’s house the weekend before. All this could have been avoided if only they’d taken it that day. As it was, they’d been lucky to get out alive.

Something on the second bed shifted. The room was dim, and it took her a moment to understand what she was seeing.

“Nicole?”

Eliza’s friend was huddled in the corner, arms wrapped around her bent knees. She wore the canvas pants all the women wore, along with a ratty T-shirt under a worn windbreaker. Nicole had always been the most put-together of the women in the dorms, her confidence and, frankly, tall and slender shape making even the ugliest clothes look fashionable. But not now. She had a black eye, her cheek swollen beneath it.

“Oh, Nicki.” Eliza sat beside her, shifting Levi to one side so she could get closer.

And give the camera a good look.

Eliza reached toward her, but Nicole flinched. “Who did this to you?”

Nicole shook her head.

“It’s okay. I won’t say anything. Did Jed do that?”

Again, she shook her head.

“Gil?”

At that, her friend flicked her gaze up, though it dropped again immediately.

Of course it was Gil. He’d probably enjoyed it, too. Eliza was just lucky Jed had told him not to hurt her or she’d look worse. She held out her hand, and after a moment, Nicole slid hers into it.

“I’m so sorry,” Eliza said. “I didn’t tell you my plan because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

Mom sat on the opposite bed, the springs squeaking. “She hasn’t said a word since they tossed her in here earlier today.”

Not a word? That was unlike her spirited friend, but this was what Jed did to people. He sucked the life out of them.

It was a sparse room with the same wood-paneled walls she’d seen in the common area, bare mattresses on two narrow beds, and a closet without a door. An overhead bulb gave off very little light.

“Wow. He even nailed boards over the window,” she said, in case the camera wasn’t picking it up in the dimness. “And what’s that behind them?” She stuck her fingers through a gap in the rough wood. “Is it a curtain?”

“They stapled black wool to cover it,” Mom said. “He’s paranoid.”

Paranoid probably wasn’t the word, considering the men outside. But it was a good opening. “No kidding. Boarding up all the windows and even the back door. What if there were a fire?”

“He’s been keeping everybody inside,” Mom added, “not even letting the children out. It’s nuts. It’s like he’s sure we’re being watched.”

Nicole hiccuped or…was she crying?

Eliza brushed her friend’s hair away from her face. “You okay?”

“Nobody’s watching. Nobody’s coming for us.” Her friend’s voice was flat, emotionless, but at least she was talking. “Nobody knows where we are. We’re going to be shoved back in those SUVs and hauled back to Utah, and nobody will ever see us again. That’s if he doesn’t kill us first.” The pain in her eyes had Eliza’s stomach churning. “I hope they do. I’d rather die than go back there.”