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“Oh my God. Shawna.” Kimberly’s grip tightened on her friend. This time, the tears that filled her eyes were ones of hope.
The door closedwith a bang and Sam gave the men to the count of ten before he shook off the open cuff and shoved to his feet.
“What the fuck, Houdini?” Dean asked in amazement. Sam knelt beside him and fished out his keys to set him free before moving to Cas.
“Kid never fastened me,” he told them quickly. “I gave them a ten-second head start so they wouldn’t shoot him on the spot.” He took a second to look them each in the face before they bulleted out of the room. “He told me to stop him. Let’s try to get the kid out of this alive.”
“Done,” they said in unison. In another uniform harmony, an alarm went off on all their cells at once.
“Kimberly,” Dean said, and there was a fear in his voice that Sam had never heard there before. It sounded the same way Sam felt.
“Now what?” Dean looked from Cas to Sam as the three of them barreled out the door and into the hall. Cas already had his cell out and was barking orders.
“We’re going after Kimberly,” Sam told Dean. It was a statement of fact. She wouldn’t activate her collar because she wanted them to pick up Thai food on the way home. She was in danger, and they were going. There was an entire task force assigned to this case; he and Dean were only two of the agents assigned to it.
The force was their job.
Kimberly was their life.
Cas finished one call. As he dialed the next, he shouted orders to them. “Get your asses to Kimberly. I’ve already got a team dispatched on the scumbags and I’ll have backup on you guys within five. As soon as she’s safe—and I meanas soon!—I want you two back on the case. I want this piece of pedophile shit back inside before sundown. And Sam? I’ll pass it down the line. No one hurts the kid if we can help it.”
Chapter Eight
“I’ve gotto go in there, honey.”
Shawna was holding onto Kimberly with a death grip. She trembled with such ferocity that it made Kimberly shake.
“There is somebody in there and we drove for hours to get here. Shawna, listen to me. I’ve at least got to get them into the sun. See if I can help them and let them know that they’re safe now. What if that were you in there, honey?”
She pulled away as gently as possible. It broke something in her the way Shawna wailed and clung like a terrified child. She shushed her and cupped her face. “Listen, listen to me. You’re not alone. I’m going to go in there. No, no, just listen, I won’t go until we talk, so for now just listen, okay? I’m going to go in there, and you’re going to sit right here and watch the whole time. Okay? You won’t be alone, and you’ll be able to see me. Now, I might have to go in where it’s too dark to see, but that’s okay. I won’t stay long, and I’ll keep coming out to check on you. But Shawna? I just can’t sit out here while I know there are women in there suffering. You know I can’t. You knowwecan’t.”
Shawna gave a hiccupping sob and nodded hesitantly. “But,” she whispered, “what ifthey’rein there? Or what if they come while you are and I’m out here?” She looked over her shoulder as if expecting her abductors to materialize any moment now.
“They aren’t in there,” Kimberly told her, giving her face a reassuring squeeze. “We’ve been sitting out here for a long time now and haven’t heard a peep. As for if they come while I’m in there? Well, I guess I better hurry up then, huh?”
Kimberly kissed Shawna on her sweat-dampened forehead and held there for a second, wishing more than anything she could just sit there with her until this part was over. Shawna was petrified right now and reliving things that Kimberly could never know. But there could be women in there currently living the same traumas, and she owed it to them to face this no matter how difficult or scary it was.
Kimberly stood and walked toward the cave.
Sam and Deanraced up the twisty mountain road in steely silence. Sam didn’t have words for the scene that had just riveted them both in the interrogation room. Apparently, neither did Dean. The way everything had unfolded was going to have to be discussed and analyzed, but for now, there was only the crippling fear for the woman they loved.
They’d tried her cell, the land line at home, Kimberly’s friend Annalise from the salon, and Shawna’s cell. The only one to pick up had been Annalise, and she hadn’t heard from either woman all day.
According to the beacon, they were still two hours away from her. Sam floored it.
Kimberly didn’t runbut walked as fast as her shaky legs would carry her. Fear propelled the way. She’d given brave words to her friend, but she was terrified. She was still suffering from nightmares over the last time she’d stumbled upon a room that had bound women in it—one of them had been Shawna. For a frozen, horrible moment, she’d thought both women had died brutal, awful deaths. Finding them alive had been a miraculous relief, followed by nightmares of an entirely new variety when she’d gotten a good look at their tortured bodies. As the light grew dimmer, and the air danker, Kimberly wondered what fresh new hell awaited her nightmares now.
“Hello?” she called in as soft a voice as she could manage so as not to frighten.
Something scurried. Too large to be a mouse or lizard, and Kimberly stilled. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not with the bad men. My name’s Kimberly. I was out driving with my friend Shawna. Do you know Shawna? She was missing for a while. Not as long as you. But we found her and Sierra, and like I said, we were out for a drive.” Kimberly heard more shuffling and the sad rattle of chains. She swallowed and kept talking. “Shawna recognized where we were and made me pull over. She brought me here. She’s right outside. I promise. Look.” Kimberly stepped to the right and pointed to where Shawna sat curled around herself out in front of the cave. “Can you see her? She saved you. She wouldn’t stop until we were here. She saved you.”
“Shana’s here?” A small hopeful squeak. “Shawna?”
“Yes.” Kimberly’s voice squeaked as well. “Yes, Shawna’s right there. Can I come help?” Sobs, small and quiet, as if the woman was afraid the sound was a punishable offense.
“Shawna’s really alive?” she pleaded.
“Yes, honey.” Kimberly told her gently. “She’s right there. Look.” She took a few hesitant steps forward. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she made out an emaciated woman manacled in the throat of the cave.
