AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you waiting for?” Dillon asked.
Sean couldn’t answer because his phone rang. “Duke, what do you have?”
“Her name is Marie Fitzgerald. She lives in Austin, Texas.”
Sean’s heart skipped a beat. “Duke, I didn’t want you to risk—”
“I didn’t. I got the information through a judge in Virginia who has helped us in the past, and I went that route. Sean, I know you would do anything and risk your future to save Lucy. You’re also my brother, and I couldn’t let you lose everything you worked so hard for. Once you go down that slippery slope, it’s hard to stick on the right side of the law. We walk the line close enough.”
“Thank you.”
Duke’s trust and understanding surprised Sean, but maybe it had been there all along and Sean hadn’t seen it.
He said to Dillon, “Duke found Miller’s ex-wife. In Texas. Let’s talk to her.”
The door opened and Lucy’s captor stomped down the stairs, whip in hand. He lashed out at Carolyn three times, and she cried out and burrowed into the corner. “I will punish you later,” he said. “I know who the guilty one is.”
Lucy’s heart beat so loud that she couldn’t hear herself think. She tried to get away from the edge of the cage but of course that was futile. He slapped her with the whip. It cut her ear and she bit back a scream.
He bent down and unlocked her handcuffs, leaving one end dangling from the cage. He then walked around to the opposite side and unlocked the cage door.
“Crawl out,” he commanded.
Lucy didn’t move.
He whipped her through the slots in the cage. “Move, female! Move!”
She yelped and crawled as fast as she could away from the whip, toward the door.
He smiled. “Very good,” he said like a proud parent.
She slowly stood, using the side of the cage to support herself. He used the whip on the back of her legs and she fell to her knees again.
“You will stand when I tell you to stand.”
What the Hell was this guy about? Lucy swallowed the pain and realized that he was using the whip with great restraint—a sharp sting, but it didn’t last.
Female.
He called her “female.” What was with that? Female?
“You may stand.”
She slowly pulled herself up. She couldn’t see a gun on him; it looked like the only weapon he had was the whip. But she was weak from the drugs and bruises. She couldn’t fight him, not yet. She could run. But could she out run him? At her peak, yes. But she may not have a choice. She’d seize on the first chance she had to escape.
She glanced at Carolyn. She couldn’t leave her. He’d kill her. Even if Lucy ran to get help, he’d kill Carolyn.
She needed to get Carolyn out and find a car. Right. A car with keys in the ignition, just waiting for her.
She then remembered her bare feet. She looked around but didn’t see her shoes anywhere.
“Walk,” he ordered and gestured toward the stairs. Lucy obeyed the man behind her.
“What is your name?” she asked.
The whip came down on her shoulder and she stumbled, grabbing onto the thin wood railing to prevent falling.
“If you want to speak, raise your hand and I will call on you.”
