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She’d been saved from drowning every day in the guilt she’d have if she had let Lynn succumb to the water.
“Well, it’s over now.”
They had to get out of this black pit. She had no idea where Jimmy was or what he was doing. She worked on the scratchy twine he’d used to bind her. But the knots were small and tight. Pins and needles ran through her fingers, her sprained wrist in fiery pain and ankles too.
Using her core, she brought herself into a sitting position and scooted until her back reached concrete. Placing her shoulder blades against it and digging her feet into the floor, she pressed against the wall and slowly scooted upward until she was in a standing position. She couldn’t walk or shuffle. She hopped. Hopped again.
“What are you doing?” Ruby asked.
“I’m going to get us out of here, whatever it takes.” Ruby deserved a new life. A fresh slate. Some hope.
Violet did too.
She hopped into something hard. She winced and backed into it, feeling along cold but smooth edges. Like metal. Long. As she continued touching, feeling, her gut clenched.
It was an operating table.
This was where he put them under and removed their eyes then stitched them up. It was what he would do to Ruby. Maybe to Violet. Her heart rate sped up, and she swallowed hard.
“Violet, what is it?”
“Nothing. Just furniture.” No point adding to her terror. “How did Jimmy get you? Lula said someone came over. You went out to talk and never came back.”
“After you left, he came by the house to check on me. Jimmy’s always been a good friend. He was going to be a preacher, you know?”
“You’re running fast and loose with good and friend, Ruby.” Violet felt a tray next to the table. Metal clinked and rattled. Instruments. Another wave of nausea hit her.
“But he was.”
“He never paid for services?”
Silence gripped the room.
“He asked if I wanted help getting out. I told him no because I didn’t want to put him in danger. The less anyone knew about my plans to run, the better. That’s why I said yes to him when he asked to pay for some time. I was trying to protect him.”
Violet’s heart sank. Ruby’s twisted beliefs on the definition of protection needed to be redefined, but she was scared, desperate and trying to survive.
“Lula was inside, so...so I got into his car.”
Violet didn’t need any more details. “After, he went into a rage and blamed you for making him pay for services, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” she cried.
“And he hit you.”
She sniffed and quiet sobs came from her corner. Violet had never been a hugger, but she badly wanted to hug Ruby now.
“How did he get you here?” Violet asked.
“He jabbed me with a needle, and I was floating. When it wore off, I realized I was in the dark. Unsure where. I still don’t know where I am.”
“You’re in a chapel in the hills.” The metal tray was too high for Violet to snag an instrument, preferably a scalpel. If she knocked the tray over, he’d hear it. If he was even inside the chapel. Where was he? “How are you bound?”
“Wrists behind my back. Ankles tied.”
Atta and Nadine didn’t have marks around their wrists and ankles. He was able to subdue them, keep them under, until he got them to the cave. But with the chaos around Cecil and the police searching for Bella Dawn, he’d had to postpone his ritual with Ruby.
She rose on her tiptoes, her backside meeting the edge of the table. If she could roll onto the table and flip onto her side, she might be able to reach a tool and cut herself free.
