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“What?” Her eyes grew wide with fear, and she dropped the dish she was holding. It shattered into pieces, scattering across the floor. “Are you fucking serious? What’s going on, Kat?”
How much could I say without revealing the truth about the Fathers? But there was no time to craft a story, to weave a web of lies.
The other girl in the room, a petite brunette named Mandy, paled at my words. “Oh my god, we’re going to die!” she whimpered, clutching at her chest.
“No, we’re not,” Lily interrupted, her voice steady, which I loved about her. She straightened up, took a deep breath, and gave me a quick nod.
“I’ve seen this stuff on TV.” Mandy was breathing faster. “They steal girls to sell them on the black market or harvest our organs. And out here, no one will be able to help us until it’s too late.” She was talking fast, wrapping her arms around her middle, her chin trembling.
“Calm down. That shit’s not gonna happen. Now, let’s do this,” Lily explained, sounding calmer than me. It probably helped that she didn’t know the full truth of our predicament.
Emerging from the kitchen, we found the dining room in chaos. Half the girls were huddled in one corner, whispering and shaking, while the rest were arguing, with Louise at the center of it all. Of course, she was…
Lily cleared her throat loudly, then when that didn’t work, she whistled, the sound echoing in the room.
“Hey, bitches, pull your shit together, and let’s get moving if you want to survive,” she ordered, pointing out of the dining hall. “We’ve had emergency evacuation practice. This is the same thing, but instead of going outside, we’re filing into the basement. Got it?”
I couldn’t help but let out a brief chuckle, despite the circumstances. “That’s how you rein in wild cattle, huh?”
Lily winked at me. “More like wild hyenas. They only listen when they’re scared.”
At Lily’s command, panic swelled in the room, but this time, the girls didn’t argue. They didn’t question. They ran.
Lily led the way, her steps fast, to a set of stone steps cast in shadows.
The basement was dimly lit by two lit lanterns. The place was musty, filled with the scent of old wines and damp earth. Cobwebs hung from the low ceiling, and rows of dusty wine bottles lined wooden racks. The door creaked closed behind us, and the room plunged into a stifling sense of suffocation.
I swallowed hard, my pulse pounding as I scanned the frightened faces of the girls. Lily was doing a quick count to ensure we didn’t miss anyone. This wasn’t how any of us had envisioned our day, but we were safe—for now.
The girls clung to one another.
“We need to call the cops!” Stacy suggested while another was adamant about contacting her family.
“For now,” Lily snapped, her voice echoing in the confined space. “You all need to lower your voices, and we need to remain hidden. We wait until it’s safe. Got it?”
“And how will we know that?” another asked, which led to everyone voicing a question until they were loud enough for the whole forest to hear them.
“When the Fathers come for us,” I said, trying to sound braver than I felt on the inside.
Lily and I stepped into the shadows as she whispered amid the growing voices among the girls, “We’re missing one.”
My heart hammered as I suspected I knew the culprit. “Let me guess… Louise?”
She nodded. “That bitch must have one working brain cell in that huge head of hers.”
I might have laughed, except I was worried that she was up to something else. And as much as I disliked her, I didn’t want her dead.
A cold knot of terror formed in my stomach. I should leave her up there, but the least I could do was go up there and check on the three guys. And if I found her in the process, then lucky for her.
Mason
Cold fear slithered up my spine.
Bridge, Logan, and I exchanged a grim glance before we swiftly moved into the front yard, guns poised and ready.
The outside chill bit through my clothes as we carefully walked around the grounds covered in trees and oversized shrubs, the perfect spot for anyone to hide out. The gravel beneath my boots seemed to crunch louder with each step we took, the noise unnerving in the near silence that had settled around us.
Bridge and Logan spread outward.
