Page 36 of Keeping Caroline

Twisting back around, he stepped out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him with an ominous finality. I was alone again, but I knew it was only a matter of time before my torment resumed—a torment that I was starting to realize I may not survive.

The energy draining out of me with the drops of blood trailing down my face, I slumped against the concrete wall, wincing as my bruised body protested the movement. I forced my breathing to slow, trying to calm my pounding heart, but everything hurt, making it difficult to breathe at all.

My thoughts drifted to my daughter, her smiling face appearing in my mind’s eye, her eyes bright with the joy she always exuded, even when life was too hard. She would be so heartbroken if something happened to me, but I knew Ethan and Scarlett would take care of her. I was certain of that. He loved Evie as if she were his own. If I did not make it back home, they would look after each other. The thought gave me some comfort even as tears pricked my eyes. I never meant to leave Evie so soon after our time together had just returned to some semblance of normalcy, but in the bleak circumstances I found myself in, escape seemed impossible. All I could do was hope my brother found me before it was too late.

Unable to shield my mind from my heart, I thought of Tristan, with his shy smile and those intense hazel eyes that seemed to look right through me. We had only shared one night of passion together before I’d pushed him away, too wrapped up in my own grief to let him in. The realization that I might never get the chance to make things right tore at the fragile threads keeping my heart together.

Regret washed over me, breaking the wound in my chest wide open. After losing so much with Daniel, I had thought that staying away from love was the best way to protect myself, but I’d been fooling myself all along. I should not have been so cold to Tristan, not when warmth and affection were what I really craved deep down. After three years of grief and loneliness, I needed to allow others back in, and if by some miracle I got out of this, I would not make that mistake again. I promised myself that if I made it out alive, I would tell Tristan how I felt—that I wanted to explore the spark between us. For the moment, that hope gave me the strength to cling to life a little longer.

As I allowed myself to spiral, voices met my ears from the other side of the door, but the key did not jingle in the lock. Holding my breath for a moment, I waited for someone to enter, but when they did not, I crawled closer to the door, pressing my ear against the cool metal. With how swollen my face was, it felt good.

“It’s her,” one of the men said, his voice gruff as though he had been smoking for a lifetime. “It must be her. Same build…black hair. Bookstore. She’s lying.”

The other man scoffed, the same man who had been assaulting me. “If it is her, she’s a lot closer to her father than sources claim. Either that, or she really doesn’t have any insight on him, because she’s risking her life to protect that piece of shit.”

Both men went silent for a moment, before the heavy smoker spoke again. “So, what does the boss want to do? I don’t think she’s gonna talk. Not if she hasn’t by now.”

Adjusting my weight off my aching ankle, I sat on the ground, leaning back against the wall. I pressed my cheek against the door again just in time to hear the long-haired man clear his throat, his voice going lower as though he stepped farther away. “We can’t let her go, so Aresco wants to list her. If she’s lucky, her family will find her before the auction. Either way, he intends to get the money he’s owed by her father.”

Heart dropping into the concrete beneath me, I scurried to the back of the room, barely making it away from the door before everything in my stomach came hurling back up. He was going to sell me, auction me off like cattle to the highest bidder to make the money back that he had lost to Scarlett’s father. I was out of time. I had to find a way out of the twisted game I was an unwilling participant in before I was sold and disappeared forever, leaving Evie without a mother and Ethan without a sister. Leaving Tristan…

With every ounce of strength I could muster, I stood, stumbling to the chair, and yanking hard, but it barely moved. Adrenaline coursed through me as I frantically scanned the room, the rate of my heartbeat, or possibly the concussion, making me sway. This time, when I yanked on the chair again, one of the screws bolting it into the floor popped, landing somewhere in the darkness. I blew out a breath, crouching to rest for a moment but wincing as I put too much pressure on my sore ankle.

For a few minutes, I just kneeled there, my head resting on my forearm as I held onto the chair, but I did not have the luxury of time.

Clenching my teeth, I rose back onto shaky legs, my hands white-knuckled on the chair as I put all I had into yanking it again.

Bolt ripping out of the floor, I toppled over, the chair landing on top of me when I hit the ground. I knew I had made too much noise, and the fear that one of them was still by the door and had heard me froze me in place. With no more air in my lungs, all I could do was lay there and try to breathe.

After I was sure no one was coming into the room, I rose back to my feet, pushing the chair and stumbling toward the window. My legs were weak, but I climbed onto the wobbly piece of furniture, holding onto the wall to peer out the window. Disappointment seized the breath in my lungs as I realized just how small the window was. Already broken on one side, the fresh mountain air came into the opening, taunting me with a freedom that I had no way to achieve. I would never be able to fit through the opening.

The tears barely came as I sucked in a breath, realizing how trapped I truly was, realizing the decision I would be forced to make if I did not want to end up on the auction block. If I could not get myself out, I would have to find a way to end my captivity on my own terms.

My hands shook as I fumbled to break a piece of glass off the already broken window, the jagged edge glinting under the dim light of the moon. Squeezing my eyes closed, I shook my head, the idea of leaving my family—my daughter—behind unbearable. But what awaited me if I lived? A life of cruelty, chained in some monster’s basement. The light in my soul snuffed out. It would be a fate worse than death.

Reopening my eyes, I pressed the shard into my palm, wincing at the sharp sting. Beads of blood bubbled up and I watched them roll down my wrist, transfixed. My hand shook, the makeshift blade hovering over my wrist as I stared at the semicolon tattoo just above where I held the piece of glass. Just one quick slice down the veins. It would all be over. No more beatings, no auction block. No Ethan, or Evie, or future with Tristan.

I squeezed my eyes shut again, praying to the universe for courage. One breath in. One breath out. With a sob, I opened my eyes, tears clouding my vision, and yanked my watch off my wrist, the shard of glass dropping from my hand when a tiny black object the shape of a hair clip fell to the ground, it’s smooth surface reflecting the light of the moon like a beacon to help me find my way home. Tristan’s tracking device.

Chapter 25

The Phantom

The glare of the monitors seared my eyes as I scoured the dark web, chasing ghosts. What I really needed was sleep, but Caroline was out there somewhere, so I had to find her. There was no time for sleep, not until she was safe in her own bed.

My fingers moved across the keyboard, jumping from one encrypted site to the next. Dead ends and empty leads taunted me at every turn, an aching pit of failure in my chest growing bigger with every hour I did not find her.

As I searched through The Underbelly for more posts by ShadowRunner, a notification flashed on the bottom of my screen. I clicked it to find a grainy video clip waiting from Legacy. My mentor had been digging through surveillance footage since the day before looking for signs of the black SUV that was used in Caroline’s abduction.

Pulled from the nearest city from where she had been taken, the new clip showed a black SUV with blacked-out windows cruising down a main thoroughfare before turning onto a side street. I held my breath as I ran the plates, but nothing pulled up in the system. It was likely the correct vehicle, but with no other camera footage to determine where they went from there, it was another dead end. Still, I forwarded the clip to Ethan.

Slamming my fist on the desk, the sting barely registered through the haze of desperation that clouded my mind. Caroline needed me to be at the top of my craft, but I had never felt so useless.

My fingers trembled as they returned to the keys, not knowing where to look next, when the door creaked open behind me, pulling me from the dark web’s endless maze. I turned to see Evie’s small frame silhouetted in the doorway, holding her stuffed llama in her hands.

“Hey, Captain,” I said, opening my arms to her. She rushed over, burying her face in my chest. I stroked her head, wishing I could take away the pain and fear I knew raged inside her.

“Is my mommy going to be okay?” she asked, her voice quivering.

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