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“That’s right, just give in,” the woman said.
Ellie looked at her over the edge of the material still pressed to her face. Give in? Give in to what? All she wanted to do was sleep. All she wanted to do was lie down and not carry the weight of her own body anymore.
A second later, the woman granted her wish and eased her to the floor. Ellie’s head connected gently with the wide wooden planks, and whatever energy she had left in her body seeped out. And with a grateful exhale, Ellie closed her eyes and drifted off.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Ellie!”
The voice sounded familiar. But fuzzy and far away.
“Ellie!” It came again. This time closer.
“That’s it. Follow my voice. I can see your eyes moving under your lids. You need to wake up.”
Asher! That’s whose voice she heard. Her mind felt heavy, and the dark, dreamless sleep refused to release her. But Asher wanted her to wake up, and so she pushed against the weight of fatigue and forced herself to follow his voice. Finally, using more energy than she thought she had, she flickered her eyelids open.
Slowly, the room came into focus. A room she didn’t recognize. Posts ran from the ceiling to the concrete floor, walls were bare of drywall, the studs exposed, and a single fluorescent light, about four feet long, hung overhead.
“Asher?” she said, her voice as unsure as she felt.
“Over here, sweetheart.”
She turned her head to the right to find him sitting five feet away.
“Where are we?” she asked, trying to rise. Only something stopped her. Something digging into her wrists and ankles. Panic lanced through her. She’d been tied to a chair. Someone—the blond woman?—had tied her to a chair!
“We’re in the basement of the house,” Asher said. She whipped her head around again and studied him. He, too, had his hands behind his back, and she could make out the twine rope that held his legs in place.
“What’s going on?” she asked, trying not to hyperventilate.
Asher shook his head then winced. “I don’t know. There was a woman here earlier, though. She came, then left, then brought you down not long ago. I don’t know where she is now.”
“You’re hurt.”
His lips thinned. “Someone came at me from behind. Maybe her? I didn’t see. But they hit me with something. Hard enough that it knocked me out.”
Another shard of fear lanced through her. If Asher had been hit hard enough to be knocked unconscious, he needed to go to the hospital. He likely had a concussion, and probably a significant one at that. But that wasn’t going to happen if they stayed tied up.
“I’m sorry,” she said. She might not know why they were where they were, but she knew that it had to do with her and whoever was targeting her.
“Your show of concern is very touching.”
Both she and Asher startled as a woman emerged from the shadowed corner of the room. The same woman she’d seen upstairs. Likely the same one Asher had mentioned.
“Who are you? And what are we doing here?” Ellie demanded, certain that she’d never met her before.
“My name is Jasmine Harrow. And no, we’ve never met.” She stopped about ten feet away and leaned against one of the posts. Ellie cataloged her features. When she and Asher got out of there—and there was no other option she’d consider—she wanted to remember everything about Jasmine. If that was her real name.
Not great with heights, Ellie couldn’t guess an actual number, but she could tell that Jasmine was unusually tall for a woman. Maybe even close to six feet. Her long hair hung limp and stringy over her shoulders and down her back. A strong jawline and dark eyebrows gave her a slightly masculine look. And she had a small mole nearly exactly in the middle of her left cheek.
“Why are we here?” Asher asked, repeating the question she’d asked moments ago.
Jasmine held up her right hand, and in her palm were both their phones. “You’re here because I arranged for you to be here.”
Ellie’s stomach dropped as the woman’s cunning sank in. “I didn’t drop my phone in the parking lot at the Boom, did I?” she asked. Jasmine looked away and smiled. A private, creepy sort of smile. Ellie took the moment to scan the room in hopes of finding something to help them.
“You didn’t,” Jasmine confirmed, returning her attention to Ellie. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Asher scoping out their surroundings, too. Until today, Ellie had been the sole focus of all Jasmine’s efforts. If she could keep the woman’s attention on her, maybe Asher could look—and plot—for a way out without being noticed.
