Page 91 of Anything for You
Hewas the father of Violet’s baby. He hadn’t spoken her name or made eye contact with her. He hadn’t held her hand or offered her a drink. He’d just stood in the corner, watching.
Now in this makeshift exam room, I found yet another young woman. She was the fourteenth woman between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three I’d seen and she had a similar affect and symptoms as the others. Since Jeb never left me alone with any of them, I never directly asked if they were here by choice, but I knew in my gut.
Those women were not okay. I didn’t know whether Jeb planned to make them all his broodmares or what, but the fury was building even after exhaustion had long since started pulling me apart.
At this point, I’d had it. And so after a quick exam which showed similar signs of malnutrition and possible infection I couldn’t properly diagnose without testing kits, I tossed my gloves into the trash and saw an opening. Jeb had leaned out of the room, one foot still glued to the floor in the middle of the doorway as though I needed the reminder I couldn’t simply leave, and I had to take the chance.
“Are you here by choice?” I asked, voice low and calm. “Do you want to be here?”
Her deep brown eyes flicked to the door, the same nervous energy so many of the girls had exhibited sending my heart rate up.
But she didn’t speak, and time was running out. I didn’t actually need her to say it for me to know something was very wrong here, but I wanted the confirmation. I wanted one of these young women to give me a sign and I’d figure out how to get them out of here. If Dorian came, I’d get them out. It had taken me speaking out to someone back in the cult for her to start looking for Nan and then getting me out. I could do this—be like that brave young woman who’d helped me—and pay it forward now.
“You can tell me. I can get you out of here.”
Her eyes widened, and she swallowed hard. Her mouth opened, but before she spoke, her gaze snapped up to the doorway.
“We all done here?” Jeb’s voice cut in.
My hopes plummeted and with them, all my energy seemed to drain away.
“Yeah. Like Jenny and Gina and Jayla and at least three others, I suspect she has strep throat. They’ll need antibiotics, especially if you want to stop this from spreading further. It’s irresponsible?—”
“That’s enough.” He looked past me to the woman now cowering in the exam chair and jerked his chin to one side.
She instantly got up and left the room without a word.
“These women… why are they here? What are you doing to them?” My voice shook, and I hated the sound of it.
He turned to me in a slow-motion move that sent a chill down my spine.
“What we do here, Ms. Jensen, is none of your concern.You only need to do the job you came to do, the one you willingly accepted when you slapped on your first pair of gloves.”
Sensing any further argument would get me nowhere and also wear me out even more, I nodded, lips glued together and eyes downcast. I wouldn’t challenge him now because I couldn’t. I didn’t have the energy to run through the woods and even though I had to be close to Dorian’s, I wasn’t surehowclose. I also hadn’t been out of this building since they’d brought me in. While I was potentially doing some good for the people here, I didn’t feel right about fleeing despite the gut-level need to get out and away from this slime bucket.
At some point, I’d make a break for it if no one came for me. But first, I needed to rest.
Following him out of the exam room and trailing just behind in the hallway, I dared ask, “Would it be possible for me to have some food and rest? I’m not sure how many more patients I can see without at least an hour or two of sleep.”
His movement was so fast, I never had a chance of anticipating it. Before I knew what was happening, his hand was at my throat and I was pinned against the hallway wall.
“You will do as I say when I say it. You will stop asking questions and trying to play gumshoe like anyone is ever going to believe your lying whore mouth. You will cooperate and do it when I tell you. Then and only then will I consider letting you rest. You are nowhere near the point of showing true loyalty.”
And there it was.
Not that I hadn’t seen enough here to disturb me, but there he showed his hand, no pretty manners or pretense.
He wanted blind loyalty. Somehow, he’d gotten it from my brother and the other idiots surrounding him. Hemight’ve even coerced it out of these women, though I suspected that came far more from fear than loyalty.
He wanted it without treating people well, without respecting others… He wanted it at the threat of violence and subjugation.
At this point in my life, I almost laughed in his face—it was so brutally familiar after the childhood I’d endured. Instead, I stayed silent, uninterested in giving him any excuse to show me what a tough guy he was.
Maybe I was delirious with exhaustion or rage, but I’d entered a weird mental space where I’d long ago stopped worrying about leaving. I knew I’d get out of here. I knew Dorian would come and he’d bring Saint Security and probably the Silverton PD and Sheriff Ryan down on this place—it was a matter of time.
For now, I would survive. I’d help as many people as I could, and when the time came, I’d tell anyone who would listen every single thing I’d seen, so the boys of Patriot Ridge would spend a nice long time in jail.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
