She tried to control her breathing and settle the contents of her shaky stomach. “I helped bury dead people. Dead people that have been murdered. Isn’t that a crime or something? I helped James and Zeke keep the other women from running away. I ratted them out if I heard them talking about running. I withheld their food when they wouldn’t do what they were told to do. Every one of the other women looked at me like I was one of the bad guys. And maybe I was.”
“I asked you if you needed a doctor.” His flat tone scared her more than if he had ranted or accused her of atrocious, unforgiveable crimes.
“I don’t need a doctor. What I need is someone to look at me like I’m normal for a change.” That was the truth. Uncovered and exposed.
The tension in his shoulders melted. “That’s not going to happen yet. You’ll have to live with other people in a normal way awhile before you can expect to be treated like a normal person. It’s going to take time.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “What if I don’t have time?”
“Right now, as far as I know, you have all the time in the world to start your life over, but I’m not gonna lie. It won’t be easy. The thing is, Chelsea… We’re never guaranteed our next heartbeat. We never know when the last one we took will be our last. So we have to live our lives as if we’re never gonna get another one.”
“You really believe that?”
“Yeah, I do.” He sighed as if all the weariness he probably felt was hitting him in the gut and then continued. “I regret that we fought the last time I saw Kristie. The last thing I said to her…I wish I could take it back. Like I never said it. She might still be alive. Happily married and alive.”
“You’ve been looking for her a long time, haven’t you?”
“Almost four years.”
Pain ripped through her. For her own sorry life. For the way Jordan’s had stalled while he searched for his sister. For Kristie, who had lived the last years of her life in captivity and pain.
“After Sharona died, I knew I would have to make Kristie bury her. The back door was open and James was taking a leak, so I told her to hit me and run. She wouldn’t do it. She said she was too weak. Do you have any idea how much I wished I’d helped her escape before she was too weak to run?” She waited for his reaction. Would he despise her now? If he didn’t already?
Someone whispered Jordan, and the sound of his name landed softly on Chelsea’s heart.
He stiffened and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. “Did you say something?”
Had the voice been her imagination? She wanted Jordan to hear what he wanted to hear so badly. She would have done anything at that point to ease the pain of his sister’s death. “I just told you the hardest truth I’ve ever had to tell in my life.”
“I heard that… No, I heard someone whisper my name.”
So he had heard the voice too. “Did she say your name?”
His eyes clouded with even more grief. “She’s with us. Why can’t I feel her presence?”
Chelsea did a complete turn, studying the basement. She hadn’t felt Kristie either. Maybe if they stood next to her grave. “Come over here.” When he followed her, she snagged his arm before he stepped on the spot where she thought Kristie was buried. She pointed to the ground. “There.”
“Are you sure?”
Chelsea slipped her arm around Jordan’s waist. “Kristie, are you here? Please…Jordan wants to see you.” She waited another moment before trying again. “Kristie Clark—”
“Godchaux. Her last name is different from mine.”
Chelsea lifted an eyebrow, silently pushing him for further explanation.
“Same father. Different mother.”
Chelsea understood that. She also understood there was a story behind the difference in names. His expression begged her not push him further. She nodded and then continued her attempt to raise the spirit of Kristie Godchaux. “Kristie, I know you’re here. Please show yourself to us. Jordan misses you, and he wants to tell you something important.”
A surge of light erupted in the dark basement, coalescing and forming into the rough shape of a human. She gasped when she recognized the apparition. Grabbing Jordan by the arm, she pulled him back from the light. “It’s her.”
He laughed and tugged his arm away from her. “I don’t see anything.”
She spluttered with frustration. “Don’t you feel her presence now?”
The entity was scaring the crap out of her, so much so that she wanted to run away. Yet she wanted to remain for Jordan’s sake. A strange conflict of emotions.
“There’s no one here, Chelsea. You’re making it up.” His anger poured all over her.
Why would she make something like that up? “No, I’m not. She’s here. I swear it.”
“I don’t appreciate the game you’re playing with me. You had my sympathy until now.” He swiveled and headed toward the stairs.
At that moment, the basement seemed to shift and spin. Objects bounced up and down in a crazy paranormal dance.
Jordan turned slowly to face Chelsea, his face ashen. “What the—”
Dizziness swept over Chelsea. Her limbs no longer cooperated with her brain. It was as if a rod had been rammed up her backbone and then flexed until she bent forward and backward, like forcing a rigid and inflexible object to bend against its will.
His back arched as a finger of light lifted him from the ground. In a few more moments, they were facing each other, eye to eye. The fear in his eyes matched the terror in her heart.
He is here.
A scream surged up from Chelsea’s gut but didn’t make it out of her mouth.
Jordan’s eyes widened. Chelsea wanted to ask him if he had heard, but it was obvious that he had.
The light intensified until it nearly blinded her. Chelsea grunted as she tried to move, but she was paralyzed, forced to stare into Jordan’s eyes, the only thing she could see. It seemed to her that his soul had been laid bare. She saw into the depths of his heart. He was a good man trying to make up for a bad mistake.
She’s the one.
Then it seemed Jordan was dissecting her heart and soul with surgical precision. A variety of emotions passed across his face, flitting by rapidly before she could interpret each one of them. His mouth moved, but the words were inaudible.
The scream that had been stuck in Chelsea’s throat erupted, splitting the white noise surrounding them. The light dissipated and they dropped to the hard pack dirt. Her head smacked into something with a hard crack, and Chelsea was out.
****
When Jordan’s eyes opened, Jake Richards was standing over them. It took Jordan a few more moments to realize he and Chelsea were bound. Her slack body leaned against him with her head resting on his shoulder. Chest to chest. He could feel the pounding of her heart through fabric and skin.
He wanted to curse his stupidity. His digression into his personal feelings had left both his witness and himself vulnerable to attack.
Chelsea’s eyes blinked open. “What happened? Are you hurt?” She licked her lips and comprehension seemed to fill her eyes. “Who tied us up?” Even with her back to Jake Richards, she had obviously figured out there was someone else in the basement with them.
Richards smirked and addressed his remarks to Chelsea. “What are the two of you doing down here?”
She jerked when his voice boomed throughout the basement.
Jake yanked on the ropes that encircled them. “I’ve been looking for you. Looks like someone got to you before I could.” Richards walked around them. “I should have known you were working with the cops. No wonder you didn’t want me to kill him.” He kicked Jordan in the side. “This time…I’ll get you to pull the trigger. How do you like that, darlin’?”
Jordan groaned and tried to curve into a ball, but the ropes had him bound too tightly for that kind of movement.
Chelsea spat at the idiot. Jordan was…yeah, he was kind of proud of her for her defiance. The effort might
get her knocked around, but he admired her guts. Maybe that’s how she’d managed to survive. Sheer determination and guts.
Whoever had bound them had wrapped the ropes tightly around both of them, tying them together while on their knees, facing each other. Richards backhanded Chelsea, and she bucked from the impact, causing them both to fall over on their sides. A moan escaped her. Jordan struggled once more against his bindings, but settled again when the ropes did nothing more than chafe his already raw arms. Every time he moved, Chelsea gasped. He stared into her eyes and silently tried to communicate an apology for getting them into such a difficult situation.
“How am I gonna deal with you two without help?” Richards squatted and glared first at Jordan and then at Chelsea. “Guess I’m gonna have to make one of you watch while I take care of the other one. Who’s gonna go first?”
A sudden flash of surprise formed on Chelsea’s face, but she wasn’t looking at Richards. Her gaze had strayed to a spot over his shoulder. Richards turned his attention behind him a moment too late.
“Move even a fraction of an inch, and I’ll blow your brains out.”
Jordan glanced over his shoulder and caught Shaw Bennett’s eye. He exhaled slowly, relief coursing through him. He had never been so glad to see his partner in their whole tension-filled partnership.
Matt Dickerson’s nasally voice came from somewhere behind Bennett. “That’s not a good idea, Bennett. How are you going to explain that? You have too much to explain already, don’t you think?”
When the forensic geek was right, he was right.
Temptation crossed Richards’s ugly face. He must have understood Dickerson’s point. For a split second, Jordan believed the man would test Bennett. His partner pressed the gun against Richards’s temple. The moment passed and the tension in Richards’s shoulders relaxed.
“Face down on the dirt, Richards. Legs spread. Fingers laced behind your head.” Bennett’s deep voice rumbled with authority.
Richards complied, but not without grumbling and cursing.
Bennett stepped back but kept his aim true, directed at Richards’s head. Dickerson patted the man down for weapons and slid a large caliber handgun across the floor out of reach.
“We’ve been looking for you.” Bennett made it sound like it had been his personal mission in life to locate Jake Richards.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Shaw Bennett, I’m with the Arkansas State Police.” He flashed his ID at Richards.
“Well, you found me. What you going to do with me? I ain’t done nothing.”
“You mean besides mangling the English language? Assaulting and kidnapping a law enforcement officer are felonies, idiot.”
Richards’s illuminated with understanding. He sputtered his argument. “I didn’t do nothing to him. I found him that way.”
“Is that true, Clark?”
“He’s lying.” The lie rolled off his tongue so sweetly and smoothly that he almost didn’t believe it had fallen from his lips. If the man was part of the organization that had abducted and tortured his sister to death, then he had no qualms about doing whatever it took to send the man straight to hell. Or jail. Whichever came first.
“He’s the one that’s lying. I haven’t touched either of them.”
Bennett leaned to speak right into Richards’s ear. “Who’s gonna believe you? The evidence is right in front of us. Besides…” He pointed toward Dickerson. “We both saw you hit the woman.”
Richards snorted his contempt and then the thrill of victory spread across his irregular features. “The local cops know me.” His tone dripped with pure malice. “All I have to do is tell Sheriff Halsey about how you roughed me up when I was minding my own business. He’ll cut me loose.”
Bennett locked a pair of handcuffs on Richards. “Halsey is in jail. I don’t think he’s going to be willing to help you out of your jam. He’s too busy trying to explain his way out of his own mess.” Bennett smiled back at Richards, and his expression dripped with pure pleasure. “I’m the acting Sheriff of Hill County. You wanna complain to me instead?”
Chapter Eight
Ashley Rivers stepped out of the exam room and peeled a pair of gloves from her hands. Then she pushed her dark hair out of her face.
Brett jumped from his chair and rushed to her. “Is she gonna make it?”
Ever since he’d climbed into the back of the van with the three women, he’d worried about their medical condition. When one of them had passed out, he’d almost panicked. The other two women had been taken into protective custody and transported to Little Rock for treatment, as their conditions had not devolved into a life or death status yet. But this one? She had been too sick to move yet.
Ashley nodded. “Yeah, she’s stabilized, but I need to send her to the hospital in Fayetteville as soon as possible.”
“Why?”
She blinked at him. “The hospital in Little Rock is too far away.”
“I meant why do you have to send her anywhere?”
“She needs a doctor who knows how to deal with chemical poisoning. I’m only a nurse practitioner. My skills are limited.” She headed toward the back of the clinic.
Brett followed her.
She continued talking. “One of the EMS guys knows a little Spanish. She woke up on the ambulance and told him her name was Amalia.” She paused and turned. “She’s grateful to you for saving her life.”
Amalia was such a pretty name. Brett could tell she’d be a pretty woman if she became healthy and strong again.
He shrugged. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Yes, you did. From what I heard, you were pretty heroic.”
No one had ever thought of him as a hero.
He smiled. “Be careful, lady. That kind of talk… If you weren’t already someone’s girlfriend, I might fall for you. Josh McCord is a lucky guy”
She laughed and her laughter filled the building. Such a pleasant sound.
“Can I see her?”
Ashley nodded. “In a little while. Right now, she needs sleep.”
“When will they take her to Fayetteville?”
Ashley continued her walk down the hall and entered what appeared to be a break room. “I’m not going to release her until I’m sure she can make the trip.”
Was the woman’s condition that bad? He winced. She’d seemed so frail and helpless. How could anyone do what Zeke Richards and James Standridge had done to her? He hurt all over at the thought that his sister had been a prisoner of those animals. They were lucky they were dead, because if they hadn’t been, Brett would of made sure they went straight to hell without any detours.
“Will they let me visit her in the hospital?”
“I don’t know. It depends on how much protection they think she needs. She might leave and never be seen around here again, you know.”
“You mean they might send her back to Mexico.”
Ashley nodded. “They might. Once she’s well enough to travel.”
He snorted his opinion. “That really sucks. She might have come here illegally, but she didn’t deserve what she got once she got here.”
The back door of the clinic popped open, and Josh McCord entered. “There’s the prettiest woman on the planet. I’ve been looking all over town for you.”
Brett turned his head away when Josh kissed Ashley. Brett would have to kill his crush on her quickly. He couldn’t betray Josh McCord. The man had listened to him about his sister Cherish when no one else with the Hill County Sheriff’s Department would. He owed Josh.
“What are you doing here?” Josh asked his question of Ashley, but turned his attention to Brett.
It was a legitimate question. The clinic had closed after the on-staff physician, Dr. Terrance Phelps, had died. Everyone in town had heard about the doctor and the number of women he had killed over the years. Ashley had almost been his last victim. Without a medical doctor on staff, the clinic had shut its doors. It was too bad. The county needed a pla
ce like the clinic.
Ashley had reopened the office for just one patient. Just because Jordan’s partner, Shaw Bennett, had asked…nicely. Okay, maybe not so nicely. It seemed to Brett that the man had a way of making requests sound like demands.
Brett peeked at Ashley from the corner of his eye. Bennett had asked her to keep quiet about her special patient. She hadn’t liked the idea of keeping things from Josh, but she had reluctantly agreed.
Ashley grabbed Josh’s hand. “I’m sorry. I won’t make our date tonight. My patient is in a fragile condition. I can’t leave her.”
Brett smiled his appreciation. She had effectively diverted the conversation away from Brett’s reason for being there. Josh gazed at her a long moment and then nodded as if he understood her dilemma.
“Yeah, I thought something was up when I saw your car in the lot. Let me guess? Someone in law enforcement has asked a special favor of you? Right?”
She blinked at him.
“Right. I need to talk to Shaw Bennett and find out what’s going on, don’t I?”
Ashley still didn’t comment.
Josh smirked. “He’s not answering his cell. The guy ignores me sometimes.”
She seemed to explode with her opinion. “He’s cop, Josh. Cops get into the middle of things and can’t answer their phone. You know that.”
Ashley was pouring the sass on her boyfriend. Brett liked her even better for her attitude.
“Fine. Whatever.”
She hit Josh with the same question he’d asked her. “What are you doing here?”
“I have some news I thought you’d want to hear. You remember when we were joking around about one of us running for sheriff?” Josh’s question hinted of conspiracy.
She nodded. “I thought we were doing more than joking.”
“We might have been, but that might have been the adrenaline talking too. None of us are old enough or experienced enough to run a sheriff’s office. No one in the county would take us seriously as candidates. We kind of forgot that when we were making our plans.”
She filled a foam cup and drank as if she had never had an ounce of water in her life. Saving Amalia had obviously been tough work.
Chelsea Lane (Haunted Hearts Series Book 5) Page 9