Charity took a step closer. “You’ve got to let me go. There are a lot of people who are worried about me.”
“Dad’s going to take care of them. You should just forget about the people from your past.”
Something lodged in Charity’s throat. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m really just talking about that police officer you’re always with. Father thinks he could be trouble, so he’s going to take care of him. So don’t worry. Life is so much simpler out here. You’ll see.”
A small cry escaped from Charity. No. Not Joshua. Please, no.
The woman started to walk away.
“Wait!” Charity called, panic edging in.
The woman paused. “Yes?”
What was Charity supposed to say? She had so many more questions; there was so much she didn’t know. Instead, she blurted, “What’s your name?”
“Claudia.”
“Claudia, I’m thirsty.” She glanced at the water bowl, the one just out of her reach.
A look of what almost appeared to be satisfaction—maybe smugness—flashed in Claudia’s gaze. “As soon as you learn obedience, you can have food and water. It seems harsh, but it’s the only way. You’ll see soon.” She turned again.
“No, Claudia. Wait, please! Don’t leave me!”
The woman kept walking. As she disappeared from sight, reality smacked Charity in the face.
This was what had happened to Andrea.
And Andrea hadn’t been seen since then.
Would that be Charity’s fate also?
CHAPTER 42
Charity’s stomach grumbled and her head swam. She needed food and water. She needed shelter, something other than this shack where she huddled at night.
The darkness surrounded her now. Every once in a while, she heard the sound of something moving through the forest. The sound was slight—the crackle of dry leaves or snapping branches. Maybe it was a squirrel or a raccoon or a possum. She had no idea.
She had to figure out how to get out of this place. But with the chain attached to her ankle, she had no idea how.
The words of Daleigh’s song floated through her head. God weeps.
Was God weeping right now?
Somehow, instinctively she knew that He was. He wasn’t a God who relished suffering but a loving God, a father.
Please, Lord, help me now. I don’t know what to do.
She leaned her head into the pole where the chain was attached. Sleep wouldn’t find her, despite her body’s exhaustion. Finally, the sun peeked over the horizon in the distance, patches of orange and pink appearing through the trees.
What would today hold? Did she want to know?
As the sun rose higher, a figure appeared in the distance.
Claudia.
A dog walked beside her . . . a Dalmatian? This was all too strange.
“Father requests you put this on. It’s your first test of obedience.” She held out a shapeless dress that had small flowers dotting the beige surface.
“I don’t want to put that on,” Charity said.
Claudia frowned. “It’s your first test. You should do as he asks.”
“Why can’t I wear this?” She pointed to her denim shorts and T-shirt.
“Please, just do as you’re asked. Things will be easier.”
As Charity stared at the woman, her initial thought was reaffirmed: something wasn’t quite right with Claudia. It was more than this situation; there was a little bit of crazy in her gaze.
“Is this what Andrea had to do also?” Charity asked.
Claudia rubbed her dog’s head. “She resisted at first. But eventually she came around and lived a good life here with us.”
Charity’s heart panged at the thought of her friend living like this. She must have been terrified.
“When do I get to meet your father?”
“You’re not ready yet,” Claudia said. “But you will when the time is right.”
Who was the father? Buddy Griffin?
“If you’re obedient now, you’ll be able to drink some water.”
Charity stared at her, weighing her options. She could wear that stupid dress. She supposed it wouldn’t hurt anything. At least she’d get some water, and water would help her to stay alive.
“Fine,” she finally said. “But I can’t with the chain on me.”
“You’re already wearing shorts. You’ll be fine. Slip this on over your other clothes for now.” Claudia stuffed the outfit through the fence.
Charity glanced away. Her gaze zeroed on a camera perched on a tree in the distance. Someone was watching her. Her cheeks heated. How had she not seen that earlier?
“One minute,” she muttered. She stepped inside the shed and pulled the new dress on over her clothes.
As she looked at her new outfit, she realized that with every minute that passed, her pride was being stripped away.
That was probably the purpose of all of this, wasn’t it?
The new dress looked like a pillowcase, almost. It was sleeveless and came to her knees. It had no shape, and the material felt scratchy, cheap.
“Now I’ll get you some water,” Claudia said. She unlocked the padlock at the gate and then slipped into Charity’s pen. She grabbed a cup and dipped it into the water that had been left out all night.
Normally, the thought would turn Charity’s stomach. Right now, she didn’t care.
“You’ve been watching me,” Charity said. “Why?”
“I’ve always wanted a sister.” She handed her the cup.
Charity took a long gulp before saying, “So you lured me here?”
“That’s correct. Andrea always talked about you. I’ve been keeping up with you for years.”
“What happened to Andrea?” Charity finished the water and handed the cup back to Claudia, hoping for more. Instead, the woman dropped the cup on the ground.
Claudia’s smile dipped. “She had a good life here.”
“What happened to her?”
“She got sick. She . . . she didn’t make it.” Tears glistened in her eyes.
Charity’s heart lurched. “She got sick how?”
Claudia shrugged and shook her head sadly. “I’m not sure. But she was so weak and pale.”
“Did you take her to a doctor?”
“We treated her ourselves. Lots of herbs and water and oils. But it wasn’t enough.”
Oh, Andrea. “When was that?”
“Two years ago.”
A small gasp escaped from Charity. Andrea had been held here for eight years. Eight years. She could hardly stomach the thought of her friend living like this.
“Did you catch my house on fire?”
Claudia didn’t answer. She clicked the padlock in place and stepped away. “Until tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Charity said. “Please don’t leave me here that long.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
Tears pushed their way to Charity’s eyes.
Living here might be worse than dying.
***
Charity had been gone for twenty-four hours. Joshua knew the statistics, but he didn’t want to think about them at the moment. He had to remain focused and positive.
“Joshua, come look at this,” the chief said.
He joined her by her desk.
“We ran the numbers on Roberta Whitaker’s phone through the system as you suggested. This is the list we received. I did a search on some of the numbers. Do any of these look familiar?”
He scanned the list and frowned. His gaze stopped by one name.
“When did she call this number?” He pointed to one on the list.
The chief looked over his shoulder. “The day she died.”
“I think I know where Charity is. I need some aerial views of the county.”
“You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“This name right here? He was one of the witnesses who saw Andrea as she left school before being abducted. He owns a landsc
aping business. According to these records, Roberta Whitaker also talked with him right before she died. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“We’re going to need to call in some police teams from the surrounding cities. We can’t handle this alone.”
“We don’t have time.” Joshua straightened, a plan already forming in his head.
“We can’t get sloppy. When we’re sloppy, people end up dying. Just wait an hour and we’ll assemble a team, get the proper warrants, and make sure everything is in place. Okay?”
Hesitantly, Joshua nodded.
Just then, the door opened, and the same woman who’d been in twice before came inside. The woman with the braid. Jasmine.
His heart sank. He just didn’t have time to handle this right now.
“I was hoping we could talk,” she stated, wringing her hands together nervously. As she stepped out of the shadows, he saw she had a black eye and a busted lip.
“I would love to talk sometime. But I need to let you talk to our dispatcher, Lynn, right now. We have an urgent matter we have to attend to.” He hated having to say those words, but he had little choice at the moment. With every second that passed, Charity could die.
She glanced around, her gaze pensive. “I understand. But I only want to talk to you. Perhaps I’ll come back next week.”
“You can definitely do that. But ma’am, if you’re in a dangerous situation, I beg you to get out of it. I can give you the numbers of some shelters in the area. You shouldn’t stay with someone who harms you.”
She nodded with a frown. “I’ll come back next week. May I just use your restroom first?”
“Absolutely.” He showed her where it was and then headed to his office. He had phone calls to make and a rescue mission to organize. Any other day, someone like Jasmine would take priority. But Charity’s abduction took priority at the moment. He only wished the woman would talk to Lynn.
The landscaper was behind this? The man had mentioned Austin Johansson to Joshua just to throw him off his trail. How could he have fallen for it?
“Joshua, we have a problem,” Lynn said from the front.
“One minute.” He ran the man’s information through the computer. He had no prior record. There was nothing that would have made people suspect him.
“I really think you should come now,” Lynn said. Her voice cracked with tension.
“I’ve phone calls to make. Are you sure you can’t wait?”
“There’s a bomb in the lobby, and it’s going to blow in less than a minute.”
CHAPTER 43
Charity tugged on the chain again. There was no use—it was too tight to slip off and too strong to break.
She crawled forward, her fingernails clawing the supple ground as she tried to get the cup of water. Her reach was about four inches too short.
She didn’t bother to crawl back. She lay there on the ground, the dirt gritty under her cheek. Her head swam from dehydration, from the elements, from desperation.
Don’t give in to despair, she told herself again.
But the emotion was right there, on the cusp of her consciousness. It would be so easy to embrace it, to wallow in it.
No, she couldn’t think like that. Joshua would find her.
But how? She still had no idea where she was. She was in the middle of the woods. Based on the canopy of trees overhead, the place wasn’t visible from the air. She couldn’t see any roads or structures in the distance. She was essentially in the middle of nowhere.
Tears tried to push their way out.
Finally, she forced herself to sit up. It took all her strength to keep herself that way without something to lean on.
How long would her body last like this? Without food? Water?
“You should just stop fighting,” someone said behind her.
Charity flinched and swung her head back.
Claudia. Where had she come from? She wasn’t supposed to be back until tomorrow morning. That’s what she’d said.
“I have an update for you.”
Her throat went dry. “About?”
“Joshua Haven. The police station just exploded, and he was inside.”
A small cry escaped Charity. She didn’t believe her. She couldn’t. This was just another attempt to strip her pride. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not. I told you that we needed to eliminate him.”
Someone who was that cold and that calculating would go to extreme measures to get what they wanted. Charity shook her head. How could she have fallen for all of this? “You were the one who set my house on fire.”
Claudia’s smile slipped. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Father thought fear would drive you to obedience.”
Anger simmered in Charity. “I could have died.”
“But you didn’t. You proved you were strong.”
“And your father kidnapped me? He left me in the woods. I just don’t understand why. I don’t understand how this all fits together.” Charity’d had plenty of time to think about it while she’d been here in her cage.
“He believes fear is a great motivator. With fear, you’ll be more inclined to do what he wants. He wanted to scare you. It was only another test.”
“A test?”
“We weren’t sure how we would get you here. He almost brought you that night, but he decided it was best if we waited. He wanted you to come to us. To come to me.”
Her head swam. Charity was at the mercy of a psychopath. Nothing Claudia said was logical.
“Did you kill Roberta Whitaker also?”
Claudia shrugged. “She came here. She realized what had happened. Andrea was alive then, and we couldn’t risk her being taken away. She was part of our family by then. Father even allowed her out of this enclosure. He trusted her, like he trusts me.”
A small cry escaped. This was a nightmare, pure and simple.
Poor Andrea. She’d lived here for so long. She must have been so scared.
But dwelling on that now would do her no good. She had to focus on surviving right now. “Can I have some food? Please.”
“It’s not time yet.”
“Why not? Do you want to kill me?”
“We have to come to an understanding,” she said softly.
“There’s no way I can get away. Not with this chain around my ankle.”
“It has to be a matter of choice. Can’t you see? Everything is a choice.”
“She’s right, you know.” A man stepped from the shadows. Charity stared at him a moment, feeling certain she’d seen him before. But where? He had long hair and wore a white T-shirt with jeans.
“You have to want to obey,” he said, standing stoically in the background. “It won’t work any other way.”
“Who are you?” Charity asked, fear spreading through her chest until it reached her toes, her fingertips.
“You can just call me Father.”
“You’re not my father,” she told him, her gut turning with disgust.
“No, but I will be.”
Charity continued to study him, knowing she’d talked to him before. That’s when it hit her. “You were cutting the grass at Daleigh’s house the other day. You stopped me and said I’d been treated unfairly by the town.”
A slight smile feathered his lips. “That’s right. Did you know I also used to work for the school system? I was cutting grass there on the day you and Andrea decided to walk home. I’d just been waiting for the right opportunity to bring Andrea here. You both practically handed it to me.”
Charity narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been watching me around town, also. I thought you were admiring Daleigh, but you weren’t.” He’d been the man wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses.
“I was simply learning your behaviors, your patterns, your routines. There was nothing to be alarmed about.”
“I’m locked up in a cage, and you’re telling me there was nothing to be alarmed about?” Her voice rose
with outrage.
“You’re feistier than I thought you would be. You gave up so easily that day in the woods when I grabbed Andrea.”
“You never wanted me anyway.”
He shook his head. “No, but I knew Andrea would come back for you. That’s why I grabbed you first when I had the chance.”
A cry caught in her throat. “I loved Andrea.”
He smiled but his eyes were empty. “Now you get to take her place.”
***
Joshua and Lynn got out of the building just in time. Pieces of debris lay all around them—bricks, cement blocks, plaster, and wood particles. Smoke rose around them, filling their lungs. A crowd had already begun to gather.
Thank goodness it didn’t appear that anyone else was hurt.
Had Jasmine left that bomb there? It had to have been her. Was she involved in this the whole time?
“What do we do?” Lynn asked, grit covering her face.
“Are you okay?” He gripped her arms, helping her to her feet. The explosion had knocked them to the ground.
She nodded. “I think so.”
“Lynn, I need you to call the chief and let her know what happened. I have to go find Charity.”
Isaac’s patrol car squealed onto the scene, and Joshua ran toward him.
“Isaac, I need your car.” Joshua’s was under a pile of rubble, and he didn’t have any time to waste. “You’ve got to manage this scene. I have to go find Charity.”
“You know where she is?” Isaac asked.
“I think so. The chief is trying to gather a team to head there. I’m going to go first.”
“If you think that’s best.”
Joshua hopped into the car and pulled on his seat belt. Before he could squeal away, someone knocked at the window. Ron Whitaker.
Joshua put his window down. “I don’t have time, Ron.”
“Let me go with you.”
“I’ll do better on my own.”
“Don’t head out without backup. I promise; you can depend on me.”
After a moment of thought, Joshua unlocked the door. “Get in.”
As soon as Ron was secure, Joshua took off down the road, headed toward Larry’s house.
“What’s going on?” Ron asked.
Gone by Dark (Carolina Moon Book 2) Page 24