“How long have you been here?” I asked Anna.
“Six months,” Anna said, after a long pause.
Another voice soon followed. “Two months,” it said.
My jaw dropped and my eyes brimmed with new tears when the second voice spoke up.
“Five months,” a third voice quavered.
I whimpered and covered my mouth with both hands when yet a fourth voice answered. “Two months.”
Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh—
The last voice could barely be heard. “Me, too.”
My body shook as I tried to wipe the tears streaming down my cheeks. “H—How many of you . . . are down here?”
“Six now,” Anna whispered. “We would have had seven, but Nina didn’t make it. You are in her room now.”
Nina? I knew that name. Nina . . . Nina Ro—something or other. I think I saw that name on a flyer, too, just like the one about that Ruth girl.
“Anna, what’s your last name? All of you, what are your names?” I asked.
“Anna Lin.”
“Kandace Veccio.”
“Linda Baker.”
“Sara Turner.”
“Ruth-Ann Summers.”
My heart pounded as images of each of their flyers flashed in my head when they said their names. They were all still alive. All but one. So many assumed they had already been murdered, but they were here. And now I was one of them.
A tear slid down my face thinking about my mother, brother, and Emma. They were going to be sick with agony. And Richard! He would go insane when he found out I was gone.
Bile rose in my throat as I remembered the worried look in his eyes the last time I had seen him. A wave of anxiety took hold when I thought of what he would be going through. That he might have to be the one to call my family and tell them I was missing.
“Stop it, Lee. Focus,” I whispered to myself.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath through my mouth and let it slowly exhale through my nose. I did that until I felt my heart start to slow back to its normal pace. Feeling better, I racked my brain to try and remember if I had been pushed into a car or carried off somewhere, but the only thing I could remember was reading the missing person’s flyer . . . and then black.
“Shit, I cannot remember how I got here.”
“It’s the drugs,” someone said.
“What drugs? And who said that?”
“He sneaks up behind you and stabs you with a needle that knocks you out. And it’s Ruth.”
“He? Who is he? Do any of you know him?”
“No,” Ruth answered.
“But I don’t remember even seeing a guy.”
“It’s how he got all of us,” Anna said through the wall between us. “In time, you will remember.”
Coughs and the occasional sniffle filled the void of silence, and it began to make me nervous.
“Where are you all? Do you all have your own rooms?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
Anna was the one to answer again. “I’m kind of in the middle. You’re in the room to my right, and Sara is to my left. Across from your room is Ruth. Linda is across from me, and Kandace is across from Sara. We haven’t left our rooms since we got here.”
“I remember all of you from the news,” I admitted. “Ruth especially. You just graduated from high school, didn’t you, Ruth?”
“Yeah. I got taken a week after my eighteenth birthday.”
“So what does this asshole want with us?”
“Sex,” several voices said at once.
“What!”
My heart fell to my stomach as I let that shocking piece of information sink in. I felt my skin start to heat up with the amount of rage that was boiling inside my body. I started feeling around the room for something, anything, to take my anger out on. All I could find was a plastic-covered mattress and a large bucket that I now realized was the source of the stench in this room.
“Are you fucking serious?” Standing, I picked up the bucket and threw it across the room. “I’m going to fucking kill him! I’m going to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze until his eyes pop out of his head!”
“Will you shut up?” one of the girls yelled. “If he hears you and comes down here, I swear I’ll tell him it was you.”
I whipped my head in the direction of the noise, my eyebrows shooting up in shock. “Excuse me?”
“Lee, Kandace is right. Please be quiet,” Anna said, her whisper urgent. “If he hears us, we’ll all suffer. You have to trust us when we say you do not want that.”
The fear in her voice caused me to start crying again. “What do you mean ‘hears us’? Are we in his home?”
“We don’t know. He leaves us alone a lot. Sometimes for hours, but other times . . .”
“How can you guys just sit here and not do anything? Have any of you tried to escape?”
It was Kandace again. “Yeah, let’s ask Nina how that worked out for her? Oh, wait, we can’t. She’s fucking dead!”
“Kandace, please,” Anna said, hushing her. “Lee is going through what all of us went through when we got here.”
“Went? What do you mean, went? It’s not past tense, Anna. I’m still going through this shit.”
A noise above our heads caused Kandace to fall silent. I looked up at the sound of footsteps, my heart racing. There was a pause and then the click of locks turning, at least five of them, before a door creaked open and more footsteps thundered down what must have been the stairs. I held my breath and moved as far back into my room as I could until my back hit the wall. A much thicker sounding door scraped open and shut. The hinges must have been rusted over because I wanted to cover my ears from the piercing sound it made.
Another lock turned, causing me to jump as its echo reverberated around the room.
“Are my girls being bad?” a taunting voice asked.
My hand came over my mouth to cover a whimper as he swished his keys around.
“Are my girls yelling?” His voice grew nearer, and tears continued to fall down my face. “You know how I hate my girls misbehaving.”
My eyes were glued to the small slit of light above the door. I slid down the wall and pulled my knees tight to my chest. I was shaking, almost dry heaving, by the time a shadow appeared in front of my room.
“Lilly,” he whispered. “Have you been stirring up my girls?” I shut my eyes tight when something scratched against the outside of my door, followed by a moan. “Maybe I should give you a preview of what’s to come.”
It didn’t escape me that he had called me Lilly. Very few people in my life called me that anymore. I hated it, because it reminded me of being a four-year-old.
Keys jingled as he unlocked the door and pushed it open. Faint light spilled into my dark room, creating a halo around a tall man. I couldn’t make out his features but I could feel he was waiting for a reaction from me. Unfortunately for him, I was frozen, unable to do anything but sit there in complete and utter fear. After a minute of silence, he turned and unlocked another door across from me, and I heard Ruth cry out.
Angry at the thought of what I knew he was about to do, and having him say he was going to do that to me, too, I got up and ran for the open door. I didn’t get too far and was stopped when the chain pulled at my ankle, which caused me to fall face first to the ground.
“You fucking coward!” I yelled. “She’s just a child.”
“Yeah, but she swallows like a pro,” he chuckled, keeping his back to me. “Don’t worry, Lilly, you will get your turn soon enough.”
All I could do was lie there and cry, refusing to look up and watch, as a mix of moans, whimpers, and grunts resonated around me. I had to cover my ears when I heard him slap Ruth, yelling at her to stop crying. Please, God, why are you doing this to me? To any of us? I swore to myself if he tried that with me, I’d fucking bite it off.
Chapter 2
Day Two
I must have cried myself to sleep, because when I woke up there
was a small light on above my head. I was still on the floor and ached all over from crying so hard all night. I rubbed my eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the harsh fluorescents, and gasped when I saw two large hiking boots in front of me.
“Good morning, Lilly.”
I scooted back against the corner of the room, turning my head away while watching him from the corner of my eye. “Don’t touch me,” I said, feeling my body tense from the stress of fear pulsating all throughout my body.
“Oh, I plan on doing a lot more than just touching you,” he said, laughing. “I have big plans for us.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“Because I chose you.” He walked forward and squatted in front of me.
He had on thick jeans that were faded and stained, and a black leather jacket. His boots were caked in mud, with a broken-off pine needle sticking out from one, which told me we were probably out in the middle of nowhere. I raised my eyes to scan his face and was surprised at how young he looked. Late twenties, maybe a little older if I had to guess. His brown hair was short, almost military cut, and his eyes were a deep brown, almost black.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, lifting his hand and running his fingers across my arm. “A wonderful addition to my harem.”
I stood up and went to move away, but he followed my actions and pressed his body against mine.
“I said, don’t touch me.”
Gripping my arm tight, he pushed his hips against my body and thrust. “You’re in no position to tell me what to do.”
I jerked my arm away and spun around, spitting in his face. “I’m not some fucking blow-up doll, asshole. I’m a person! I have parents, friends . . . a boyfrien—”
I was silenced with a slap across the face. Grabbing me around my neck, he lifted me off the ground. I raised my hands and tried to push him off but that seemed to cause him to tighten his hold.
“Let’s get one thing clear, little girl. I own you! You belong to me until I am bored with you.” The smell of beer and cigarettes was strong with every word he sneered at me. “You have no parents, no friends, and no boyfriend. Understand?”
I couldn’t answer him. His palms were pushing so hard against my throat that it took everything in me not to black out. He let go of me, and I dropped to the floor with a gasp. Turning his back to me, he walked toward the open door, laughing.
My mind reeled with anger and disgust as I watched the cocky bastard walk away from me. Who did this guy think he was? Forget my family, boyfriend, and friends? Oh, hell fucking no! I coughed and braced my hands against the floor, pushing myself up.
“My name is Lillian Locke,” I said, stopping him in his tracks. “My mom’s name is Sadie, and my brother’s name is Noah. My best friend is Emma, and my boyfriend’s name is Richard.” It felt good saying their names, even though I knew I would pay for it later.
He took a deep breath and continued to the door. “How sad for you, and to think I thought you were a smart person.” He turned and faced me. “Maybe I should go pick up that best friend of yours and put her mouth to work down here. She’s not exactly my type, but I can make an exception.”
“You bastard! If you touch—”
“You’ll do what? Look around and accept that this is your life. Let’s see if a day or two without food will help that sink in.”
I listened as he locked the door behind him and turned off the light, surrounding me in darkness once again. I waited to hear the cries of another, thinking he would brutalize one of them, but he didn’t. I heard him open the thick door, shut it, and head back up the wooden steps.
Forty-Eight Hours Missing
—Richard
“Have you called Sadie and Noah yet?”
“Of course I called them! What am I, an idiot?” I paced the length of Lee and Emma’s living room, clutching my cell phone, willing it to ring and be Lee on the other end.
Emma sniffled, still in tears. “Calm down, Richard. We can’t fall apart now. We have to keep calm.”
Berating myself when my sister’s voice cracked, I stopped pacing and sat down, pulling her into my arms. “I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped like that.”
Emma nodded against my chest as she continued to cry. Over the top of her head, I saw our older brother, Luke, watching us with worried eyes. He was stationed in front of the television, where he’d been since Emma called to tell him Lee was missing.
I looked away, needing a moment to let out a breath and calm down. I never would have met Lee if it hadn’t been for Luke. He’d come to CU on a sports scholarship when I was still in high school. He blew out his knee the next year, but I was hooked on Colorado the first time our parents brought us to visit him. The smell, the mountains, the girls—I was in heaven. I applied to two colleges when the time came: CU and San Diego. When I got my acceptance letter, Luke and I started looking for places to move in together.
A year later, Emma joined us. She and Lee met freshmen year and moved into a small apartment together the next fall. Like a good brother, I’d volunteered to help them move, and it was love at first sight. Lee had been wearing a pair of running shorts and a matching top, both of which had her high school track team name and an image of a knight’s helmet—the mascot—on them. She was tiny, like my sister, but had an air of confidence about her that drew me in. Her golden blond hair and blue eyes both shone. She was easy-going, strong, and organized. I was surprised how at ease I felt around her, and spent half the day wondering how I’d never met her before then.
It had taken me the next year to gather the nerve to ask her out, but being with her had been a dream come true ever since.
“Richard . . . Richard?”
I shook myself out of my daze and looked at Luke, who had tapped my shoulder.
“Sorry, Luke, spaced out for a second.”
He pointed behind him and I glanced over his shoulder to see Lee’s brother, Noah, standing just inside the front door.
He was as grim as the rest of us. His short blond hair stuck out in every direction, as if he had just gotten out of bed, and his blue eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.
“Noah.” I walked over to him and shook his hand. His grip was weak and he smelled like he hadn’t showered in days, reeking of coffee and cigarettes. “Any news?” I asked, looking over at Emma who had moved to the couch.
“The police still have her car and belongings, checking them for prints and so on. Aside from that, I have nothing.”
“Boulder County residents and students at the University of Colorado Boulder are stunned and terrified tonight as another girl has disappeared from campus without a trace.” All of us turned our heads to the television just as a picture of Lee flashed across the screen. “Lillian Locke, a twenty-year-old athlete and Eldorado Springs native, was last seen walking to her vehicle on Tuesday, October 1st, around one thirty in the afternoon.”
Noah walked to the small coffee table in front of the television and sat down, his eyes still glued to the screen.
“This now brings the total number of missing girls to seven, and has prompted state officials to seek the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in their search for the person, or persons, responsible. Twenty-year-old Anna Lin, twenty-one-year-old Kandace Veccio, nineteen-year-old Linda Baker, twenty-one-year-old Sara Turner, twenty-two-year-old Nina Rosado, and recent high school graduate, eighteen-year-old Ruth-Ann Summers, who came to the university on a high school tour two months ago, are all believed to have been abducted within two miles of the CU Boulder campus.” Pictures of each girl flashed across the screen as their names were called.
“University and city police are still asking that all women walk to and from classes in groups, and be especially cautious when going out at night. University officials are also reminding students and faculty to wear rape whistles, provided free of charge, and to report any suspicious activity to authorities immediately. A press conference will be held at the university this evening fo
r students and parents who have any questions regarding what the school is doing to prevent this tragedy from happening again. This is Carrie Voss, live from the Boulder campus, back to you in the studio.”
I looked at Emma. “You are not going anywhere without one of us with you until this asshole is found. Do you understand me?”
“But—”
“No buts,” Luke said. “Richard’s right. I don’t care if you are just walking to your car to get a pack of gum. You are not going out alone.”
“I agree, Emma.” We turned to see Adam Quinn, Emma’s boyfriend, standing by the front door. “There is no arguing over this.” Adam was quick to join my sister on the couch and wrap his arms around her. “I know you’re scared, and love to argue, but please don’t fight us on this. Okay?”
I turned away when Emma agreed with Adam, leaning in to kiss him just as Lee’s brother stood up and walked out the door.
Wanting to talk to Noah without an audience anyway, I followed him out into the apartment parking lot where he lit a cigarette, taking a long drag. He held the pack out for me and I took one. I hadn’t smoked in a year—I’d quit when Lee expressed her hatred for them—but at the moment it seemed just the thing to calm my nerves.
Noah was staring off into space when he spoke. “I’m going to poke my nose around BPD headquarters and see what they have to say. Campus police got all bent out of shape when I asked to see their files.”
I nodded, trying not to get my hopes up. Noah was a police officer in Eldorado Springs, and had been for almost ten years. That was a small town, though, and Boulder was a whole different ball game.
“I’m going to take Luke with me to check out this press conference at the school. See what they have to say.”
“That’s a good idea,” Noah said.
I sat down on the curb, resting my head in my hands. Noah sat next to me, and when he set his hand on my shoulder, I lost it.
“My Lilly is a smart girl, Richard. If she’s still . . . she will give us time to find her.”
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