She stood up to back away from him, but he was between her and the door now. It’s not like her legs wanted to support her to make a run for it.
She was dizzy and not feeling well overall, as if her body weighed twice as much and her limbs were dragging on the ground.
“Long before you kicked Fredrick out,” Karl said, smiling. His eyes were dark now, evil almost. He stayed where he was by the sink away from her. “You need someone to take care of you. I’m that person. I can’t do it right if I don’t know how you like things. Your towels get folded over lengthwise and then folded three times into almost perfect squares. I do mine like that now. I practiced before I came here and did yours. It’s not the way Mother taught me, but she wouldn’t mind.”
“You did my laundry?” she asked, her hand going to her head. It was spinning. “How did you get in my house?”
“You left it unlocked one day. You’re always careless like that. And then your back door key.” Karl was shaking his head at her as if he was scolding. “When your locks were changed, you left it right there on the counter for days. The second time I came over, I grabbed it and you didn’t even notice.”
She was going to be ill.
Physically ill.
“How many cameras are in my house?”
“Just that one. I don’t need to know what you do with other men in the bedroom. It’s just best that you’re fresh for me when our time comes. It will be better for us both. And maybe ifthose men learned the important things to you to make your life easier, they would last longer.”
She couldn’t address his “fresh” comment. Her mind couldn’t even process that. “You’ve done more than my laundry,” she said. Her words were slurring. She could tell. She grabbed the wall to support her. “What did you give me?”
“Come sit down before you fall down.”
He was moving toward her as if to help and she put her hand up. “Stay back.”
“Suit yourself. It’s going to be another bruise when you pass out. Don’t worry, it’s nothing major. Just a combination of sleeping pills and muscle relaxers. It will make it easier for us both.”
“Make what easier?” She had to call for help. Her phone was on the counter and she moved toward it, hoping to get it without him knowing, grabbing the wall and then the counter.
She lost her balance and bumped into it, barely missing her head, her hand hitting her phone and sending it off the back into the living room.
Karl didn’t seem to notice, but there was no way she could get it now.
She could barely stand, her knees buckling as she sank to the floor.
“That’s it. Don’t fight it,” Karl said, moving closer to her, his face in her vision, but she had no strength to lift her arm and push him off.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“I’m going to take you to our new home and show you how a man should treat a lady. After you learn how to treat me.”
Her eyes shut, her last thought was of Clay. He’d find her. He had to.
It was the only hope she had.
37
EVERYTHING MEANS SOMETHING
“Clay,” Eva said over the loudspeaker the next morning. “There’s a call for you on line one.”
Clay moved to the phone on the wall in the back where he was testing out new batches of his cranberry hard cider.
“Hi, this is Clay,” he said. He’d rather just pick it up and say, “Ridgeway.” But that was rude and in his business he learned you had to play nice.
“Clay. Hi. You don’t know me, but my name is Cassidy Fields. I teach with Meredith. She didn’t come in today and hasn’t called in and isn’t answering her phone. Is she with you?”
“No,” he said. His cell phone was out of his pocket in a split-second, the camera up and looking around. Her car was out front, but he realized he never got the alert that she left for work this morning either or he would have known something was off.
He’d been so lost in his own misery and that she wasn’t returning his text last night that he gave her some more time.
