"I'm here, sweet pea. I'm right here."
I moved. Scooting across rough concrete was agony, every shift dragged my bound wrists, sent fresh pain shooting up my arms. But I didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Not until my back pressed against hers.
The contact was immediate and electric. A tiny circuit completing. Her small back against mine, her cold, trembling hands brushing against my boundwrists as she tried to reach for me even though neither of us could use our hands.
Warmth. Human contact. Proof that neither of us was alone.
I could feel the frantic beat of her heart through her thin pajamas. Too fast. Her breathing was quick, shallow, panicked. I forced myself to breathe deeper, slower, hoping she'd unconsciously match my rhythm the way she did when I read to her.
"Are you hurt?" My voice came out steadier than I felt.
A jerky headshake I felt more than saw. "My wrists hurt. And I'm scared."
God. The simple honesty of it. The trust that I would make it better because I always had done so before. In her room with nightmares. At the foundation with mean kids. At the kitchen table with backwards letters.
But I couldn't fix this. And that knowledge was terrifying me, of what could happen to her.
"I know, honey. I'm scared too." I leaned my head against hers, forcing calm into my voice. "But we're together. And we are going to be so, so brave. Your daddy is the smartest, strongest man I know. He's looking for us right now. He will find us."
I repeated it like a mantra, for her and for myself.Jack will find us. Jack will find us.
The sound of metal scraping metal shattered the moment.
A heavy, industrial door was opening somewhere above us.
Footsteps echoed down. The footsteps were casual and unhurried. The deliberate pace of someone who knew his prey was trapped and had nowhere to go.
Metal stairs rang with each step. Descending from shadows I couldn't see into, approaching with the inevitability of an inescapable demise.
Daisy's breathing stopped entirely. Her small back went rigid against mine.
"It's okay," I whispered, the lie tasting like copper. "I've got you. No matter what happens, I've got you."
The footsteps reached the bottom, then stopped.
Almost immediately, Carter stepped into the weak circle of light.
He looked different. Prison had stripped away the corporate lawyer polish I remembered. He was leaner, harder, like something had been burned away, leaving only essentials. His hair was cut military-short. He wore dark tactical pants and a black jacket. Practical. Planned.
But his eyes. They were the same.
That cruel, calculating blue that had never held human warmth. Only interest. Assessment. The eyes of someone studying specimens under glass, watching how they'd react to stimulus.
He was looking at us like that now. Like we were an experiment. Like Daisy's terror and my bound wrists were data points in some equation only he understood.
"You're awake," he said, his voice unnervingly calm, almost pleasant. Like we'd just arrived at a dinner party. "Good. I was starting to think I'd miscalculated the dose."
"Let her go." The words burst from me before he'd finished speaking, desperation overriding any plan or strategy. "Carter, please.Please.She's just a child. She's five years old. She has nothing to do with this, with us, with any of it. Let me call someone to come get her. I'll give you whatever you want. I'll stay. I'll—I'll doanything. Just let her go. Please, I'm begging you?—"
My voice cracked on the last word, and broke completely. Tears I didn't remember streamed down my face, hot against my cold cheeks.
Behind me, I felt Daisy trembling. Felt her trying to press closer, trying to make herself smaller, trying to disappear into me.
He gripped his wrists, a gesture I remembered, one he used to make when considering contract clauses or my failures. Thoughtful manipulation.
"But she haseverythingto do with this, Anna." He moved closer, just to the edge of the light.
"See, I've had twenty months to think. Twenty months in a cell, watching my career burn, my reputation destroyed, my entire life dismantled. You know what I realized?"
