“Look,” Deva said. “She pointed to the side of a car. “Isn’t that Louisa’s car?”
I had no idea, but Beth said she thought it was. All I could focus on was the huge claw marks in the passenger door.
Like bear claws.
“He was definitely involved,” I said.
“Do you think she’s here?” Beth said, her voice soft and frightened.
“If she is, Al better hope he’s not, or I’m going to unleash Karma on his ass,” I growled.
“Check the office,” Deva said, nodding in one direction. We all rushed toward the door on the far side of the bay.
It was locked, but Beth did her thing. Come to think of it, we probably should have had her do that to the office door outside. That would have saved us struggling underneath a huge metal roll door.
The second the door was thrown open, we all froze. Inside, thrown on the floor, was Carol. Tied up. But with her eyes open and frightened.
“Oh, thank goodness,” I breathed. We rushed in and untied Carol, who seemed largely unhurt. There was a graze on her forehead and her hair was all messed up like she'd been thrown about a bit or just had a roll in the hay. My biggest concern was actually what was in her mouth.
“Are you okay?” I cried as I pulled the dirty, oily rag out of her mouth. There was no way ingesting that stuff was good.
She grimaced. “Water.”
Deva looked around, then ran over to a small fridge, which had several bottles inside. Once Carol had some of the water to drink, she looked up at us with wide, terrified eyes. “This is so much worse than we ever imagined.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Emma
“What happened?” Deva asked.
Carol opened her mouth, then shook her head, pure pain written across her face.
“Let’s just get her out of here first,” I said, scared. I’d never seen her like this before.
Carol let her head thump back against the wall of the office, and I told my back that this was a time to be strong as I knelt down, wrapped one of arms around her waist, and put one of her arms around my shoulders.
“Easy does it.” I pretty much held Carol up as she struggled to get on her feet. Deva and I helped her to the car and into the backseat while Beth watched our backs. Carol was definitely more banged up than she'd looked at first.
“I… tried… to escape,” she gritted out. “He blasted me... across the garage.”
Anger rolled through me. “Well, he’s going to pay for that.”
And, oh boy, this guy was going to pay for a lot of things. As my mind went through everything we knew, and Joel became the culprit for every bad event connected with that symbol, my parent’s accident, and Sarah and Thomas’s accident, my anger grew and grew.
Who was this sick guy? And why had he done so many terrible things?
“I think I have... broken ribs,” she hissed as she finally relaxed in my backseat. Relaxed may be the wrong word, but she wasn't quite as tense as she had been before. Broken ribs were no joke though. If one of them punctured her lung I'd never forgive myself for not getting to her in time.
These women, my best friends, the people who knew me better than anyone else, had become more important to me than I thought possible. It wasn't just that our friendships had been revived when I came back to Mystic Hollow, they'd been strengthened as well. The bonds we had could never be broken, no matter what. And no one would ever get in the way of our sisterhood ever again.
“Do you think he’s still here?” I asked her.
Talking seemed to cost her, because she gritted out the word, “no.”
As I tucked Carol's feet into the car pain was written all over her face and I gave her a tight lipped smile before I said, "We'll get you taken care of, just hang in there."
She nodded and I shut the door as gently as I could so it didn't jostle Carol unnecessarily.
