A strange look of longing crosses his face before he carefully blanks it. He flops down on the couch, resting his head against the couch back.
“You should leave.”
“Why?” I venture, searching for clues in his tired, handsome face.
He sets his jaw. “You have to watch yourself with me,” he says gruffly. “I have no ceiling.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I whisper.
“Yes, you do.” He closes his eyes, dismissing me. “You should leave,” he repeats.
This time, I listen. I flee the townhouse, leaving Justin slumped alone on the couch. He’s right. I’m not at all equipped to deal with a man like him.
53
AMY
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Monday, July 19
“Wake up!” Kane yells, banging on my bedroom door. “We have a full day ahead.”
My eyes snap open and I blink in shock.It’s still dark!I burrow my face in the pillow. “Go away.”
“You want me to come in there?”
“Okay, okay, I’m getting up,” I grumble, then I spoil it with a groan as I sit up and my muscles rebel in protest.
A chuckle echoes through the door. “Hard work catching up to you?”
“Your conscience caught up to you yet?” I mutter beneath my breath.
I rummage inside the wardrobe, pull out a T-shirt and denim shorts, and get dressed, hoping Kane will be gone by the time I emerge from my room. He is. Although the door to my room is left unlocked at night, I soon discovered all the exit doors have security gates, which they lock at night.
I limp to the bathroom. I thought I was reasonably fit, but it seems choreographed moves in an air-conditioned studio in no way prepares you for the pure physical demands involved in the daily work schedule of an animal sanctuary.
Yesterday passed in a back-breaking blur of chores. Whatever job I did around the sanctuary, I noticed Kane made certain there was always someone hovering close by.
One of my first tasks was to scatter corn kernels to the chickens. As soon as I entered their enclosure, the birds came flapping eagerlytoward me, their eyes fixed on the bucket I clutched to my chest. I steeled myself not to run in the face of their unrelenting advance, but when their pointy little beaks got too close to the open-toed sandals I borrowed from Mel I couldn’t help throwing the bucket down and retreating with a shriek, much to Kane’s amusement and Nolene’s contemptuous snort.
Whenever I annoyed Kane—a regular occurrence, it seemed—he would put me to work scouring a water trough or lugging buckets of grain to the various enclosures. If I balked at a chore, Kane only had to offer me the option of returning to my room. Even scrubbing a towering pile of feed bowls was preferable to being locked up inside with nothing to do.
What also kept me going yesterday was the nagging feeling that Kane and Nolene were waiting for me to give up. They watched me closely, as if expecting me at any moment to burst into tears or do something that would reinforce their low opinion of me. And even though I shouldn’t care what two animal-obsessed criminals thought of me, the hard truth was, I did care. I was determined to give neither Kane nor Nolene the satisfaction of seeing me give up, so I fed the animals when I was told to, fought the impulse to gag when I cleaned out their enclosures, and clamped down on the rough side of my tongue when Nolene berated me for mixing up the feeds.
By five o’clock on Sunday, I was so tired I could barely speak. My clothes were soiled with animal hair, paw prints, and who knew what else. Scrapes and bruises covered my arms and legs, and my back ached from the constant lifting and bending. Kane took one look at me and ordered me inside. I used the last of my strength to stagger into the shower. Too tired to make it to dinner, I collapsed face down on the bed, only vaguely aware that a short time later Kane came into my room to switch on my night light, leave a glass of water and an ibuprofen on my bedside table, and cover me with a blanket.
It confuses me when he’s kind like that, as though I’m catching a glimpse of another man behind the kidnapper, a man who stirs a soft, fluttery feeling inside me. I’m not sure I wantany softening toward him.
Coming out of yesterday’s memory, I brush my teeth and make my way to the kitchen. Kane, Ross, and Mel are gathered around the kitchen island, drinking smoothies.
Saba is sitting on his haunches at Kane’s feet. The moment I enter the kitchen he turns his massive head and fixes his black eyes unblinkingly on me. His stare says,Stay away from Kane and I won’t rip your throat out.
You can have him,I communicate silently to the protective dog.
“Morning,” Mel says, sliding a glass over to me. “Drink up. You’re going to need the energy boost.”
“Thanks.” I take a sip, tasting the creaminess of bananas.
