Mallory rubbed her hands together nervously while I checked.
“It was Billy. He’s the foreman of the ranch and my best friend. He most likely saw my truck still here and thought I was home. He called a few times, and I didn’t answer as I wasn’t sure what to tell him.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Bubba mentioned an old root cellar across the ranch. It was one of the first barns on the property, and my grandparents had a small cabin built there after they first bought the ranch. I needed to make sure that wasn’t where you were kept.”
Gasping, her hand flew to her mouth.
“It wasn’t,” I said quickly. “I trust every single guy working on this ranch with my life. It’s remote, so I wasn’t sure if someone else had stumbled upon it and thought it would make a good place to hide women.”
“What was in the cellar?”
“There are shelves with jars of food. A giant metal door in the ground opens up, and the steps lead directly into the cellar.”
Mallory hugged herself and shook her head. “No, I was in a room that was like a basement. The floor was dirt, and the walls were bricks. When I ran through the door, I could only go to the left, which led to a staircase up to a barn. To be honest with you, I’d never been in a barn before.” She paused. “Well, if I have, I don’t remember it. Once I got to the top of the steps I ran as fast as possible through the barn and out another door.”
“What did you see when you got out?”
“Forest. Everywhere. There was a road, but I went the opposite way. I didn’t see anything or anyone. Not even a car or truck. There were no houses or any other roads, nothing but forest and mountains. I climbed up steep hills, I remember that. By the way, do you happen to have any ointment I can put on my feet?”
The way she went from subject to subject caused my head to spin.
She turned her back to me and lifted one of her feet. She pulled the fuzzy sock off, and I gasped.
“Mallory, your feet are torn up!” How had I not noticed her feet?
I took her hand and led her down the hall to my bedroom, where we entered the en suite.
“Wow! This bathroom is even nicer than the one upstairs.”
“Sit up on the counter.”
She did as I asked while I searched through my cabinets and found some Neosporin and bandages. “Let’s clean your feetbefore we put all this on. You have fuzz stuck in the cuts from the socks.”
Nodding, she pulled the sweatpants up to her knees. I filled the sink beside her with warm water and motioned for her to put her feet in, and she pivoted on the counter to do so.
“Does it burn?” I asked.
“No, not really,” Mallory said softly. “It did when I took a shower this morning, though.”
I lifted her right foot and used soap to very gently clean all the scratches and deeper wounds. This girl had to be pretty damn tough to run through the forest and elements without shoes.
After repeating the process with her left foot, I drained the water and rinsed her feet. Using a towel, I carefully patted each foot dry, trying not to look at her face. She was biting down on her lip, and it killed me knowing she was in pain.
“Okay, the worst part is over.”
She exhaled. “They hurt more than I wanted to admit.”
I looked up at her and winked. “I have some slippers you can wear until we get you some shoes.”
As I put on the ointment, Mallory said, “I don’t even know what size shoe I wear…when my birthday is…how old I am. Whether I like chocolate ice cream or vanilla, whether I can eveneatice cream. What if I’m vegan.”
I chuckled. “Then you won’t like tonight’s dinner.”
Mallory smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
After wrapping the last of the gauze around her feet, I straightened. “I can’t imagine how you feel right now. The fact that you were kidnapped, held prisoner, escaped, and can’t figure out who you are…it has to be taking a toll on your mental state.”
