“Yes. I don’t have any memories before waking up in—” My voice cracked, and I looked down at my hands, now twisting the napkin in my lap.
“Randy, Mallory was being held by someone in a basement. He had her locked up for a couple days and was toying with her, telling her what he was going to do to her.Bad things. The walls were brick, and she said she worked for hours to loosen one. Shehid the brick, and when the guy came back in, she hit him over the head and ran.”
I watched as Randy’s eyes grew wider and wider as Liam spoke.
He turned to me and blinked a few times. “Are you saying you were kidnapped and held against your will?”
Nodding, I said, “Yes. I was kept in a basement-type place below a barn. When I hit him, I ran as fast as I could, and I didn’t stop. It was two full days of running. I climbed over fences, under them, through a storm, crossed a few creeks, and I stopped only when I could literally no longer run. The second night, there was another storm, and I climbed yet another fence. I could tell it was a huge pasture of some kind, and I didn’t like being so exposed. I just ran until I basically collapsed. I couldn’t run anymore. When I felt Liam picking me up, I remember praying it wasn’t the bad man who’d found me.”
Randy glanced at Liam, and I could see the anger on his face. Suddenly he stood and yelled, “Why in the hell haven’t you called the police, Liam?”
CHAPTER TEN
Liam
I could practically see steam coming from Randy’s ears. Standing slowly, I held up my hands and said quietly, “Randy, I need you to calm down and please let us finish telling you everything.”
Randy looked at Mallory, and instantly his face softened when he saw the fear there. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell like that.”
She had sunk way down in her seat, her shoulders drawn up close to her ears.
After Randy sat, Mallory slowly straightened. I wanted to punch Randy for making her feel so afraid. I forced myself to calm down and not lash out at my cousin. Instead, I spoke slow and steady.
“After I found Mallory and got her to the house, she slept for a couple days, like I said. When she woke up and told me everything, I said we should go to the police.”
“But I don’t want to,” Mallory quickly added.
Randy nodded. “May I ask why?”
She shook her head slightly and said, “I don’t trust anyone. From what I can tell, this is a very sparsely populated area, and what ifhe’sa police officer, or someone even higher up? If hefinds out I’m alive, he’ll come after me.”
“We can protect you,” Randy argued.
Mallory glanced at me. “Not like Liam can.” Facing my cousin again, she went on. “My kidnapper told me he knew all kinds of people, and that if I tried to run, he would find me. He said he knew cops. I can’t risk it, I’m sorry.” She looked back at me, and her cheeks blushed slightly. “I don’t know why, but my gut tells me I can only trust Liam.”
“That’s not all, Randy.”
He dropped back in his seat. “There’smore?” he asked with a humorless laugh.
I glanced at Mallory, who seemed a bit more at ease. “When I found her, Mallory was wearing a necklace she said she’d found in the basement where she was being kept.”
Turning to wait for Mallory to speak, Randy raised his brows.
“There was a corner I would always huddle into, anytime that monster came in. I don’t know why. I guess I felt like it made me a smaller target, that I could disappear in it, and that corner was the farthest spot from the door. The second day I was there, I found a necklace buried in the dirt. I don’t know why I put it on. Maybe to feel closer to the woman who’d been wearing it.”
“There were other women in the room?” Randy asked.
“No, not at that time, but he said he’d kept other women there before. There was an old mattress on the floor, and it…it…” She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, tears spilled free.
“It’s okay,” Randy said softly. “Take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. Talk only when you’re ready.”
Mallory nodded and did as Randy said. “It had a lot of dried blood on it, not mine, and it smelled terrible.”
Randy ran his hand down his face. “Holy crap. A serial kidnapper?”
“Do you know how many women in the area have been reported missing?” I asked.
For a moment, Randy looked lost in thought before he replied, “Not a whole lot. I mean, like Mallory said, we’re a small community, and the last-known person to go missing was Emily. Bozeman has a larger amount of missing persons, as does Billings.”
