He nodded, then left the office. She turned to Amber, about to ask if she should go after him, and realised she didn’t needAmber’s advice. Instead, she rushed after him, slipping into the lift just before the doors shut.
Cain half smiled at her and whispered, ‘I lost it.’
She smiled back. ‘I’m just glad it wasn’t Amber you were trying to strangle.’
This resulted in the pair of them belly laughing so loud the sound was deafening inside the small lift. When they got out at the ground floor, they tried to contain themselves and straightened up, Cain releasing his grip on Morgan’s arm.
‘Brookes, you are such a bad influence.’
‘I beg to differ, Robson, you are not much better. Where are you going?’
‘To see Amy, boss’s orders.’
Morgan thought that was probably the sweetest idea Ben had come up with until Cain continued talking. ‘He needs her to look into some stuff for this case ASAP.’
‘Does he? Won’t Amy be busy with Ava though.’
‘That’s why I’m going there instead of phoning her; I’ll cuddle Ava while she does something useful.’
It hit her that Ben was a genius; by sending Cain to go and see Amy and Ava, he was getting him out of the way with purpose and compassion, and she wanted to tell him how brilliant he was at being their boss; she would if she remembered.
‘Do you need a lift there?’
He shook his head. ‘Nah, I better go to the Co-op and get her some chocolate and crisps to sweeten her up a little. Thanks though, Morgan.’
He bent down and kissed the top of her head, then walked into the changing rooms.
She smiled after him, hoping that Ben had also talked Brett into not filing a complaint about Cain, because in all honesty, the guy deserved a lot more than being held up by the scruff of his neck.
TWENTY-NINE
Scarlett’s teeth were chattering so hard she worried she was about to chip her front tooth, then realised that she probably wasn’t getting out of this alive and it wouldn’t matter if she ground her teeth down to little nubs. Her life was over. Who cared if she had teeth or not? Then she realised that she cared and she wasn’t going to die like this, locked in some freak’s cage and half frozen to death so he could get his kicks.
Dawson’s body collapsing to the floor made her gasp as she saw it happen all over again in her mind; the sound as his head had shattered chilled her and she knew there was no way he could be alive. Wouldn’t he be in here with her if he was? Tori had run and she was part mad and part glad that she had legged it out of there as soon as that tall freak had attacked them.
‘Hey, hey, it’s freezing. I’m so cold and hungry.’
Her voice echoed around the room, and she listened for any sign of the guy who had put her in here and locked her up like some stray dog that had been found roaming the streets. She squeezed her eyes closed, determined not to cry in case he was watching her. She could barely see her fingers in front of her face when she waved them around, so she wouldn’t be able to seethe creep if he was sitting a little bit away from her in the all-consuming darkness.
‘Fuck you, dickhead. Let me out, my dad will strangle you when he gets hold of you. He’s a bodybuilder, he has muscles you could only dream of and he’s a cage fighter. Just you wait, he’s going to kill you with his bare hands, he will beat the living crap out of you, and I’ll stand by and watch him.’
Her voice felt flat and she was about to scream in frustration and fear when she heard a low groan. Scarlett was sitting bolt upright, her back against a rough wall, and she listened, not daring to breathe, scared to move an inch. It happened again, so quietly she would have thought she was imagining it, but she knew that she wasn’t, and she scrabbled towards the sound and whispered, ‘Dawson, hey, is that you?’ Nothing else happened and she wondered if she was hearing things.
‘Tori, are you here, did he hurt you too?’ The silence was too loud, and she swallowed down the lump that had formed in the back of her throat. She was hallucinating, hearing things. She was going mad inside of here with nobody to hear her scream, even if she screamed until she lost her voice.
Another low moan made her freeze to the spot.
‘Hey, who are you, do you need help?’
‘Where am I? Who are you?’ The woman’s voice was strained, croaky and confused.
‘I wish I knew. Are you okay? I’m Scarlett.’
‘I’m going to…’ The sounds of retching filled the air, and Scarlett grimaced, she hated being sick, hated the sound, the smell of puke and didn’t know if she could bear to be locked in here with that smell filling the air. Scarlett scrabbled around and found the plastic water bottle the creep had thrown in earlier. She pushed it through the bars hoping the woman would be able to grasp it.
‘Here, I have water. Can you reach out and feel for it.’ Scarlett pushed herself against the bars, pressing her entire body against them and leaning out as far as she could, and felt the tiniest movement from the bar she had all her weight on.
Icy, slender fingers grabbed at hers.
