Authors: Cynthia Eden
Torn (32 page)
Her teeth were chattering, but she hadn't noticed the cold, not until then.
She didn't take the coat. She didn't think her fingers would work and just keeping her eyes open was a serious effort.
“Your name, miss,” he continued, that drawling voice of his careful now, sympathetic. “Can you tell it to me?”
“BâÂB . . .”
Bailey.
But she couldn't talk. Just that sad croak was all she could manage.
His flashlight fell to her neck. Whatever he saw there made him swearing.
But then others were jumping down into the hole. More men with flashlights. They were in the hole with her and they lifted her out. Someone carried her a few steps forward and thenâÂthen she was on some kind of gurney. Bailey craned her head and looked back. There were so many lights out there then, and the dogs were nearby, whining.
She saw her hole. Big and wide and deep. And a giant pile of dirt was beside it. A shovel lay forgotten on the ground.
Was that my grave?
“It's okay.” It was a woman's voice. Bailey jerked at that voice and at the soft hand that touched her shoulder. “You're safe.”
She didn't feel safe.
“I'm an EMT,” the woman continued. “And I'll . . . I'll get you taken care of just . . .” The woman's voice trailed away. “Is all that blood yours?”
Bailey looked down at her body. Her shirt was soaked. Stained red, she saw in the light. Red and dirty. But was all the blood hers?
I think so.
Bailey nodded.
The scent of ash drifted to her. Ash and fire.
What's burning?
Her head turned as she was loaded into the back of an ambulance. She saw the fire in that instant, big and red as it burned so hot and bright. But . . . was that the cabin? Her prison? Was that what burned like hell right then?
“The fire brought the deputies in,” the woman said, her blond hair in a bun near her nape, “it helped us find you.” The ambulance's back doors slammed closed. “We found the other bodies first . . .”
No, no . . .
“And then you.”
A man was in the back of the ambulance, too. Another EMT. He had red hair and freckles across his nose. He gave her a reassuring smile. “You're safe.”
So she kept being told.
But I'm not. I'm not safe.
She needed to tell them about the other woman. They had to find her.
She grabbed for the redheaded man's hand. Held tight.
“What is it?” he asked, frowning at her. “Tell me where it hurts.”
Bailey hurt everywhere, but this wasn't about her pain. “Wo . . . man . . .” She mouthed the words because she just couldn't speak.
His blue eyes narrowed on her lips.
“Wo . . . man . . .” She mouthed them again as her whole body began to shake. “Another . . . vic . . . vic . . . tim . . .”
His eyes became saucers. “Another victim was alive?”
She nodded.
“He had another victim with you?”
Once more, she nodded.
“Christ!” He lunged away from her and shoved open the ambulance's back door. “Keep those dogs searching! There's another woman out there!”
Bailey's head sagged back and her eyes closed. She'd done it. They would find the other woman. She'd be safe, too.
They'd find her.
The ambulance's sirens screamed.
And Bailey closed her eyes.
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Award-winning author
CYNTHIA EDEN
writes dark tales of paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She is a
New York Times
,
USA Today
,
Digital Book World
, and
IndieReader
bestseller. Cynthia is also a two-time finalist for the RITA® award (she was a finalist both in the romantic suspense category and in the paranormal romance category). Since she began writing full-time in 2005, Cynthia has written more than thirty novels and novellas. She lives along the Alabama Gulf Coast.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from
Taken
copyright © 2016 by Cindy Roussos
TORN.
Copyright © 2016 by Cindy Roussos. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition JUNE 2016 ISBN: 978-0-06243746-4
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06243740-2
FIRST EDITION
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