“Go where?” Lily pressed.
“Wherever I say.”
She cringed back when he crouched next to her to unlock the handcuffs. She could see from the genuine warmth of his smile that he liked her flinching and afraid. After locking her wrists behind her, he slapped her thigh and winked when she nearly jumped from her skin.
“Please don’t,” she begged. “I swear I’ve told you everything.”
“I don’t believe you,” he countered calmly. He sneered at Everett as he gestured toward Lily. “Christ, what a crybaby. Get her up.”
Everett scrambled to his feet and grabbed Lily beneath her arm right where Mendelson had hurt her.
“I’m sorry,” he said at her gasp of pain as she did her best to stand. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
“Let’s go,” Mendelson ordered, as if it were her fault she could barely move. Lily imagined he’d barked at his wife this way after he’d beaten her, annoyed with the very suffering he’d caused, irritated that she was bothered by his violence. But his anger served its purpose, and Lily’s muscles surged with adrenaline. Finally, she was on her feet.
Everett tucked himself beneath her chin, and she kissed his head over and over. “It’s okay,” she repeated.
Mendelson waved them forward. When Everett took a step, that bastard grabbed his shoulder to swing him around before he pulled a zip tie out to restrain her son’s hands behind him.
Not her baby. No. This couldn’t be happening. He’d already had so many nightmares. She didn’t want him scared anymore. She didn’t want him hurt.
Everett met her eyes, and he looked surprisingly calm, when she wanted to scream at the sky and tear at her hair. He stared at her intently, trying to communicate in some way, but she couldn’t tell if he was attempting to ask something or say something. She shook her head slightly, confused.
His lips parted as if he meant to speak or mouth a word, but then he was shoved ahead. “Let’s go. Back gate. If you try anything, I’ll beat your mom to a pulp.”
Everett hunched his shoulders and started walking.
She’d heard the wisdom that you should never allow yourself to be taken to a second location. That you should challenge an attacker to the death if he wanted to move you. But what did they say about behaving when your precious child was being taken too? She had to stay alive long enough to save him, so she kept her eyes focused on her son’s moving, breathing body.
How could she get him out of this? How could she keep him alive? “Please just leave him here,” she begged.
He answered with a huff of hard laughter. “Where’s my fucking wife?”
“I’ve told you a thousand times, I don’t know! Yes, I admit to helping her. You were right. I was working with Zoey, and I took Amber in, and I hid her here, but we’re not supposed to exchange information. That’s one of the rules.”
“Where did you take her?”
“I just . . . I just drove her to the Quik Trip. Over in Highbank. I drove her there.”
“Why?”
Lily didn’t care about Amber anymore. She’d sacrifice anyone to save her son. “She caught the bus. She stayed for a night, and then I drove her to Highbank to catch the eleven forty-three bus.”
“Ah, that’s more like it,” Mendelson drawled. “Now we’re getting facts.”
Everett slowed when he neared the back gate, where an old black Suburban was parked on the other side.
She looked hopefully up at the camera, but it was dark, of course. No power. Detective Mendelson had obviously parked here in the middle of the night and spent plenty of time preparing for this attack.
He’d planned so well. If anyone saw anything suspicious, he would’ve heard it on the radio and vanished. How was she supposed to stay ahead of that kind of thinking when he’d likely been masterminding this for days?
“It’s unlocked,” he said to Everett. “Open it.”
Everett shoved until the gate slid open on its metal wheels, and when he slipped through, she had the brief hope that he might bolt, but that hope struck her at the same time with the blinding fear that he would. This bastard might shoot her son if he tried to run again. Her skin crawled with the waves of anger pouring off him.
But Everett didn’t run. He’d come back for her, and he meant to stay to protect her. He looked pale and scared, head bowed to frown at the ground beneath him. He was such a good boy. She’d been so stupid to be worried when he was an amazing, loving son. Why had she wasted time obsessing over stupid things?