CHAPTER TWELVE

“YOU CAN’T DO IT, CALLIE. IT’S TOO DANGEROUS.” HER ROOMMATE and best friend, Lila Ramirez, rose from where she’d been sitting on the edge of the twin bed. “We still don’t know what happened to Molly. And what about Sarah?” It was after lights out, the simple lamp on the nightstand turned off in the bedroom they shared.

“You have heard the rumors,” Lila continued. “People say she is dead.” Lila had met Raul Ramirez at a local nightclub, a man as handsome as she was pretty. Three months later, they were married. When Raul took a job with Daniel, she had excitedly followed him to Blancha Springs.

A month ago, Raul had been killed in a car accident, or at least that was the story. Devastated, Lila wanted to leave, but Daniel refused. After a period of mourning, he said, he would find her a suitable replacement, and she would be happy again.

Callie believed the replacement would be Daniel himself. Then, in time, he would marry Lila to another of his men.

“Maybe you’re wrong,” Callie argued. “Maybe Molly and Sarah both got out and are living like normal people somewhere far away from this terrible place.”

“The chances of you escaping are very slim, Callie, and you know it. What if Klaus finds out? He is expecting to be married tomorrow. What do you think he will do to you if you get caught running away?”

Callie shoved a long cotton skirt and flowered blouse into the big quilted purse one of the women had given her as a welcome gift. “In that case, I’d better not get caught.”

Lila walked toward her. Only thin rays of moonlight sliding out between intermittent clouds lit the darkness outside the bedroom. “Callie, please. Why don’t you wait until we go into town? Maybe there you will find a chance to escape.”

“And in the meantime, I’m supposed to submit to that bastard Mahler? The man is a pig. Have you seen the way he eats? He disgusts me. And those hard, cold eyes? The way he leers at a woman makes me sick to my stomach.”

She paced toward the wall and whirled back to her friend, sending her long skirt billowing around her ankles. “I have to go tonight, Lila. I’d rather be dead than marry Klaus and stay in this place.”

Lila fell silent, knowing she would soon be in the same situation. Callie wondered if Raul had really died or if Daniel had just sent the man off to work somewhere else so that he could have Lila.

It wouldn’t surprise her. Nothing Daniel Henson did surprised her. Not anymore.

She hitched the strap of the quilted bag over her shoulder.

“Even if you reach the fence,” Lila said, “how will you get out?”

“I know where Molly dug the hole. I’ll take my time, watch for the guards, and stay out of sight. I’ll go out the same way she did.”

Lila clamped a hand on a generous hip. “If she got out, you mean. If they did not kill her.”