“Thank you, Monique. This is Zee. She’ll be here for a few days.”

Monique nodded to me. “Ms. Zee.”

“Just Zee is fine. Thank you so much for the water.”

“My pleasure.” Monique smiled. “Is there anything else?”

“No, thank you,” I said.

“All right. Good night, then.” Monique left.

“Please make yourself at home,” Reid said. “If you need anything, just buzz for Monique.”

“She seems very nice.”

“She’s the best. I only hire the best people.” Reid smiled.

I returned his smile shyly. “Thanks for all this.”

“You’re very welcome. Get some sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning.”

I opened my mouth to tell him not to go yet, but the words stayed stuck in my throat as he closed the door behind him.

I was alone.

I hadn’t slept alone in a bedroom for years.

Part of me was scared silly.

How long had I been in the room with no windows? Someone in a mask had brought me food five times now, but without a clock or daylight, my internal clock was all messed up.

The meals were good, oddly. Whoever had kidnapped me didn’t want me to starve, at least not yet.

Strange.

I gobbled up every morsel each time they fed me. After all, I never knew if it would be the last meal.

I slept and I ate. I went to the bathroom. I washed myself in the small sink.

And I waited.

Waited to…

To what?

Women didn’t get kidnapped to just exist in sterile rooms and be fed. Something would happen. Someone would eventually come and beat me. Or rape me.

Or kill me.

One of those things would happen. Probably all three.

I existed on edge. Eating the meals they provided and always frightened of what would come next.

Why? Why had this happened to me?

I was supposed to be starting college. Orientation week.

Parties and mixers. Classes and new friends.

All that I’d looked so forward to.

I’d stopped crying a few days before. I had no clothes, no tissues. Only toilet paper, and I needed to save that. I had no idea if they’d replenish it, and the thought of not being able to…

Yuck.

I simply existed. Existed in a perpetual state of fear, my flesh crawling with invisible fingers, my mind numb yet always racing.

Racing with all the torture that could be coming my way.

But when it finally came, what actually happened to me had never crossed my mind.

24

Reid

It was late, but I called Rock. “Any news on the Nieves front?”

“None,” he said. “I’ve tried to get in touch with her.”

“What’s up with Leta?”

“She’s still in the hospital,” he said. “Someone knocked her around pretty good.”

“Any idea who?”

“The guys are looking into it. She knows something, and someone doesn’t want her talking.”

“She’s already talked.”