Free (Blood and Bone, #2) Sin and Swoon by Tara Brown Page B

come for me than I think I can comprehend.
    “I was in a car with my boyfriend. And now I’m here.”
    “A Jeep?” she asks softly, her delicate word ripping a huge hole in my stomach and heart.
    “Yes.”
    She whimpers again, but it sounds like a laugh. “He’s the best boyfriend ever, isn’t he?” She giggles again, but it’s as if someone is dragging a knife down her arm, forcing the pained giggle out. “Until he’s not and you’re here.”
    “Where are we?” My throat is dry and coarse.
    “I don’t know. It’s underground—I know that. But there is nothing else. No water dripping, no traffic, no noise whatsoever. It’s just us and silence and him. But he’s not here all the time.” Her voice is so familiar, like it’s been inside of my head.
    I immediately know where we are. We’re at his cabin. The dank air doesn’t smell the same in here as the crisp air outside, but I know that’s where we are. I don’t know how I know it, but I do. “Has anyone ever escaped?” I whisper back into the corner, feeling my own breath landing back on me.
    “I don’t know. A couple of the girls have been here longer than me. Some have left, but not ’cause they escaped.”
    I don’t want to talk anymore. I need to find a way out. I rifle my pockets for my phone, but it’s gone, so I lift my hands and run them along the walls the whole way around. I am truly in a dugout. It’s a room surrounded by dirt and wood, and the floor is straw the entire way. My brain tries to whisper things about bugs and the stuff I can’t see, but I don’t let it. I sit back on the bed and wait. He will come, and I will kill him.
    “You have food in the corner at the end of the bed. It’s in a bar fridge next to the toilet. There is food and water there.” The girl, Jane, whispers, “The light can be a friend in the dark.”
    I scramble to the end of the bed, feeling for the fridge. I had noticed the toilet on my circle around.
    And there it is. I fling the door open, flooding the dark space with light. As my eyes adjust I am surprised by what I find. It’s much nicer than I anticipated. Much.
    It’s cleaner and less like a dug hole in the ground. More like a cellar. The ceiling is cement, perhaps the oddest part of the room, and the floors are cement with straw covering them. Some of the walls are wooden, and others are old cement that’s broken down and looks a bit like dirt. The bed is stacks of hay with blankets over the top, and the small white bar fridge is my only company. The crack where Jane whispers from is in one of the cement-and-dirt walls. The cracks are decay. In the dim light I can see her dark eyes in the shadows. I might not have seen the color if not for the ghastly state of her pale skin. She is white like I have never seen. Gray almost. When she leans in I can see she has different-colored eyes. One is dark blue and the other pale. She blinks and backs up, making them both appear dark again. Her face changes in the shadows, making me think I have seen her before, and then maybe not.
    “The food gets refilled when he comes, so it’s feast or famine, but he always comes.” Her puffy lips are cracked and sore. She looks exhausted and hollow. Her oddly colored eyes reflect only blankness.
    “Do I know you?” I ask, thinking I can’t help but feel like this Jane has crawled around inside of my head.
    She shakes her head slowly. “I don’t think we have ever met. I’d remember.”
    I shrug. “What does he do with us here?”
    A single tear slips down her cheek, washing away filth and leaving an even whiter streak of skin that glows in the muted light. “He will bathe you, show you how much he loves you.” She cringes. “Then he bathes you again and puts you back in the cell. Sometimes he makes us put on dresses and dance with him. Other times, when he thinks one of us has misbehaved or we’ve talked too much, he beats one of the girls, and we all have to hear it.” Her expression tightens a