Chapter 31
AMY
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I keep my eyes closed, my breathing shallow. My legs are drawn up to my chest, my forehead resting on the bones of my knees.
I can hear every word of their conversation.
The moment I picked up the statue, I realized my time was up.
It took only a split-second to decide not to go through the window, only to give the illusion of escape.
The square eight-seater dining room table is the perfect hiding place.
With the low-slung wicker-backed chairs packed tightly together, there’s little chance they’ll see me huddling in my cave.
I planned to run the moment they left to look for me. That was before I heard them talking. Before I realized that if I step outside there’s only defeat waiting for me.
I’m so tired. Tired of fighting. Tired of running. And terrified of this sudden inexplicable attraction to my kidnapper.
I wait for Kane and Jill—no, Nolene; I heard him refer to her as Nolene—to leave.
I don’t move until I hear the slam of a door.
Even then I wait a couple of minutes before I push aside a chair and crawl out, leaving the knife under the table.
On shaking legs, I head toward the kitchen and the object that registered in my peripheral vision as I hurried past it.
A landline. I wasn’t aware people even used them anymore.
My hands are trembling, my mind blanking as I pick up the phone and dial a number I was made to memorize when I was ten years old.
“Hutchinson here.”
The tears spill over. “Dad, it’s Amy. I’m all right. No, I don’t know where I am. They’ll be back soon. I love you. Can you trace this number?”