Chapter 30
Thirty
A sher shifted, trying to get comfortable propped up against the wall on Leah’s cot. The girl had been sleeping a lot, which worried him a bit. He didn’t know if that was normal for her. Their captor had left her meds at the top of the stairs with their food this morning, but Asher was worried she was getting sick. The dampness wasn’t ideal for her already suppressed immune system. It would just bring it down more. Not to mention their environment exposed her to a host of bacteria she wasn’t used to.
He glanced at the window set high into the wall, attempting to gauge the time. His smart watch was missing, along with his phone. Their kidnapper was savvy enough to know someone could track Asher through both devices. It also kept him guessing about the time of day. Once it got dark, he planned to camp out near the top of the steps and ambush the guy when he brought them dinner and Leah’s evening medicine. He wished he had a weapon, but there was nothing down here except their beds and the toilet paper in the small bathroom tucked under the stairs.
Leah moaned softly in her sleep and snuggled deeper into his side. Asher brushed the hair away from her face. She was cool to the touch, which encouraged him. Maybe it was just her brain’s way of coping with the situation.
It would be nice if his did the same, but he’d had the opposite reaction. He barely slept last night. He couldn’t help but wonder who had taken them and why. How it was tied to Esther. Asher could understand his abduction with her involved, but not Leah’s. It made more sense that this was about Leah. But why was Esther involved? Why was he? Because they were in the way? But how would the guy know that? Asher hadn’t been involved until recently, and the guy had been around long before that.
A long breath left his chest. He’d been thinking in circles all night. It wasn’t getting him anywhere, and he had a headache from it. The only saving grace was he knew Esther would have called Edie by now. That meant Ford and everyone else were involved. Asher was confident they would find them.
Leah moaned again, a little louder. Asher picked her up and put her on his lap, tucking her into his chest and rocking her slowly.
Once more, he said a prayer the girl wasn’t getting sick. He tacked on another that his friends found him before anything bad happened.