Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Two streets over, Sarah looked around. Perking up for the first time since they’d met. “I know this area. My friend’s apartment is close to here. She’ll have a phone you can use.”
“Okay.” Eliana didn’t want to sound like she doubted this young woman’s honesty, but she’d rather have found a coffee shop or some other public place. After all, she didn’t know who this “friend” of Sarah’s was.
But it would be the fastest way to get to a phone and call Carlos. Thankfully, in the heyday of her massive teenage crush on him, she’d memorized his number and knew he kept the same one. The fascination was going to come in handy now.
Who knew.
She smiled at Sarah. “I have a million questions about the Reverence Sisters, if you don’t mind me asking you everything you know about them after I make my call.”
Sarah glanced aside at her. “Is that because you’re some kind of journalist?”
Eliana shook her head. “No, and I’m not a cop either, but my friend is. He’s one of the good ones. Luci is his sister.”
Sarah didn’t let on how she felt about that. Maybe cops made her nervous, or there was another reason she wasn’t feeling reassured.
A group of three men walked toward them on the street, two of them wearing those smart glasses.
After what had happened with Elysium and the app being used as a weapon in her own building, she didn’t trust it.
Tech was a lot like the drug itself in that way.
Addicting. By the time you realized you were in trouble, it was too late—the manipulation had already happened.
“Hey, ladies,” one of them called out. The guy on the left. The one in the middle was the one with no glasses. “Do you Dabble?”
Eliana ushered Sarah toward the front of the building, away from the street. She could shield the other woman if necessary, using her height as an advantage. “We’re not interested.”
One of the guys reached for Eliana’s arm.
She pulled back and twisted out of reach. “Leave us alone.”
“Whatever, mama.”
His buddy said, “Freak.”
They kept walking, and Eliana didn’t exhale until they were out of reach. When she and Sarah set off again, she said, “That was a close one.”
“There are a lot of guys like that in this neighborhood.”
“Is your friend one of the Sisters? Did you get out together?”
Sarah nodded. “We ran one night. We just ran, and ran, and eventually we believed it worked. That we really had escaped.”
“I talked to another woman who escaped the Reverence Sisters a few days ago. Her story was very similar.” Eliana figured Faith could be Sarah’s friend, and the house they were going to, but Faith hadn’t mentioned anything about living with someone.
It could have simply been to protect Sarah, though.
That would make sense. “How far is it to your friend’s place? ”
Sarah pointed across the street. “It’s that building.”
Traffic streamed past in both directions, and someone honked.
Eliana figured Sarah had to be absolutely freezing, wearing that nightgown under her trenchcoat and only canvas shoes.
Sarah probably had no other clothes, which made Eliana wonder whether she had anything in her closet that might fit the young woman.
Sarah entered the six-digit PIN code and opened the front door.
“Tell me about your friend?”
Sarah smiled, heading for the elevator. More at ease now—probably because they were inside.
She pressed the UP button. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to meet you.
We don’t have many friends.” The doors opened, and they stepped in.
“It’s been hard,” Sarah added. “You know. Since…” Her face turned downcast.
Eliana nodded. “I can’t even imagine.” She leaned against the wall of the elevator. “Did you know Luci at all? I have a photo—” Right. Her phone. “If I show you a picture of her, could you tell me if you know her? I’ll have my friend pick me up. He has a photo on his phone.”
Sarah nodded, though she looked a little nervous.
“How about I meet your friend, and then you meet mine?” Eliana suggested. “We’ll know if we can all trust each other after that. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” The young woman was understandably nervous. Eliana didn’t blame her for being cautious. She was feeling unsettled as well.
“Okay.” Sarah stepped off the elevator ahead of her, went down the hall, and knocked on number four.
When the door opened, a man wearing slacks and a buttoned shirt with a military haircut stood there.
Eliana took a step back. “Oh, I thought you said your friend was someone you—”
Someone behind Eliana shoved her forward and started to push her. She stumbled into Sarah. “Hey!”
Sarah grabbed her arm and pulled her into the apartment.
Eliana cried out, “Ow!”
The person behind her—Eliana twisted around and saw another man—shoved her at the same time. She couldn’t pull her arms out of their grip, struggling against them both. She stumbled into the apartment, and they sort of flung her.
Onto the floor.
The door shut, and the man stood there. The first guy was on the other side of the room. Sarah stood between them, an entirely different expression on her face than anything Eliana had seen since the train.
“What is going on?” Eliana pushed off the floor and stood. “What are you guys playing at?” As she asked that, she realized the man by the door looked a lot like the guy who’d brushed past her in the train station.
The man who’d taken her phone.
Sarah said, “This isn’t a game.”
“Get out of my way.” Eliana went toward the front door. “I’m leaving, and you’re going to give me back my phone.”
The man standing in front of the door sneered.
Someone grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled, sparking flames of pain in Eliana’s skull. She stumbled back, and Sarah let go of her hair.
A scream bubbled up in Eliana’s throat, but the other woman whipped out her hand and slapped Eliana across the face with an open palm.
Fire erupted in her face.
She clasped her cheek with her hand. “What do you want?”
Sarah smirked. “We want you to die. Mother’s orders.”
Eliana stepped back, a reflex. An attempt at escape.
“Don’t bother asking your questions. I know you have a million.”
Eliana hissed a breath in through clenched teeth. “Just tell me if Luci is alive.”
Sarah shook her head, her expression amused. “You aren’t even asking the right thing!” Her voice rose in volume at the end.
Eliana heard a muffled scream from behind her.
Faced with the prospect of going up against two men and Sarah, she went in search of another way of escape.
Instead of a way out, in the empty kitchen, she found Faith in a chair.
No, tied to the chair. Faith had gray fabric over her mouth and wore jeans and a T-shirt, though her feet were bare on the floor.
It was freezing in here.
Eliana spun around, her face still throbbing from that slap. “Let her go.”
Neither of the men said anything. They stood on opposite sides of the room, watching.
Meanwhile, Sarah paced around, her movements jerky and frantic. “I’m not letting her go. You need to shut your mouth so we can finish this.” Sarah motioned to one of the men. “Secure her.” She waved generally in Eliana’s direction.
Eliana turned and ran for the apartment hallway as fast as she could.
Surely, there was a fire escape. A way to flee this place and bring help for Faith.
These people meant only evil, and she knew it, to her very soul.
They were the embodiment of the feeling she’d had at the community, the atmosphere that felt dark and oppressive.
Now it was here, seeping into every part of this place.
Eventually it would seep into her.
She raced for the window at the end of the hall, not knowing if she could even get out.
Footsteps pounded behind her, and two arms wrapped around her waist. The assailant lifted her off her feet, squeezing all the air from her lungs in a rush. A surprised gasp. Eliana managed to take a breath and screamed.
Someone would hear it.
A neighbor would call the police. First officers would come—and then Carlos.
Help!
He dragged her to the main room, the living room. Empty of furniture. Threw her onto the floor. Her elbow and hip landed hard, and she managed to catch herself before she smacked her head.
This couldn’t be where Faith had been living, could it? Surely, they’d lured her here like they had lured Eliana. That’s what it had been, a trap.
But knowing that didn’t help her.
A cloth covered her mouth, and she felt it tighten behind her head. Before she could reach for it, he pulled her hands behind her back and tied them together. Tears filled her eyes, spilling over to fall down her cheeks.
He dragged her up, and someone scraped a chair into the room.
Eliana struggled against his hold. Heavy hands shoved down on her shoulders, and she was forced to sit facing Faith.
The other woman stared at her with dry eyes, full of fear. But also a certain resignation, as if she’d been expecting this. It was no surprise to her, and still Faith would trade her life to be anywhere else.
Maybe her fear-filled mind was projecting too much, but Eliana was probably right.
Let us go.
The words were muffled behind the gag, and Sarah didn’t answer her.
Eliana couldn’t see her captors from this angle, facing Faith—the oven behind her—and the empty living room at her back. She stared at the other woman, trying to reassure her with steady eye contact that they’d be okay. Somehow, they’d get out of this and get free.
Please.
Her mind couldn’t come up with more than that. But God knew what she was feeling. Right now, she needed that intercession.
How about a download right into Carlos’s brain? Or a signal in the sky that I’m in trouble, along with the address?
But it didn’t work like that.
Sarah stood beside them in the cramped kitchen, leaning back against the counter. “I know you have a million questions, so I’ll cut to the chase. Both of you are going to die. How that happens is up to you.”
Eliana tore her gaze from Faith and looked at Sarah, the murderous “Sister.”
Who is the Mother? How could she order you to do this? Why do we have to die?
So many questions rolled through her mind, but with the gag over her mouth, she could ask none of them.
Sarah glanced behind Eliana. “Are you done with her phone?”
“She’s got restrictions on the operating system,” one of the men said. “It won’t be as easy as I thought. I need a minute.”
Eliana frowned, asking the question without being able to say it.
Sarah smirked. “Turns out you’ve been messaging Faith here, convincing her that life after the Sisters won’t be good for her.
Encouraging her to put an end to it. Turns out she’s going to kill you and then herself.
Maybe the other way around, if you kill her first and then die because you can’t handle the guilt of what you’ve just done. ”
Eliana stared at Sarah, breathing hard.
Faith whimpered.
“I’ll console Carlos, don’t worry. I’ll make sure he has all the comfort he needs.” Her eyes gleamed with something sick.
Eliana pulled against the bindings holding her hands behind her back.
Sarah opened the drawer beside her and took out a pistol. “One of you is going to kill the other. Whoever goes first gets to give me their dying wish. Don’t go first? You get no concessions. So what’s it going to be?”
They were both going to die. What kind of deal was that?
“You have a minute to decide,” Sarah said. “And then we get to see what Eliana Hope Banbury Jaxton is really made of.”