Ellie braced her palms on her thighs and leaned forward. “Try me.”
After a brief internal debate, Katarina was swayed by the feverish intensity in the detective’s green eyes. What the hell? Worst case, Ellie would shake her head at the end of the story, draw the same conclusions about Katarina’s sanity as the doctors, and finally leave her in peace.
“He came to visit me. Right here in the hospital. Well, not in this room, but in my ICU room downstairs. He waltzed in like he owned the place and started asking me questions only Kingsley would know to ask, but when I screamed for the nurse, no one believed me. So, yeah, I guess I do know Kingsley. At least, enough to recognize him when he’s wearing a disguise and no one else had a clue.”
The story had an effect, just not in the way Katarina had anticipated. Ellie sprang to her feet, but instead of running, she surged closer to the bed. “You’d better not be messing with me right now.” Those manicured hands curled around one of the side rails that formed Katarina’s cage. “Are you telling me the truth? Did you really see Kingsley in your room?”
Katarina gaped at Ellie’s glittering eyes and flushed cheeks. Her heart skipped a beat. Was it possible that someone in this awful place finally believed her and didn’t chalk her story up to a mental breakdown?
“Oh, it was real, all right. What the hell reason would I have to lie? But if you require further convincing, go check the surveillance footage. I’m guessing a place like this has camera feeds that actually work.”
Katarina held the detective’s glittering stare for a good ten seconds before Ellie nodded. “Okay. I believe you. Or at least that you believe that’s what happened.”
“Gee, thanks. I’m ever so grateful that you believe I’m telling the truth, even if you’re half convinced I’m hallucinating.”
Ellie tapped her foot and sighed. “Look—”
“No, you look!” Katarina broke in, urgency making her talk fast. “You were partially right when you said I know Kingsley better than anyone because I do know better than anyone what he’s capable of. Even with little girls he feels affection for. He started grooming me on the first day he walked in the door of the Davidsons’ house, the latest in a long line of parents. Not in a kiddy diddling way, but in a psychopath crazy as shit way.”
Katarina closed her eyes, forcing her mind away from that day.
“What happened?”
Katarina forced herself to meet Ellie’s green gaze again. “Those people, the Davidsons, were worse than shitty parents, but they didn’t deserve to burn to death…or to have that sick bastard prey on all my loneliness and anger and press a knife in my hand and make it obvious that I either cut them or die alongside them. I was just a kid.”
The words rang soft and hollow in her ears, so she repeated them. Louder, with more conviction this time.
“I was just a kid. Parentless and scared and sad and confused. That asshole got me when I was older than Bethany, and already harder, and that was just the first horror in a whole string of them.”
“I’m sorry, Katarina.”
Katarina cringed at the gentleness in Ellie’s voice. Screw that. She didn’t need anyone’s pity, least of all the red-haired princess bitch. Messed up or not, she’d survived.
“Spare me your sympathy. I only told you that story to remind you of what’s at stake here. My daughter is innocent and good. We can’t let him ruin her like he did me. Please find her.”
“Tell me more about her. What are some of her favorite things? What’s she like?”
Through her rising panic, Katarina pictured her daughter’s smiling face, and her mouth softened. “She loves pancakes and waffles, especially the kind you make yourself at those free all-you-can-eat breakfasts they have at hotels. Her favorite superhero is Wonder Woman. She’s a pro at getting you to read her a second bedtime story, loves playing games of pretend and learning new facts. That kid is incredibly resilient, and at eight years old has more ingenuity in her little finger than I’ve had in my entire damn life.”
She stopped talking to drag air down her constricted throat as waves of helpless frustration threatened to overwhelm her. Bethany had been missing for over a week now. Long enough for Kingsley to have inflicted permanent damage on her tender eight-year-old psyche.
Ellie rose from the chair. “I’m sorry, I know this must be awful, but I swear I’m not lying when I tell you we’re pulling out all the stops to find her.”
Katarina tugged on the wrist straps. “If that’s true, then you’ll help me get out of here.”
The detective hesitated, studying Katarina’s bound arms like she was tempted before lifting her shoulders. “Like I said before, it’s not up to me. Do what you need to do, say what you need to say to get yourself out of here.” Her long legs made quick work of the room, and within moments, the detective was at the door, where she paused. “I promise I’ll be in touch the second I hear anything.”
The door clicked shut behind her, and she was gone.
Angry tears sprang to Katarina’s eyes, but she choked back the cry, fighting the emotion until she was sure Ellie was out of range. She counted ten seconds before the dam burst, and the bed shook from the force of her sobs.
Bethany was out there, trapped with one of the most demented men on the face of the earth, and Katarina’s fleeting hope that the police would find her soon had died the second Detective Kline opened her mouth.
Her daughter was in danger, and there wasn’t a damn thing Katarina could
