The woman had incredible eyes: wide, almost emerald green, with long thick lashes surrounding them. She had a pert nose and lips that were lovely: full and puffy like tiny perfect, pale, rose pillows that needed kissing. Beautiful.
“Do I have something on my face?”
Anders’s gaze flickered at the question as he realized he’d been caught staring. Shaking his head in answer to her question, he glanced away, but then he shifted his eyes back and gestured to her bowl. “Eat.”
Valerie picked up her spoon, but she didn’t start eating. Instead, she simply fiddled with the utensil and bit her lip, her gaze shooting to the door again. Thinking about her dog, he guessed.
Sighing, she set down the spoon. “I’m afraid I’m not hungry anymore. I mean, it’s very good, but it is a very thick soup, more like stew, really, and I haven’t eaten much lately. I should be hungry, ravenous even. I’ve always been a healthy eater, and . . .” She paused, biting her lip, and then muttered, “Sorry. I’m rambling. I guess I’m worried about Roxy.”
Anders began loading Leigh’s empty bowl and glass back onto the tray, and simply said, “Drink your milk and finish telling me about the night you were taken.”
Valerie nodded, but didn’t speak right away. Instead, her expression became thoughtful and Anders suspected she was mentally taking herself back to the night she’d been kidnapped. It worried him. He couldn’t read or control her. If putting herself back in that moment upset her to the point of hysterics, he couldn’t slip into her mind and soothe her. He was just thinking that it might have been better if he’d waited for Leigh or someone else to be present to ask these questions, when she began to speak. Much to his relief, her voice was perfectly calm.
“It all happened very fast. I’m not even sure what exactly took place. I remember Roxy going suddenly still and barking, and then I felt someone grab me . . .” She paused and Anders watched her closely. Several expressions flickered across her face in quick succession. Fear, anxiety, and anger were among them. Finally she said unhappily, “I think he kicked Roxy. I remember her yelping in pain and then he dragged me up against his chest and . . .”
Valerie hesitated again and he suspected she was trying to decide what she should and shouldn’t tell him. No doubt she felt mentioning fangs and being bitten might make him think she was crazy. He wasn’t surprised when she suddenly shook her head and muttered, “The next thing I knew I woke up in that cage in the dark. My neck was bleeding and I was weak and disoriented. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel the bars of my cage and hear a woman sobbing. I called out and . . .” She closed her eyes briefly before continuing, “They answered one by one, scared voices in the dark; Cindy, Bethany, Janey, Kathy, Billie, and Laura. One of us for every night of the week.” Swallowing, she met his gaze and said, “Leigh told me Bethany and Janey didn’t make it.”
It was a statement rather than a question, but he nodded anyway, verifying that it was true.
Valerie sagged in her seat, looking more resigned than anything as she said, “Both of them sounded pretty weak and exhausted the night I arrived. They just got worse as the days passed. They’d been there the longest and weren’t doing well. I guess that’s why they weren’t taken up the first week I was there. It was only five days after I was kidnapped that I was taken upstairs myself.”
“You ate at first?” he asked, but thought she must have. She’d been there ten days. She wouldn’t have had the strength to do what she had if she hadn’t eaten the whole time.
Valerie nodded. “The first daily ration of oatmeal and fruit was brought around the night after I got there. At least I’m guessing it was a full day and night after.” She shrugged. “Igor took Cindy upstairs after passing out the bowls. I asked the others why he’d taken her and where, but they didn’t want to talk about it and just told me to eat or Igor would force-feed me. I was starved, so I ate.”
She grimaced. “Things got pretty fuzzy after that. I know he came back and cleaned Cindy’s cage while she was gone. But I don’t think he collected the bowls until he brought Cindy back. I’m not sure. Like I said, things got fuzzy and all I wanted to do was sleep.” She shook her head. “I should have realized it was the oatmeal, that it was drugged, but I just thought the exhaustion and constant sleeping were due to the wound on my neck.”
Anders nodded, and then asked, “When did you figure out the food was drugged?”
“After my own first ‘night out,’ ” she answered with a grim smile.