Page 94 of Rescued Dreams

It wasn’t like she carried weapons on her day off, but that would have come in handy in the bank.

Elam.

He had to have been working with Nicholas, or they had some kind of arrangement. The timing of the bank incident and the truck blowing with her in the rig was a little too coincidental for her to believe otherwise.

Not that it mattered now. She was here.

Amelia turned and looked at the other woman. Cherry stared back at her, betrayal and anger in her features. There was no one else here, and she needed to blame someone. It made sense that person was Amelia.

“I don’t understand why I’m here. I wanted out. I left him, and I got away.”

“I did the same thing.” Amelia tried to show this scared young woman empathy, when she really wanted to tell her that she should have simply kept running. That she never should have stopped.

“It’s you he wants. Why am I here?” She sniffed and swiped at her cheek.

Leverage.

It was the thought that popped into Amelia’s mind. Relief flooded her that she hadn’t said it aloud. This woman didn’t need to know that Nicholas and his mind games would likely pit the two women against each other. He knew Amelia wouldn’t let an innocent mother and her child suffer, and so he would threaten Cherry and her child in order to get Amelia to comply. He would use items like those explosives Elam had in the bank—definitely supplied by Nicholas and his connections. She had no doubts about that.

But what would he want her to do?

Her stomach churned, but she forced her thoughts to focus on nothing so that she didn’t think about it.

She needed to be reassuring. “Cherry, I don’t think he would hurt his own baby. He wants a child that will take after him, someone he can mold.” Twist. Corrupt. Like her father had done with Elam. She knew how that worked because she’d lived it. “He’s not going to risk losing that.”

She caught the look on Cherry’s face.

“Is the baby his?”

Cherry’s head jerked around. “It doesn’t matter. We’re both in danger.”

“How did you get involved with him?”

She looked away, a hard expression on her face.

It’s why I’m here, isn’t it? Because of you.

“Cherry…” Amelia needed her to start telling the whole truth. “How did you get involved with him?” She looked like Amelia. A strong enough resemblance that Amelia would believe he’d stuck to his type. And with the added bonus of the pregnancy, she’d be sympathetic when this woman showed up needing help. “You came here purposely to dupe me?”

“He said he’d give me five grand.” Cherry sniffed.

And now she was a target. A pawn. “I’m sorry.”

“You should do what he wants. Then I’ll be able to go free.”

Amelia wasn’t so sure about that, but Cherry needed to believe in something. “I’m praying we can figure a way out of this. That someone will find us and help us.”

“Praying?” Cherry scoffed.

“Maybe you should try it as well. Increase our chances.” Two prayers were better than one, right? No matter how Cherry felt about religion, she knew as well as Amelia did that they needed help.

Nicholas’s form darkened the doorway.

Cherry whimpered and curled into a smaller ball in the cage.

Amelia watched him wander into the room and scanned his features now that she could think more clearly. His hair was a little longer than regulation, as if he didn’t care to cut it. The dark strands were nearly chin length. Mussed from where he’d run his hands through it, far too excited to be calm.

Anticipating what was going to happen next.