Hush - Anne Malcom Page 0,24

straw. She swallowed roughly. “Who?”

Orion narrowed her eyes. “Dr. Bob Collins.”

She had shared the name with them when she was brought back to The Cell. When she could speak again, open her eyes without wanting to smash her head against the wall.

It had been shared between them in whispers. The name. They each held on to it, for whatever reason they held on to anything. The monster had a name, and that took away some of his power. That’s what they told themselves anyway. He still had the same power as before. All they had was his name.

“Are you shitting me?” Jaclyn snapped, slamming down the milkshake, pink milky liquid spilling over. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Orion blinked. “I . . .” She tried to figure out why she didn’t scream. Why she didn’t snatch the gun from Maddox’s belt and sprint through the hospital until she found him. Why she didn’t tell the two cops who had just promised to bring them justice.

Why had she just woodenly followed Maddox into the van and to the hotel?

“I was in shock, I guess,” she muttered, shame saturating the words.

“Are you sure it was him?” Shelby asked softly.

Orion evened her gaze. “Positive.”

There were things you forgot. Keys. Names of people who didn’t matter. The combination to your locker, if you were April.

But you did not forget the look, sound, and smell of a man who tortured and raped you regularly like it was his right.

“Why didn’t you tell the detective?” Jaclyn asked, not softly. Neither of the women had probed her on the familiarity between her and Maddox. Because they knew her. Knew she hadn’t begun to process it.

Orion shrugged. “I don’t know what I was supposed to say. We’re the victims, remember? Had just come out of imprisonment of the worst kind. He was a doctor sporting a fucking Rolex. I’m guessing he’ll spin some fabulous story about our mental states and our memories being damaged by trauma or whatever.”

Already, various therapists had been pushed on them. There had even been one there, waiting for them, offering to stay in the room with them. None of the girls could hide their disgust at that, and Eric had thankfully gotten rid of her.

“Well, saying nothing is worse than the fucking blue-eyed detective thinking you’re crazy,” Jaclyn snapped. “Newsflash, we are crazy. We’re always going to be that way, no matter how many shrinks they push on us. What were you thinking?”

Orion picked at a cold fry, out of shame more than anything. “I was thinking about other things.”

“Like what?” Jaclyn demanded.

Orion looked up, discarding the half-eaten fry. “Like feeding him his own cock,” she said blandly.

Jaclyn rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay.”

Orion straightened her spine and narrowed her eyes. “I’m serious,” she bit out. “I want to kill him. I want to make him feel everything we felt in there.”

Suddenly, the need was overpowering, like starvation. A thirst for blood, for revenge. She hadn’t let herself think about this until just then. She’d numbed it all. But it was crystal clear to her. Because she was right. Even if she told Maddox, even if he believed her and tried to do something about it, the doctor would have lawyers, prestige, money behind him. Probably some Botoxed wife who stood by his side, defending him.

She was just a girl from the trailer park who got snatched up and ruined.

There was no evidence to tie him to a crime. As messy and gross as The Things had been, Orion had learned how organized their operation was. Years of it, she’d seen. This was not just girls being snatched and taken by two drug addicted hillbillies. Each of the men who did things to them had money.

Orion had recognized it, her trailer park upbringing making it possible for her to spot the money on people. Like she had noted the small gesture on Mary Lou that first day.

Jaclyn stared at her, really looking this time. “You aren’t kidding.”

Orion shook her head.

Jaclyn stepped back, snatched a soda, and jumped onto the bed, picking up a remote to flip through the channels. “Go on ahead. But I won’t be following you back into a cell. No fucking way.”

Orion watched the way she jerked the remote, the way her hand shook just a little. For all the big game she talked, for all her cursing, her tough exterior, she was really still that little girl they had snatched off the street.

They all were.

Orion didn’t resent her for not wanting