Hush - Anne Malcom Page 0,37
find a house of horrors. A lot of publicity.
Maddox cleared his throat awkwardly. “I can leave, if you’re not comfortable.”
“No,” she said. Almost shouted. “No, it’s fine. We’re really strangers now anyway, aren’t we?” It was an effort to shrug her shoulders with disinterest, but she did it.
Maddox’s jaw stiffened and his hands balled into fists on top of the table. He wanted to argue with her, she saw it. But he held it together. If she had to guess, Orion would say that the only reason he was able to stay on this case—that is, if his superiors knew of their connection—was if he held on to his cop mask. Didn’t let emotions seep in. She decided it would be her personal challenge to goad him into a reaction, just so she would get a respite from him.
Eric cleared his throat, glancing to Maddox then back at her. “So, we want to go through this as painlessly as possible, but we do need to get as much information as you can remember.”
Orion laughed. “Don’t worry. I know there’s no such thing as painless. I can handle it.”
Maddox balled his fists tighter. He didn’t like the reminder that she knew pain as an unwelcome friend. Orion made a mental note of that.
She focused on Eric. His eyes were kind but detached. She liked that. That he knew he had to separate his humanity. She didn’t need it.
“We have been searching the house where you were . . . kept,” he said. “In our search, so far, we’ve found the remains of three persons. Yet to determine age or identity. But definitely three. Probably more. We’re wondering if you might know how many we’re gonna find . . . who they are.”
Orion felt the acid in her stomach crawl up her throat. A memory forced itself from the depths of her soul.
“I need you to do something for me,” Mary Lou said. Her voice was low. It didn’t have the same hope and cheer it had when Orion had first arrived all those years before.
It slowly drained out of her, that hope.
“Want me to run to McDonald’s and grab some burgers?” Orion deadpanned. Her legs ached, her insides roiling with hunger.
Mary Lou laughed hollowly. “Maybe later.” Her chain rattled as she moved so slightly. Orion knew she was trying to find a way to sit so it didn’t feel like knives were jabbing into her uterus. She had been the latest victim. It had been rough, by the way she’d limped back into the room.
“I’m getting older,” she said.
“I’ll get you some wrinkle cream while I’m out,” Orion said.
No laugh this time. “Too old,” she whispered. “For them. I know my time is coming up. When I’m of no use.”
Orion stiffened. “The only time coming is for us to get out of here.”
Jaclyn snorted. “Keep dreaming, girl.”
“Just in case,” Mary Lou said, ignoring Jaclyn. “I need you to make a promise. Because one day I know you’ll make it out of here.”
“We’ll make it out of here,” Orion said through gritted teeth.
“Can you just make me a promise or not?” A little steel in her voice now.
“No,” Orion shot back.
“I have a little girl,” Mary Lou said, little more than a rasp.
Orion jerked. Mary Lou had told them many things about her life. About her preacher father, her mother who liked to bake apple pies and judge her daughter if her dress was wrinkled. Her family didn’t sound real. Orion thought they seemed like assholes, but Mary Lou loved them.
She’d told them about her boyfriend. Quarterback, all-American handsomeness. Good family.
Orion had heard every detail of her pastel life. Or thought she had.
“I didn’t say anything about her because . . .” Mary Lou trailed off. “It hurts to think about her,” she whispered. “My parents weren’t happy, to say the least. They wanted to send me away at first.”
She paused. “Well, my mother did. I thought for sure my father would’ve agreed, clutching his Bible. But he didn’t. He sided with me. Didn’t even force me to marry Johnny like Mom was trying to. Of course, he would’ve preferred I didn’t have his granddaughter out of wedlock, but he wasn’t going to hold a shotgun to my or Johnny’s back.”
She sucked in a rough breath, then coughed. Orion didn’t like the way it rattled in her chest.
They often got sick down here. They weren’t given blankets or enough water. Never enough food. They were kept alive, but not healthy. Somehow, cruelly,