Breaking Shadows (Darkness Falls Book 2) Read online

  Breaking Shadows

  Melissa Sinclair

  Darkness Falls

  Copyright © 2018 by Melissa Sinclair

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, dialogue and incidents either are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to events, places or persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges all song titles, song lyrics, film titles, film characters, trademarked statuses and brands mentioned in this book are the property of, and belong to, their respective owners.

  Melissa Sinclair is in no way affiliated with any of the brands, songs, musicians or artists mentioned in this book.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in a printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in encouraging piracy or copyrighted materials in violation with the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  First Edition

  Cover design by Render Compose www.rendercompose.com

  Created with Vellum

  Acknowledgements

  I will always thank my family first—my husband for his never-ending support, even when I don’t realize it, I find out later when someone approaches and says, “You’re the author!” I love you, thank you! To my children for their unending patience and excitement about my books; they are my everything, even when they are fighting relentlessly.

  On to my amazing crew of people who make this book better, Mitzi Carroll, Copy and Line Editor, https://www.facebook.com/MitziCarrollEditor/ and Marisa Nichols, Proofreader, https://www.facebook.com/alatedbibliophile/. I cannot tell you thank you enough, for all the kind words and the hilarious comments in the margin.

  This cover! What can I say about this cover other than that it is gorgeous, and I loved it immediately? Lucy Rhodes of Render Compose is immensely talented. I count her as a friend as well as my graphic queen. You can see her other work on www.rendercompose.com.

  To my police expert, Sergeant Wilson, thank you for being so accommodating when I was asking about human trafficking. The report that you sent me with all the statistics, while unsettling, was invaluable.

  To my Alpha, Sue Lopp, for reading the unedited version and for brainstorming with me. Just messaging with you opens up all kinds of ideas and steers the story in new directions. To my Betas, Joy Schabow and Jody Reynolds, I hope that I did this one justice for you ladies. Joy, one of my worries is that it isn’t as good as the first one, and you loved In the Night. I hope you’ll love this one too! Jody, your kind words and constructive criticism were taken to heart when writing book two. It was wonderful to talk to a fan about what I could do to make it better. I hope this one did just that for you!

  To my author mentors, there are too many to really name you all, but I feel I need to thank a couple of you by name. I would like to thank PJ Fiala for all of your help and for suggesting Mitzi Carroll to me. I would also like to thank Abbie Roads. Your support by merely putting my book in your newsletter meant so much to me. I cannot thank you enough. The greatest compliment I can give is to share both your names. I would also like to thank the Indie Group that helps me with all my questions.

  To any and all family members who supported me with my first book, thank you, thank you! Without you, it wouldn’t have succeeded. To my mom, dad, and their significant others, my siblings, and my in-laws, I love you all so much. This one isn’t as twisted, so you might not have to explain as much. Finally, to Pastor Lori, I love to tell people how embarrassed I was when you told me you read my book. I still laugh about how you told me you didn’t mind all the swear words because other words just wouldn’t have fit in those sentences.

  All mistakes are my own.

  To DNAR you are my everything.

  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  1

  Darkness. Pure and absolute, as if someone had spilled black paint over the world. This was all Becky could see—this was her world. Terrible, all-consuming darkness, for minutes, hours, days on end. It had been so long since Becky had seen anything but inky black darkness, and she would give her left arm to see light once again. How long ago had the mistress of the house thrown her down in this dank hole as punishment? What was she even being punished for? It had been so long that she had to search the deep recesses of her mind to remember. Then she remembered: she hadn’t folded the towels the right way. She trembled with fear, remembering all too well the way the mistress had looked when she opened the linen closet. Becky knew it was all just an excuse, though. There was nothing wrong with the towels. What had bothered her was the way the master had looked at Becky. As the mistress beat her with the belt, she told her she had seen her looking at the master with impure thoughts.

  What had Becky done to deserve this life? Surely, she had been a good enough child that she didn’t deserve the daily beatings, the starvation, or the ridicule. It had been so long since the mistress had given her anything to eat that her stomach cramped from the mere thought of food. She no longer had any water left in the bucket that’d been left. The water had been dirty, but she hadn’t cared. In the end, she didn’t have much choice—drink it or die from dehydration, and Becky wasn’t ready to die.

  A scraping sound alerted her that she had a visitor coming. Would it be the mistress or the master? She didn’t like the way the mistress treated her, but surely it was better than the sex she was made to have with the master? How he could stand to be near her rank body was a wonder to her, but she had stopped caring a long time ago. It’d been months since she had first been taken and sold to this wicked couple to do their bidding. The mistress didn’t want the master to touch her, and Becky felt she was secretly thankful that the master with his cruel ways took Becky to his bed, but then the mistress would beat her mercilessly after. In her heart, she knew her parents thought she was dead, never to be seen again. Hope, a twisted thing, was all that she had. The hope that her parents were still searching was all that kept her from curling into a ball and letting herself succumb to the darkness.

  Given the opportunity, even the slightest chance, she would attempt to escape. Perhaps this was that chance; no matter who came through the door, she would fight and try to leave, but she would need the key. The worse that could happen was they would kill her, though Becky doubted they would; they enjoyed torturing her too much to let her die. The door scraped open, not the metal slot that they slid the food through, but the actual door. Fear and hope coursed through her body, the conflicting emotions almost too much to handle. Fear that whoever was entering the room was merely there to torture her; hope that she was being taken out of the cell she had been held in. She jerked when a hand touched her, and a blindfold was placed over her eyes. This was new; they had never b
lindfolded her before. There had been no need. She was always chained and never allowed off their sprawling property.

  “Shh, don’t say a word, don’t scream, be absolutely quiet,” said a voice she’d never heard before.

  “Who-who are you?” she whispered, her voice raspy from lack of use. She tried to lick her lips, but there was no saliva left. How long had it been since she had a drink? Twenty-four hours? Forty-eight? She thought somewhere in between.

  “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’m going to get you out of this hellhole.”

  Becky would have cried if she had enough moisture in her body to manage the simple act of creating a tear. But she was desperately close to succumbing to dehydration. Could this be true? Was he really here to help her? Hope spread through her body. Her attempt to tamp it down was unsuccessful because she wanted to believe he was here to help her and that this wasn’t a cruel joke.

  “Can you stand on your own?”

  Could she? She didn’t think so, but she would try. After a feeble attempt at sitting up, she slumped back to the ground. Gentle hands tried to help her, but as if realizing it was useless, stopped their attempt to help her gain her feet. The little hope that had dared to build started to dwindle when she remembered the chains and the lack of a key to get them off her. As if he read her mind, he began to fidget with the chains and then they fell from her raw wrists and ankles.

  “I-I don’t think I can stand. I’m so weak. I can’t help you.” When she felt him stand, she started to panic. “Please, please don’t leave me here.”

  “I’m not leaving you. I just wanted to stand up, so I can gain leverage to pick you up. I fear that this is going to hurt, and I apologize for that. Your body is in a state of starvation. You need immediate nutrients before your organs shut down. Moving you may cause you pain. But we have to get you out of here; time is of the essence. Try to remain as still as possible and let me do the work.” He paused before speaking again. “I’m going to pick you up on the count of three. One, two, three.”

  As gently as possible, he lifted her to his chest. She stifled the scream that wanted desperately to be released, even if it would have been a pathetic scream. There really was no worry she would cry out; she was far too weak to do more than merely whisper. She had not realized how close she was to the brink of death.

  “Why did you blindfold me?” she asked weakly.

  “While it might be night outside, my best guess is you’ve been in this dungeon for several weeks, possibly even a couple months. With no light for that long, your eyes are going to be exceptionally sensitive to any light.”

  “Months?”

  “Most likely you have been down here almost two months from what intel I was able to obtain. Those bastards have been in Jamaica for a week and left you without nourishment. They deserve to rot in hell.”

  “Who are you?”

  “A friend. I can’t tell you my identity. Just know that I’m here to help and bring those animals to justice. I only apologize it took me so long to find you. I knew they had you hidden away, but I wasn’t able to locate you until tonight.”

  “I-I know I smell terrible.” She knew it sounded inane to worry about that.

  “Shhh, don’t worry about that. We can get you cleaned up at the hospital. Unfortunately, I can’t bring you there, or they’ll know it was me. I have a friend waiting, and she will get you to the hospital.”

  Her body tensed at the thought of this man handing her over to yet another person she didn’t know.

  “Don’t worry; she works with the police. She’ll help you, no questions asked. You can trust her. I trust her with my life.”

  He moved quickly and without noise as he carried her out of the damp room. She could sense him carrying her up stairs. With all her heart, she wanted to trust him, because he was the only option she had—it was him or nothing. If she had to choose between that gross hole in the ground or him, she chose him. The fact that she was still surrounded by darkness made her skin crawl. If she got out of this alive, she would sleep with the lights on until her dying day. He stopped suddenly, and she braced herself for an attack.

  “At the top of the stairs, I want to set you down, so I can scope it out, but I don’t think I should. So just hold on as tight as you can. It won’t be much longer until we get to our rendezvous point.” When she stayed silent, he gently prodded. “Okay, honey?”

  “I’ve trusted you this far; I trust you to get me someplace safe.” She could feel his lungs expand with the deep breath he inhaled and then she sensed as much as felt his head nod up and down.

  The noise of the door creaking open was a thousand times louder in her head than it was in reality. Becky knew as soon as they had walked through the doorway, the fresh air was almost too exquisite to breathe. At first, he continued their journey as carefully as he had when they were climbing the stairs, but then he tensed, and she began to panic.

  “What is it?”

  “I hear someone coming. We’re almost to the tree line; our ride is on the other side of those trees. Brace yourself, I’m going to make a run for it.” And before she had time to fully process his words, he took off in a dead sprint with her body locked tightly in his arms that bulged with muscles. He wasn’t even breathing hard with the exertion of carrying her to safety. All of her senses, except her sight, appeared to be heightened. Whether it was because she had to rely on them when she wasn’t able to see for the last weeks, she didn’t know, but she did know that she could hear things much better than she used to and she could hear the moment they had crossed into the trees. She heard leaves crunching under his feet as he moved swiftly. He stopped running as suddenly as he had begun their mad sprint.

  “We’re here,” he whispered. “I don’t see her. Wait, I see headlights coming this way.” They were moving again, and Becky could only assume they were retreating into the tree line, just in case it wasn’t his friend. Finally, he expelled a sigh, and she felt hope begin to blossom once again, and this time it sunk its hooks into her. “There she is. I’m going to wait until she gets a little closer before I leave the cover of the trees.”

  For what seemed like hours, they waited. She began to shiver despite the heat. She knew that wasn’t a good sign, and her hope started to wither—those hooks slipping a little. Surely fate wouldn’t be so cruel to let her die after she was finally free of the house of horrors she had been forced to live in for the last however many months of her life.

  “What month is it?” she asked, terrified to hear the answer.

  “August.”

  A whimper escaped her mouth as she realized that she had been taken and sold to the despicable couple who used her as their slave almost a year ago. She had heard of human trafficking but had never thought she would be a victim of it. Yet, here she was barely able to lift an arm to hold on to the man carrying her, and then she finally heard someone approaching.

  “Over here,” her savior whispered.

  “It’s clear out here for the moment; let’s get her in the car.”

  “You need to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible. Judging by the way her teeth are chattering, she’s going into shock. I have to get back. I heard someone coming.”

  “Then you better get going. I need to go. I have a friend in the hospital ready and waiting for her.”

  “Kara Vanderbilt?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t realize you know her. But we can discuss that another time. Right now, we need to move.”

  And move, he did. The man felt like a brick wall, yet he was incredibly graceful as, once again, he moved like a panther. She could hear the woman running ahead of them. Before she knew it, he had stopped, and she could hear a car door being opened, and then he was gently setting her down on the seat of the car.

  “Stay lying down; we don’t want anyone to see you,” he whispered.

  “Couldn’t sit up if I wanted to,” she whispered back.

  “I have to get back before they miss me. Thank you, Quinn
.”

  “Anytime, and I mean that. Any. Time.”

  “Let’s hope I don’t have to take you up on that offer.”

  “Wait,” she whispered.

  “What do you need, honey?” he asked.

  “I’m Becky Plummer. Can you tell me your name before you go? Please. I won’t tell a soul.” The benevolent stranger that had rescued her paused for a second before he leaned forward, kissed her gently on the head, and whispered in her ear.

  “Harrison. Harrison Black.” Before she could thank him, he was gone.

  2

  Once Quinn had Becky secured, she ran to the other side of the car. Harrison had disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. He never told her how he had come to find the missing sixteen-year-old girl, and she hadn’t asked. All she cared about was the fact that the young lady that had been missing over a year had been found. She was definitely in trouble medically speaking, and she needed to hurry because time was of the essence right now. They weren’t in the clear. Not only did Becky need a doctor fast, but they also needed to get as far away from where she was held as quickly as possible.

  The car flew down the road, and she grimaced when she drove over a bump in the road, jarring Becky in the backseat. The moan was so faint that Quinn was terrified she wouldn’t get to the hospital in time. Bullshit! She wasn’t going to lose her when she had just gotten free of that nightmare. Using her Bluetooth in the car, she called Kara’s cell phone. Kara picked up on the first ring, worry evident in her voice.