Page 14 of Sacrificing Zoriah

We get to her front door, and I stop myself from busting it open. “Looking for Zoriah?” A woman asks from her doorway across the hall.

“We are. I am her boss,” I say.

“She has not been home all weekend,” she says. “Sounded like she got into a fight with her dad. He and her brother were here with that sticky-fingered friend of hers.”

“Who was here?” Corbin asks as he walks over. “I am her brother, and he is her dad. We were not here on Friday.”

“Oh, uh… no. These men were different. Had dark hair,” she says. I turn and kick the door. On the second kick it slams open, and I walk in. Right away I noticed that the lights are on. Her purse is sitting on the coffee table. One shoe is sitting by itself in the hallway. Otherwise, everything looks clean. I go to her bag and start searching for her phone while the others search the apartment. When I don’t find it in her bag, I look around her living room. My heart sinks when I spot it face down in the corner of the room.

I pick her phone up and see all of the notifications. The battery is nearly dead. I know her phone password is her father’s birthday. When I get it unlocked, and I see that the last screen she wason was our text message thread, it makes some emotions sweep over me.

“Oh no…” I say as I read the message that she typed out to me but never got a chance to send.

SOS. I need you.

I hand her phone to Corbin and walk away from him. “What? What does it say?” Ben asks.

“SOS. I need you,” I say.

“Huxley would never hurt her. I don’t understand,” Corbin says. “His family is fucking insane. They are in this weird cult.”

“What’s their parents’ name?” Ben asks.

“Richard and Paula Fields,” Corbin says. “They go to The People of Christ temple.”

“It’s my fault,” her dad, Jim Kingston, says. “She wanted to drive me to rehab on Friday night, but I said no. She was so mad at me… If I just let her help me, she would’ve been driving me to rehab.”

“Dad, it’s not your fault,” Corbin says.

“My little girl… She’s probably so scared… I should have protected her,” he says tearfully.

“You still can,” I say. “We will find her, and we need your help.”

“What can I do?” He sniffs.

“We need to know everything about whatever cult this is,” Ben says, looking at his phone. “There is very little information online about it.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I admit. Something is wrong. I won’t stop until she has been found. I don’t care how much money I have to spend; I will find Zoriah.

Chapter Five

Zoriah

I am exhausted andweak, but adrenaline is rushing through my body. The offering is over. I’ve counted forty-nine men who have come in here and raped me. Huxley was the fiftieth. Doug’s second in command is fifty-one. He hasn’t been in here yet, though. Early this morning the offering ended, and I have been alone since. I’m naked and tied to this stupid table again. I am trying to have hope that Huxley is coming back, but… I’m being forced to marry Doug tomorrow morning. Based on the light in the tiny window, it’s been night for a while. I’m running out of time.

On top of being hungry, I want to shower so badly. All their come is still inside of me and on my legs and chest. Some of it’s in my hair. I am absolutely disgusting, and I hate it. Do you know how rancid fermenting come smells? Three fucking daysI’ve been stuck here. Don’t worry, though. There’s a bucket for me to shit and piss in, but I’m not allowed to clean up. I want to crawl out of my skin right now. Maybe I can escape the rash and the inevitability of a gnarly yeast infection that is undoubtedly forming. Fuck, I’m going to kill Haley. I’ve had days to think about it, and I’m drowning her stupid ass in a toilet.

I jump when the door comes open, and I squeeze my eyes shut. When the restraints are abruptly and quickly pulled off of me, I know it’s him. “Hux,” I say as I jump up. I don’t know where that energy came from.

“I am so fucking sorry, Riah. I was trying to get back here,” he says as he puts a pocketknife in my hand.

“It’s fine. You’re here now,” I say. “The offering is over.”

“It is. Walker is about to come in here. He is second in command. I will pull Doug and Dad’s attention for a while to Haley, but I need you to kill Walker and get the fuck out of here. You hear me? We are out of time. Your boss has freaked out Doug, and the moment he is legally married to you, he’s moving everyone underground. That means I will have no chance of getting you out of here.”

“Oh, fuck. Okay. Uh… how? How do I kill someone?” I ask.

“Slit his throat,” Huxley says. “It’ll be the fastest and will render him useless. It’s messy, but it doesn’t matter. Just go. Okay?”

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