“Who are you!?” I demand, unable to see anything except that light.
“Where is Lindsey!? What did Simon do with her!?” A deep voice demands.
I shake my head, refusing to answer. “Who are you!?” I ask again.
“Fucking tells us where Lindsey is! Did you hurt her!? Did you harm her in any way!?”
“What?” I stammer, confused.Are these people worried about Lindsey?
In a rage, the person questioning me punches the light, sending it flying across the room.
The sudden change in light makes it too dark for me to see, but slowly my eyes begin to adjust.
I’m in the basement.
I’m sitting on a small wooden chair that looks like a farmhouse chair.
There are four people standing around me. They all look furious.
“Who are you?” I whisper this time, nervous about their intense expressions and realizing that anger and boldness are going to get me nowhere with them. But I already know the answer. I can’t remember their names, but I remember their faces from when I met them at the gala. Two of them, anyway.Jaco’s parents.
“My name is David Marcas. I am Jaco’s father. We’ve met before. This is his brother, and this is his cousin. This is my wife, Clara Marcas. And I swear, if Simon has harmed Lindsey in anyway, he is going to find your body carved up and dumped on the street outside his home. Now tell us where she is!”
My eyes grow wide with fear, and I start to shake all over. “Please, please don’t hurt me. I didn’t hurt Lindsey. I wouldn’t do that. Please, this is all a misunderstanding.” My voice is small and timid, and I notice how David takes a minute step back.He responds to my weakness more than my demanding tone.
He obviously cares about Lindsey’s well-being. He clearly knows nothing about what Jaco was doing to her.
“We helped her,” I stammer, continuing to come across as weak and scared because it is buying me time to figure out what the hell to do.
“Bullshit. She’s lying. The whole Popov family is a bunch of liars, and she’s one of them now!” Jaco’s cousin steps forward, holding a knife to my throat. I freeze, genuinely terrified at the look in his eyes.
“I…I can prove it,” I blurt out.
“What can you prove, you lying little bitch? You can’t trust a word she says!” The cousin is aggressive. It’s clear he’s willing to do anything to make me talk.
“It’s on my phone!” I blurt out again. “Where is my phone. You took it from me in the car. I can show you!”
“Where the hell is her phone?” David Marcas snaps.
My eyes drift to Clara. She is standing back, watching everything from a distance. Her eyes are filled with worry and disgust. Somehow, I get the feeling that she really cares for Lindsey and is willing to go through with this to get her home safely. She can’t know what Jaco is doing. I have to show them.
“Don’t give her the phone! It’s a trick!” his cousin demands.
“Shut up, Luke. I want to see what’s on the phone,” David snaps.
It’s Jaco’s brother who walks toward me with my phone.
He doesn’t hand it to me. He holds it in front of me and says, “What is your code?”
“Seven. Seven. Eight. Four.”
He punches it in, and my phone unlocks. “Now what?” he snarls.
“Go to my gallery. When I was speaking to Lindsey, I filmed it. I thought I was going to trick her into giving away how Jaco has been lying to everyone. But we ended up finding out something else entirely,” I explain. “It’s the most recent video in my gallery. Fast forward a little, around five minutes into the video.”
He taps at the screen a few times, and voices come through the speaker.
Everyone crowds around my phone to watch, and I stare at them, feeling tense, hopeful, and nervous.
