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Thick, clawing fog filled Rachel’s head, making it hard to think. “The men?” She could barely get the words out. Nothing made sense. Nothing.
“Were happy to help—for a price that would set them up for life. You cost them their jobs. And unlike everyone else around you, they weren’t keen to forgive your behavior.”
“And Terrance?”
“I suspected you might have found out about him.” Her cousin sipped her champagne. “It was a tad telling when he didn’t turn up for work. I suppose we can thank your security contacts for rooting him out. I have to say, Rachel, they were a very annoying addition to our game.”
“This isn’t a game.”
“It is for me. I got tired of you winning and decided to change the rules. And it worked perfectly for over a decade—until you turned up again. Why couldn’t you just stay away? Why did you have to come back and make everyone start comparing us again? Without you around, people could see that I was more than a match for anything you could do. I’m more talented, more attractive, more pleasant to be around. But for some reason, as soon as you enter my orbit, you draw all the attention. Why is that?”
“Maybe because they sense I’m the sane one?”
Samantha’s laugh was ice. “I don’t know why everyone’s so willing to forgive you for being such a bitch.”
“I’m the bitch? I don’t arrange for people to be raped. Or drug them.” She stilled. “You’ve done it again, haven’t you? Put something in my drink.”
“Of course. How else would I get what I want?”
Rachel looked around as fear made bile surge in her throat.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Sam said. “I haven’t paid any men to play with you this time.”
Ringing sounded from Rachel’s handbag on the table beside her. She tried to reach for it, but her limbs wouldn’t cooperate. The ringing stopped, and the phone pinged, letting her know a text had come through.
“I expect that’s your hunky fiancé.” Sam put her glass on the bar. “What does he see in you?”
“Sanity?”
“Typical, even drugged out of your mind, you have to have the last catty word.” She strode toward Rachel, put her hands under her arms, and tugged her to her feet. “I am really sorry about this. When you weren’t busy trying to show the world that you’re better than me, I actually enjoyed your company.”
“What are you doing?” Rachel said as Samantha dragged her toward the pool.
“What I should have done the first time,” she said. “Making sure you don’t annoy me again. Poor Rachel, she got drunk and fell in her pool. Her cousin, Samantha, tried to save her, but it was too late. It’s such a tragedy.” Her smile was vicious. “But don’t worry; I’ll console Harvard in his grief.”
And then she jumped into the pool, taking Rachel with her.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Cold water rushed over Rachel’s head as she sank beneath the surface. The shock of it threw her situation into stark relief. The cousin she’d thought cared about her was trying to kill her. And she might just succeed.
Gathering what little strength she had, she kicked upward. Her only hope was to break away from Samantha and call for help before the drug rendered her helpless.
Again.
As her fingers broke the surface of the water, a hand clasped her ankle and pulled her back down into the deep center of the pool. She forced her eyes open, to see Samantha grinning maniacally as the skirt of her dress billowed in the water around her. It was as if Rachel was looking at a strange underwater fashion shoot. Her cousin’s beauty and the surrealness of the situation made it hard to fathom. And with that thought came the dull realization that the drug she’d been given was making it difficult to think clearly.
She had to escape before she couldn’t think at all.
A rush of pure adrenaline coursed through her and, with herculean effort, she punched and fought and kicked until the hold on her ankle loosened. Lungs burning, she swam the short distance to the surface, her clothes weighing her down and her shoes long gone.
Hope surged through her as air hit her face, only for it to be dashed as hands clasped her shoulders and pulled her back under. She’d barely had time to take in a breath before she was trapped underwater again, with Samantha holding her down.
She tried to twist out of her cousin’s grasp, but the drug slowed her movements, and it seemed impossible to break free. She was going to die in that pool. In the water she stared at every night. Even if she got out of there alive, she’d never be able to look at the pool again. It was one more thing her cousin had stolen from her.
Which made her furious.
And rage gave her a renewed burst of strength. Desperate, she kicked out, catching her cousin’s thigh and sending her toward the bottom of the pool. It wasn’t far, but it gave her a few seconds to escape. Rachel didn’t hesitate. She clawed her way through the water, scrambling for the side. But as her fingers clutched the tile, harsh hands shoved her face into the hard edge of the pool.
