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She smiled and followed Mrs. Fox to the kitchen and took the platter of still steaming muffins from her. She was doing fine and had almost made it to the table when she tripped over the rug.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. As it usually did. But like the ottoman when Justin had saved her from hitting the floor, this time it was Ian who somehow with great stealth and fluidity of motion, caught her around her waist, brought her up front and helped her balance the platter of muffins.
The scent of his cologne coated her. The power in his body against hers reminded her of how he had helped her before when they had removed her malfunctioning toy.
Only one of the muffins hit the floor. She quickly fled out of his grasp.
Stupid rug.
“Are you all right, deary?”
She nodded so hopelessly embarrassed.
“Now, sit. Eggs?” Mrs. Fox asked.
Lorelei nodded tentatively and soon Mrs. Fox handed her a plate piled high with everything on the table.
She ate because she needed her strength and she was sure everything tasted amazing but all she tasted was apprehension and dread. She helped Mrs. Fox clean up, as Gianna chatted while eating a bar of chocolate, without any major incidents if she didn’t count knocking over a glass that Gianna caught before it shattered to the floor and nicking the tip of her finger when she put a knife away.
Mrs. Fox quickly wrapped it in a band-aid and kissed her on her forehead. That was something her father would have done. Her mother, on the other hand, would have shouted at her for having the grace of a drunken antelope and not bothered to tend to her, because she needed to meditate on why she had birthed the biggest klutz to have ever lived. In the end, those kinds of episodes were better than dressing up for beauty pageant after beauty pageant. Lorelei had found a solution to deal with her mother and keep her peace for a small price of being called a klutz.
After a while, Mrs. Fox and Gianna left but not without Gianna telling her she would come to visit her again soon but this time she whispered it in Lorelei’s ear.
Alone with the three of them again, Lorelei had no idea what to do. The one thing was certain, she couldn’t do this limbo thing anymore. Waiting for the ax to fall. Her head to roll. Her body to be wrapped in a carpet and flung into the river. Like what had happened to Ace.
“I think you should know I trip over invisible objects at least once daily, as you’ve already seen. Sometimes twice. I broke my leg, my wrist and my toe. And I would have cut my whole finger off but I restricted myself from doing so,” she said holding up her band-aid-covered index finger. “In fact I stumped my toe so many times it’s practically numb. I have bruises I didn’t know I had skin to bruise.”
She cringed as she listened to herself spouting off her credentials, which would make her a perfect candidate for a session of torture.
“I’m a walking disaster and pain is my friend. So if you want to torture me into giving you answers, can you just start now? This wait is making me crazy.”
She really was spiraling.
Justin placed a cell phone in front of her, then connected it to a number she didn’t recognize.
“Tell him to deliver the memory stick in person or you’re dead.”
What? Did they find a way to locate Morgan? Memory stick? That’s what they had been looking for. Did the memory stick have offshore account details? Oh, Morgan.
“Hello.” Morgan’s voice sounded on the other side of the phone. She never thought she would hear his voice again.
“Oh my god, Morgan. Are you okay?”
“Lorelei? Is that you?”
“Yes. How did you get this number? Are you okay? Where are you?”
He didn’t seem to know anything.
“Oh fuck. They have you? The DeMarcos? Fuck. Lorelei, listen to me, did they hurt you? Touch you in any way.”
She didn’t need to be toldtheywere in fact the DeMarcos.
“No. Morgan, you listen to me, whatever you do, don’t meet them anywhere, they’ll kill you. I can take care of myself. Just leave them the memory stick somewhere and run. Please. If they find you they’re going to kill you. They want you. They’re not interested in the money. Run and don’t ever come back.” She disconnected the call immediately.
The kind of silence that ensured was the kind that spelled her doom.
Shaking, she finally glanced up at the men.
