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Dacre gives me a look that clearly means he thinks I’m insane. Maybe I am. “Not need the money? You wanna live on my father’s dime for the rest of your life? The bastard hates me and you know as well as I do that if he knew that he was supporting the rest of you, he’d pull the plug in an instant. He’s only paying for the house to keep up the pretense that he’s not a total fucker. All it will take is one visit and everything we have is gone.”
I round on him, my anger ticking through me. I love the guy like he’s my own brother. Hell, he is my brother, they both are, but right now I’m more tightly coiled than a rattlesnake. “We don’t need anything, let alone her. Let’s go.”
I let my anger drop and step out onto the rickety veranda. Beneath my feet, the wooden boards are so rotten that I have to be careful not to put my feet right through to the mulch below. There are too many memories in this cabin. I’m surprised Lucinda chose to come here... if she did. As I said. the girl inside can’t be Lucinda. It’s the only reason I’m able to walk away.
Dacre follows me out. “I don’t know what the fuck happened between you and her, but she’s easy money. We came for her. We found her. You don’t even need to look at her again if she fucks with your head.”
“We can stick her in the truck of the car,” Mercier pipes up from the other room. There’s glee in his voice as he speaks. This is a real fucking thrill for him. I regret bringing him into this. I’m beginning to regret this whole fucking shitshow. I should have left the past in the past where it belongs.
Mercier doesn’t have a single normal emotion, or if he does, I’m yet to see it. I envy him being able to say things like ‘put a bitch in the trunk of a car’ without feeling a pang of remorse. His blood is probably rushing to his dick for just suggesting it. He can say shit and not even feel a fucking thing about it. His ability to not feel makes him scarier than even me. He’d make a great fucking politician one day. His ability to lie right to a person’s face and not have a single tell will take him further than the rest of us. He should take up poker. Just put the bitch in the trunk and we won’t have to look at her. Simple. Easy.
I’d know though. Unlike the rest of them, I have a whole gamut of emotions and every fucking one of them right now is centered on Lucinda Waldgrave.
“Whatever.” I stride across to the car and get behind the wheel, slamming the door behind me. Whoever they have back there isn’t her, but she’s the spitting image of her. I’m pretty sure whoever she is, Peter Waldgrave will pay for her, if only to save face. I grip the steering wheel with one hand as I think of that fucker’s piggy face and the way he laughed at me all those years ago. Newly orphaned, fucking terrified, and the asshole laughed in my face as he ripped the ground out beneath my feet.
I’m hard pressed to who I hate more. Peter Waldgrave or Lucinda Waldgrave. The car sways slightly as they open the trunk and toss her in. Her screams cut through the hammering of rain and are then muffled as the truck door slams.
No one says a word as my two best friends get into the car. We could be going on a road trip for all the fucks they give.
I take a long drag on my cigarette and start the engine.
4
LUCINDA
Everything reverberates around me, merging with the tremors inflicting my whole body. Ten minutes ago, my father was my biggest worry. The only monster I needed to be scared of. I’m not prepared for the fact there are more of them. Is the whole world inhabited by monstrous men? I close my eyes and press my finger into the palm of my hand. Three times. Six times. Nine times. It doesn’t work. Everything isn’t going to be okay. I can barely breathe. I left my bag behind and so I have nothing. Not that I carried any weapons anyway, but I could have thrown the bag at them. Anything. I’m a sitting duck. With nothing to hand that will help my situation, I wrap my arms around my knees and wait.
After about an hour, we come to a stop. A pair of rough hands manhandle me out of the trunk, pulling me to my feet. The ground crunches beneath my feet as I’m dragged along.
“We can’t bring her back looking like this,” Mercier says. “She looks like she’s about to piss her pants.”
“Wouldn’t you be scared if you’d been kidnapped?” Number two, the Brit. I don’t know his name yet, but he has the nicest sounding voice. I lean into him as though he’s my savior, even though he’s one of them. A monster with a nice voice doesn’t make him any less of a monster. I’m getting a fix on them. Josh, with his deep, rich cadence. Mercier, whose voice is rougher round the edges. His New York accent is much more pronounced. And finally, number two with a no nonsense clipped speech pattern. He sounds like a businessman.
“What if she tells Daddy that we had her in the trunk of the car? Do you think he’ll give us the million dollars, then?” Mercier.
“She won’t, will you Lucinda... if that’s who you are.” I shudder as the smell of smoke hits me. Joshua draws his hand up to my face and runs it slowly down my cheek, brushing the hair from it. “You hate the fucker almost as much as I do, don’t you? You owe me for this.”
A shiver runs down my spine and I cower from his touch. I owe him nothing, despite what he says. He’s delusional or insane. I pull myself up tall. I can’t let Joshua Nix hurt me now. I have a decision to make. One that will make or break the course of my life. If they take me back to my father, I may as well give up. My only chance is to escape. I’ve run away once, I can do it again, but I won’t be able to if they take me home. I need them to take me with them, no matter how horrifying that thought is.
“I wasn’t kidnapped,” I tell them. It’s the truth. “I ran away and faked a ransom note. If you hand me to my father now, he’ll give you the million dollar reward money. Split three ways, that’s a little over three hundred and thirty thousand dollars each. If you take me away from here and let me go, you might be able to get the full ransom. I don’t want the money. I only want to be free. You can take a photo of me and send it to him. Tie me up if you have to. Arrange a swap and then run with his money without giving me up. That way, we all get what we want. Do whatever you want with me, but don’t take me back to him.”
I hold my breath as the three of them stand in silence. I take a moment to breathe in the late summer air. It’s fresher than it was yesterday, spoiled only slightly by Josh’s cigarette smoke. Birds sing in a tree somewhere nearby. I fix my attention on them, taking note of the song they are singing.
“She’s got a point, Nix,” Number two finally says. “We could pretend to be the kidnappers. How much did you make the ransom for?”
He’s talking to me. “Thirty million dollars.”
There’s a low whistle from one of them. My father would never pay thirty million dollars for me. He’d rather see me dead than part with a penny, I think bitterly. The million dollar reward is just for show. I know that, but they don’t. And what they don’t know, I can turn to my advantage. They have moved away from me now. Their whispers carry in the air, but not loudly enough for me to hear what they are saying. I edge closer to them, slowly, carefully, softly over the crunch of gravel so I can hear their whispers. They can’t be more than a few feet from me, but I suddenly feel completely alone. I don’t know where I am, other than I’m outside and near a tree. I can’t hear any other traffic, nor any other sounds that will help me. A shiver runs through me, causing me to wrap my arms around my chest for protection from whatever might be out there. However scary these three men are, the unknown is a hundred times more terrifying.
Mercier’s whisper is barely audible over the bird song. “We can take her to Dacre’s parents’ place in Manhattan while we decide what to do with her.”
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
Number two’s name is Dacre. I file his name away with the other two. Information is the only currency I have, and I’ll need to build my knowledge if I’m going to escape. I’m under no illusion that these three men will do as I say and organize a swap without giving up their part of the bargain - me. They can’t be that stupid to believe it will work. No, they’ll swap me for real, giving me up for thirty million dollars, or at least try to. I don’t need them to make any elaborate plans. I just need them to get me away from my father and his men long enough for me to make a plan of my own. I escaped from Waldgrave House. I can escape from these three.
Mercier clears his throat. “They are out of town for the summer. The place is empty. What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal,” snaps Dacre, “is that my parents will have me thrown in jail for trespassing the second they find out I’m there. Why can’t we just take her back to campus?”
