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“We’re not taking her back to campus.” I freeze at Joshua’s words. His voice shouldn’t affect me, but I find myself caring what he thinks more than the others. What are you going to do, Joshua Nix? Throw your first love to the wolves or take her home with you? What’s it going to be?
“I can’t do this,” Dacre says. “It’s one thing handing her to her father, but hiding out in my parents' townhouse and pretending to be kidnappers. It’s fucking insane.”
My heart turns to stone. There’s clearly something wrong with these men. All three of them are dangerous and more than a little crazy, and yet my entire life is in their hands. I’ve always known fear, but up until now, I’ve never felt quite so vulnerable.
“You are the one that always complains you don’t have enough money,” Mercier points out. “Thirty million dollars, Dacre. Think about it. You can tell your father where to shove it if he ever bothers you again. No more pretending to be the perfect son for the measly hands outs he throws your way.”
Someone, Dacre, I assume, crunches the gravel beneath his feet. It sounds like he’s pacing back and forth. “May I remind you that my parent’s penthouse has full security and that someone might just notice if we take Lucinda Fucking Waldgrave in there when she’s on every TV channel right now. Every man and his pet poodle are out there looking for her.”
Mercier laughs. “Since when did you become such a pussy?”
“Since I became a kidnapper of the most famous woman in the whole of New York, that’s when.”
I hold my breath at his words. Everyone is looking for Lucinda Waldgrave. I knew it would happen, but hearing it makes my blood run cold. Faking being kidnapped was a ridiculous plan, but if these three hadn’t found me first, I’d have changed my hair color, my eye color and every other part of my appearance until no one would know who I was. I might be blind, but I was going to make sure that everyone else was blind to me.
The crunch of boots on gravel tells me that one of them is walking closer to me. I already know it’s Josh by the faint smell of cigarette smoke before he speaks. “She’s not being kidnapped if she comes willingly, are you Lucinda?” His voice lowers and I wonder if he’s only speaking to me or if the others have come close enough to hear. “How is it a girl who obviously cannot see, managed to, not only escape a mansion with the best security system money can buy, but also managed to run for hours through a forest and, miraculously, find her mother’s old cabin? Who helped you?”
“I’m blind, not stupid,” I mutter, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. “The security system was down while it was being upgraded and I knew the way to my mother’s cabin. We spent enough time there all those years ago, or don’t you remember?”
He doesn’t answer me. I’m beginning to get used to his silences, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to him.
5
MERCIER
There’s a tension in the air that is so palpable I could cut through it with one of Dacre’s parents' silver knives. Dacre has been edgy ever since we stole the girl up in the private elevator with a lie to the concierge about how he was going to be looking after the apartment for the next couple of weeks, and Nix, well, he looks like shit. He’s been turning his packet of cigarettes over in his hand for the last ten minutes, but is yet to retrieve one. He gave up smoking a couple of years back, but he always has a pack to hand. Just in case. Lucinda Waldgrave, it seems, is that case.
I’m not like them. Everything is always some fucking stressor that they have to smoke or bang to get it out of their systems. They don’t see the fucking thrilling adventure this is.
We’ve got Lucinda Waldgrave locked in a room. The actual Lucinda Waldgrave. I was more surprised than anyone when Nix told me he knew her. He kept that tidbit of information quiet. She’s fucking stunning. She’s not known as one of the most beautiful woman in the world for nothing. A fact that both Nix and Dacre seem to be immune to. Nix has got a stick up his ass about some shit that went down when they were kids, but he’ll get over it. Its ancient history. I’m just glad it’s made him bring her here. And Dacre is too busy looking over his shoulder every two minutes for his parents to walk through the door. Like they’ll do anything. Rich people have all the wrong priorities.
Nix presses his fingers to his closed eyes and massages them. It’s fucked up how some blind chick comes into our life and suddenly everyone’s acting crazy. Ok, the blind woman in question is hotter than most supermodels, but still. It’s not like Nix hasn’t been around his fair share of women and it’s not like Dacre hasn’t disobeyed his parents before. I mean, fuck, he spends the shitty allowance his father sends him on all the things his father disapproves of. Every beer and every joint I’ve had in the last year has been courtesy of Jonathan and Mary Dacre.
“We figure a way to get the ransom from Waldgrave, then let her go,” Nix says, pushing his long dark hair from his eyes. It’s all fucked up and messy from his continual dragging his fingers through it.
“Or not,” I venture. “We could have some fun here. She’s banged the entire Who’s Who list. Why not us?”
“No one is fucking her,” Nix warns. Anger pulls at his mouth as he jumps out of his chair and pushes me up against the wall, his fist curled in the top of my shirt. His brown eyes shine almost black as he narrows them. Well, this is new. Nix really is hung up on this girl. Fucking awesome.
I stare at him and grin, adrenaline coursing through me at his anger. I’ve never seen him like this before and it’s really fucking funny. Sure, he’s a moody asshole most of the time, but this chick really has gotten under his skin. I hold my hands up and he lets me go. This is going to be a real fucking fun week.
“Will you get your head out of the gutter and stop thinking with your dick for one second,” Dacre complains, dragging his eyes from Nix to me. He’s been eyeing Nix beadily since the moment we got here, probably chicken-shit scared Nix will light up and put a cigarette burn on one of his parents antique chairs, or God forbid, make the room smell of something other than the floral room freshener and old money. “We can’t keep her here for too long. My parents will be back soon. We need to get the money from Waldgrave and get out. She stays with us two days, max. I don’t give a fuck what we do with her after that. Let her go, give her up. Whatever.”
Bullshit. No one wants money more than Dacre. He might be a pussy about his parents, but he knows more than the rest of us, that thirty million dollars will finally get him out from under their thumb.
“Waldgrave won’t hand over thirty million without getting her back,” I say, leaping over the back of the couch, much to Dacre’s disdain. “He’s not some idiot asshole that fell into money. If we can’t have some fun with her, I say we do the swap. She doesn’t have to know we don’t plan on letting her go. Let her think she’s one step away from freedom.”
Nix finally pulls out a cigarette and rolls it around in his fingers. “I’m still not convinced it’s Lucinda.”
Dacre narrows his eyes and picks up a magazine from a pile on a side table, which he throws it at Nix. Lucinda Waldgrave is on the cover. She’s wearing one of those see-through dresses that clearly show her tits and the top of her thighs. One slip and the photographer would have gotten the money shot. “That picture was taken six months ago at the Oscars.” Dacre says, giving Nix a defiant look. “Tell me that the girl in there isn’t Lucinda Waldgrave.”
Nix barely looks at the cover before discarding it and lighting the cigarette. “She looks like Lucinda. Doesn’t mean she is Lucinda.” He blows out a long puff of smoke as Dacre’s eyes narrow further, eyeing the cigarette as though it’s an atomic bomb about to go off. “How do you explain the blindness?”
A muscle ticks through Dacre’s jaw. “How the fuck should I know? Accident?” He steps up out of his chair, rips the cigarette out from between Nix’s lips, and stamps it out on the magazine, covering Lucinda’s tits with ash. “That over there is an original Monet. Keep your filthy habit outside.”
Nix looks like he’s about to blow, but manages to reign himself in as Dacre throws the cigarette and magazine into the trash. It’s fucking beautiful to behold. People call me crazy, but these two arguing over a cigarette when the hottest woman on the planet is locked in the next room boggles my mind. Her perfect tits might be covered in ash on the magazine, but I’ve seared them to memory and if these two clowns keep each other distracted with mundanities, I’ll make sure I see them live and in the flesh, despite Nix’s warning.
“Whatever we do, it’s going to be risky,” I say, like I don’t relish the thought of it. What’s life without a little risk? “Waldgrave has enough money to bury us if he finds out what we are up to.”
