AllFreeNovel
Share Us
LACEY CAME BACK to consciousness slowly. Opening her eyes was an immense effort; it felt like she had ten tonne blocks on each of her eyelids. At first, things were blurry, and it took her a few moments to process her surroundings. It was the unmistakable sound of a VW Kombi engine that finally confirmed where she was. She was lying on the floor of her van, being jostled around as the car traveled down the road.
She tried to sit up and couldn’t, and that’s when panic set in. For a second she thought she’d lost control of her limbs. But then she realized that her hands and feet were tied up. What was going on? Her memory was hazy, but she shut her eyes and forced her mind to go back in time.
A vague recollection of answering the back door at Nico’s place to find Gabe standing there flashed across her memory banks. She’d let him in but told him she couldn’t talk long as she needed to get to an appointment with Imran. Smudge had been acting a little strange, sort of growling at Gabe, which was unusual, because the dog knew Gabriel well.
Gabe had flashed his winning smile at her and said, “That’s fine, this won’t take long at all.” And that’s when things had become murky.
Why had things become so confused? She concentrated even harder and suddenly she remembered.
“Oh.” She let out a little gasp of surprise. Gabe had stabbed her with something sharp. She remembered a quick pain, like a needle stick in the side of her neck.
That fucker had injected her with something to make her sleep. Some kind of fast-acting sedative. Even now she felt woozy, as if the world were made of soft plastic. She needed to get herself together. Needed to get out of this situation. Whatever situation this was.
“Gabriel,” she tried to shout, but it came out all raspy and weak. Clearing her throat a couple of times, she shouted again, this time, with more effect. “Gabriel.” It had to be him driving her car, right? At the moment, all she could see was an indistinct shape sitting in the driver’s seat when she lifted her head.
“Ah, good, you’re awake.” It was Gabriel’s smooth voice all right. She’d recognize that accent anywhere.
“Let me go. What the fuck are you doing?” She rolled onto her back, bracing her feet against the side of the van and lifting her head so she could stare between the two front seats. “What do you want with me?”
“What do I want?” For a second, Gabe’s face appeared in the gap between the seats before he quickly returned his gaze to the road. “In a perfect world, I want to turn back time and make sure I’m not in that alleyway kissing Jayden. If you never saw us, then none of this would be happening.”
So hehadknown she was in that alleyway. That she’d seen him and the young apprentice. She hadn’t been as discreet as she’d liked to think. He must’ve caught sight of her as she retreated down the alley. But why was he making it sound like all this was her fault somehow?
“I’m not sure why that matters so much to you,” she said, struggling to wrench her wrists free of the bindings, but to no avail. “I don’t care that you were kissing another man. In fact, I care so little about it, that I haven’t even told anyone I saw you. And even if I had, no one else cares about your sexual preferences, either.” She crossed her fingers as she told the lie. Did telling Nico count? Her instincts about keeping his secret safe had been right, however. Gabriel didn’t seem to want the rest of the world to know about his partiality for young men. A lot of homosexual men had their own reasons for staying in the closet, and she wouldn’t judge him for his demons.
“But you see, that’s where you’re wrong,” Gabe replied. She could just make out the side of Gabriel’s face as he looked forward through the windshield. His mouth was a grim line of determination.
“I’m not wrong. No one cares about your taste in men or women, or anything in between,” she yelled, then was flung sideways as they took a sharp curve in the road, the tires screeching against the tarmac. Gabriel was driving a little crazy, throwing her poor old van around the corners as if it were his modern, sleek sports car. The roads around Tasmania were notoriously narrow and winding, and she hoped he didn’t crash.
“Sadly, youarewrong,” he said once he had the van under control again. “If I’m to survive, then you can’t be allowed to tell anybody what you saw. I have to keep you quiet. Which means…”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he wasn’t forthcoming. “Which means what?” she demanded after the silence had stretched on, but a strange prickle of premonition caused goose bumps to rise all over her skin. If he wanted to keep her quiet… Did Gabriel intend to kill her? Surely not. Not this mild-mannered, Frenchman. Not the guy who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
Instead of answering her question, he said, “Don’t worry, we’re nearly there.”
“Nearly where?” Where was he taking her?
“We’re going to Cradle Mountain,” he said brightly. “You told me it was on your bucket list. But sadly you might not get to see it from the place I have in mind.” His bright smile faded, and right then, Lacey decided Gabriel was perhaps a little unhinged.
“What won’t I be able to see?” The man was talking in riddles, and Lacey was sick of it.
“The mountain,” he clarified. “I’m not sure we’ll be close enough when we stop to see it from the road. I hear there’s still snow on top.” He gave a satisfied grunt. “It took me longer than I anticipated packing up all your stuff. You are a messy little miss, aren’t you? But I made sure I got it all. We don’t want Nico thinking you plan on coming back because you left something behind. Even so, we should still get there in time for the sunset. For the grand finale.”
At this point she couldn’t care less if she saw Cradle Mountain. With snow, or without snow. It was time to put an end to this pretense of a kidnapping attempt. “Look, Dr. DuPont.” She put great emphasis on his name, hoping to guilt him into listening. “Why don’t you just pull over and stop this charade. You’re never going to get away with this—whatever it is you have planned for me. People will be looking for me by now. The jig is up.”
“Oh, no they won’t,” he said with a lopsided grin. “You probably don’t remember, but you wrote a note before we left, telling Nico you’d decided to restart your travels around Tasmania a few days early.”
“What? I would never do such a thing,” she scoffed. She certainly didn’t remember writing any note.
“But you did. There were two drugs in that syringe. One was a sedative, but the other was a psychedelic which makes a person lose their autonomy and opens them to suggestions, removes a person’s free will. It’s called the zombie flower drug, and the cocaine lords in Columbia use it to control their kidnap victims. Cool huh?” He turned to look at her again. No, it wasn’t cool at all. That bastard was gloating at her. She wanted to spit in his face.
“So, no one will be looking for you,” he added softly. “I’ve covered all my bases, this time at least. It’s a distasteful business, but if I’m going to do something, then I’ll make sure to do it right.”
She vaguely wondered what he meant bythis time. But before she could put her thoughts into words, he said, “I know a place. A high cliff. It’ll be quick. Pity about your cute van, though.”
She froze as his words sunk in. He was planning on pushing her off a cliff? Or running her and her van over a cliff face? Could it be that simple? It seemed perhaps he had thought through this plan after all. “Nico will know,” she hissed at him. “Nico will hunt you down. He’s very good at his job.”
Gabe flinched at the name, but didn’t turn. Instead, he said, “Nico won’t work this one out. I’ve fixed it. I’ve made it so someone else looks guilty. Floyd was so gullible. It was so easy to convince him to drive out to the lookout and meet me. He’ll join you in your last flight over the edge. I’ll get rid of two birds with one stone.”
