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My sister was there, tied to the bed, a gag in her mouth, and tears running down her face. There were two men there, guns in hand.
I pushed inside the room and went straight for her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I immediately took the gag out of her mouth.
“Ellery,” she cried.
“I know, Ains. I’m here. It’s going to be fine,” I promised her, reaching for the restraints on one of her wrists.
I got the first one free, moved to the second, and knew that the Harper Security guys would be coming in at any minute. I wanted my sister out of here.
The minute she was free from the restraints, I helped her out of the bed. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
I took her by the hand and started moving toward the door, but Patrick held his hand up. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“That wasn’t part of our deal,” I argued. “You wanted me. I’m here. But my sister goes free before I agree to anything else.”
He laughed at me as the men who had been standing guard by the bed moved toward Patrick. They flanked either side of him on one side of the room, while I stood with my arms wrapped around my sister on the other. The exit was to my left and Patrick’s right.
“I think it’s hysterical that you believe you have a choice in the matter,” he finally said after he stopped laughing.
“We had a deal,” I argued, thinking it was best to stall. I just needed a few more seconds before Kane and the rest of the guys would be in here.
“Okay, well, let’s discuss how a deal works,” Patrick started. “Aside from the fact that I never agreed to anything, you didn’t even hold up your end of it.”
“I got here as fast as I could,” I told him. “I was three hours away.”
“Where were you?” he pressed.
I could make something up, and he’d never know if I was telling the truth. “Maryland.”
He shot me a look that told me he didn’t believe a word that came out of my mouth. “Now, Ellery, I know you’re smarter than that. That truck you arrived in has Pennsylvania plates on it.”
Fuck.
I hadn’t considered that.
“Patrick, please let Ainsley leave,” I begged him.
“I’m staying with you, Ellery. We’re leaving together,” she argued.
She didn’t know.
My poor, beautiful sister had been traumatized, and she had not a clue that I had this under control. She didn’t know about Kane. She didn’t know what I’d been doing since I went missing, and she had no idea that at any moment, we were going to be rescued.
“Trust me, Ainsley. You need to go. I’ll be fine,” I insisted.
“No. No, Ellery. You’re done doing things to save everyone else in this family. Someone has got to stand up and do right by you,” she said. “God, I lost my sister, and everyone acted like what happened was normal. It wasn’t. I’m staying with you, and we’re leaving this place together.”
“Ainsley, please,” I begged, unable to stop my voice from betraying me. “Just do what I’m telling you to do. I promise that everything is going to be okay.”
“Are you sure about that?” Patrick chimed in.
My eyes went to the doorway, still saw no sign of Kane or the rest of the guys, and shifted to the clock. I’d been in here a lot longer than a minute.
Something was wrong.
Something had to be wrong.
There was no way they would have just left me here. Kane wouldn’t have left me to fend for myself.
