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“We would never cross that line,” she said. “Also, Amerie lived with us as a family member for months. Ali and I started to view her as our real daughter after a while. So we could never bring ourselves to hurt her, pregnant or not.”
I suppressed a laugh at the brazen lie. After all this time, Zara actually thought I’d buy the bullshit she was selling.
“If you don’t want to hurt the girls, why do you want to find them?” I asked.
“We just want to talk to them.”
“Come on, Mrs. Prescott. You can’t honestly expect me to believe that after you gave me the whole speech about wanting to torture traitors until they die screaming in agony.”
“It’s the truth,” she said, tilting her head. “Do you really think we’d hurt our own child?”
Yes, I really do.
“Okay. But what about my earlier concern?” I said. “How do I know you won’t go back on your word and kill me once I tell you where they are?”
“You’ll just have to trust us.”
I let out a sarcastic snort of amusement. “You know I can’t do that.”
With that, I looked out the window again and lapsed into silence. I couldn’t make this too easy for Zara and Ali. That would make it far too obvious that I was up to something.
“Ten minutes,” Ali said, drumming his fingers on the wheel. “That’s how long you have to change your mind.”
“I’m not going to change my mind. Unless…” I trailed off and lowered my voice to a mutter. “No, never mind. You’d never agree to that.”
Zara looked back at me, eyes narrowed on me in a hawkish stare. “What were you going to say?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Tell us,” she snapped. “Now.”
I frowned and scratched my chin. “Would it be possible to change the terms of the deal a bit?”
“In what way?”
“Well, like I said, I don’t trust you to keep your word. I think you’ll kill me and the girls as soon as I tell you their location. So I’m never going to agree to that. But how about this? I’d be willing to take you to them instead.”
Zara laughed drily. “So you want control of the car? How stupid do you think we are?”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said. “I meant I’ll take you to the girls right now instead of giving you their location so you can send someone else to pick them up for you. That way I’ll be right there the whole time, and I’ll know for sure that you aren’t hurting them.”
Zara’s brows dipped in a frown. “That doesn’t make sense. You’d need to give us their location in order for us to get to the right place.”
“Not exactly.” I leaned forward. “You can take me somewhere close to the area. Then I can guide you the rest of the way on foot.”
She exchanged glances with her husband. Then she looked back at me. “Tell me more, and I’ll consider it.”
“All right.” I straightened my shoulders. “Once we get back to town, take me to your house.”
Zara scoffed. “You can’t be serious,” she said. “You can’t honestly expect us to believe that the girls went home to hide. We have motion sensors on the doors that send alerts to our phones. And they didn’t go to your house, either. Your parents would’ve found them.”
“I never said they were inside your house or mine. I said they’re somewhere in the area, and I can guide you from your house.” I raised my brows and leaned back again. “That’s my final offer. You’ll never find them without me.”
“I’m sure we can find them ourselves,” Ali said in a low voice, glancing at his wife. “If we know they’re somewhere close to the house, it should be easy.”
“Trust me. You won’t find them,” I cut in. “If you ever want to see Amerie or your daughter again, you need me.”
Zara gnawed on the inside of her cheek as she considered it. Then she dipped her chin in a curt nod. “Fine,” she said. “We’ll go with you. But if you’re thinking about trying anything stupid, just remember that I have this gun and I’m not afraid to use it.”
