36
F orty minutes later, after being locked in my room, shaking hands, trying to pack my bag while repetitive thoughts thundered in my mind of how close I came to being dragged in front of Mikael Kaiser and...it was too awful to consider what he would do to me. But they must already be suspicious of Riley Laws if Gunner chose to pursue me romantically behind a mask.
The Sergeant called, and I picked up straight away. “There is an unmarked police vehicle outside your dorm,” he told me. “They will bring you directly to the Gothenburg Police Station, where arrangements will be made for your transfer out of there.”
“Yes, sir,” I obeyed, searching for the unmarked police vehicle through my window as anxiety burned my stomach. It was the same type of vehicle that I had seen on occasion hovering nearby. It was the same type of vehicle that pursued me that night. Rourke, no, Gunner fucked me in the park.
Gunner Kaiser fucked me. Jeez, my head was too messed up to digest that thought. Regardless, my heart was aching for me to run into his arms, but I had to succumb to the fact that his plans for me didn’t include me being his nerdy, stupid girlfriend.
I ran downstairs along the hallway, avoiding the looks of everyone I passed. Not that they noticed me much anyway, but I kept my head low until I got out of the building.
Wrestling with the apprehension stirring in my gut and questioning whether I was doing the right thing, I had to heed the sergeant’s warning, even though something didn’t sit right with me. It wasn’t the sergeant I had a problem with, but the betrayal from Judith and the unmarked police vehicle I was walking toward.
After everything that had happened, I struggled with identifying the good guys versus the bad, reality versus Delusion, and right versus Wrong.
Swallowing back the screaming voice telling me to run, a plain-clothed man climbed out of the car and smiled warmly as I approached the vehicle. “Riley Laws?”
I nodded, still hesitant to allow myself to be guided by strangers, even though these strangers were police.
“Everything is going to be fine,” he said, taking my bags from my shoulders before opening the back door.
I slid into the coolness of the seat and turned back to watch him load the trunk with my bags. My nerves were causing havoc, and no amount of deep breathing was helping. I was close to vomiting.
“Hi, Annika,” a woman’s voice chirped, and I swung around to find Judith in the front passenger seat.
“Judith,” I gasped, then noticed her pregnant stomach had gone. She wasn’t due for weeks. Did she have the baby early and come back to work this soon? Maybe she lost the baby. “What the hell is going on?”
She remained silent until the other officer returned behind the wheel and started the engine.
“How’s work?” she forced a friendly tone.
“Fine,” I answered as the unmarked vehicle started moving. I tried the door handle, only to find it was locked.
“Remind me again where you work?” she pressed in a cooler tone.
“Um, at a café,” I lied.
“That’s not entirely true, is it, Annika,” she spat, annoyed. But before I could rebuke her claims, she added, “Listen, this is what will happen from now on. We know that you work at Savile Gentlemen’s Club, probably got the job on a fake ID…”
I remained quiet, testing the direction of the conversation because I didn’t want to get into trouble. If working at Savile was this big a deal, I’d quit to make everyone happy.
“Are you aware that the Kaisers own Savile Gentleman’s Club?” Her words fell from her mouth like jagged razorblades.
I groaned, unaware that I was right under their nose. “No, I didn’t.”
The big boss that the staff were so frightened of was Mikael Kaiser, and they had every right to be wary of him. The sergeant mentioned the Irish surname Bryne, who had to be Ronan. It was almost laughable. Not only had they been under my nose the entire time, but I slept with two of my enemies, and weirdly that felt damn good.
“This is proof that your disguise has worked well,” she exclaimed, glancing back at me. Again, my eyes drifted to her flat stomach.
“For how much longer, though?” I sighed as we pulled out of the main entrance of Gotland and into the traffic.
“For however long it takes,” she retorted, confusing me with her tense. “There’s been a change of plans, Annika.”
The vehicle pulled up on the side of the busy road, and I tried the door handle again with no luck. People were walking by on the pavement, and I was close to banging on the window and screaming for them to save me. But I was with the police, and the police were supposed to save us from the bad guys, not be the bad guys.
“Nothing changes,” Judith announced. “You’ll go back to class at Gotland. You’ll keep working at Savile, and you will tell Sergeant Tindale that you’ve changed your mind.”
“I will?”
“Yes. Give me your phone,” she insisted.
“Why?” I didn’t want to do that.
“Because you’re going to call him to tell him that you’ve changed your mind,” she ordered in a scary tone. I opened my mouth to protest, but she bellowed, “Do it.”
I scrambled for my phone and handed it to her. She swiped through my contacts until she found his number, then pressed call and handed the phone back to me.
“Riley? Is everything okay?” the good guy answered while I was stuck in the car with the bad guys.
“Um, yes, I can’t do it. I’m sorry, Sergeant. I’m tired of running. I want to stay here in Gothenburg,” my voice trembled with every breath.
“Riley,” his voice calm and steady. “If you are being threatened in any way, please cough twice.”
Judith’s glare was almost suffocating as she slowly held up her phone to show me the photograph that was used to manipulate me in the first place. That same photograph was used to force me to lie about Lars Kaiser’s murder.
“I’m fine, Sergeant,” I said evenly, meeting Judith’s gaze without emotion. When she showed me that photograph, my tears dried up, replaced with rage. That photograph changed everything. “Please. I’m so tired of running.”
“I’m not happy about this, Riley,” he said, genuinely concerned. “We can’t force you to leave, but I understand where you’re coming from.”
“Thank you,” I replied softly, still holding my unflinching gaze on Judith to show her I was unafraid.
“You’ll check in with me daily, you hear me?” he insisted.
“I will,” I stated flatly. “I promise. Please don’t worry about me. I want to live a normal life like other twenty-year-olds going to college and having fun.”
“I understand,” he answered, and I swiped off.
“Good,” Judith turned toward the front of the vehicle as it pulled out into the traffic again.
“Please tell me what you want me to do?” Cutting to the chase because I was getting fed up.
She remained quiet as we drove closer to where we had just been, Gotland University.
I continued, “Do tell, oh great one. What is the grand prize for all of this effort? Blackmail, bribery, lying under oath, corrupt cops. What could possibly be so important that you have to use blackmail to make me stay here under the noses of the men who want me dead.”
Silence.
“Tell me, Judith,” I shouted in anger. “Tell me.”
The vehicle turned into the main entrance again, then traveled the same route through campus toward the accommodation halls and down my street, and it wasn’t until they pulled up outside my dorm that she answered my question.
“We want Mikael Kaiser. And you’re going to help us get him, Annika.”
To be continued…