Chapter 7
Angie woke up slowly.
God, her head hurt.
Headaches were something she was used to. Another gift from dear old Fergus.
The fucking bastard.
Glancing around, confusion filled her. Where was she? Why was she here?
This wasn’t her house. It wasn’t her bedroom at Zander’s compound. Her heart raced.
Oh God.
What happened? She’d been waiting for a bus to go to her interview and then that weird man had told her not to go.
Had he kidnapped her? Why would he do that? Had he followed her home?
Or was it someone else?
Her memory stirred. Someone had been in her house. They must have been waiting there. But what about the alarm, the cameras? How had they gotten into her house?
Zander and his team had put in so much security that it shouldn’t have been possible.
It had to be someone who knew what they were doing.
Which meant this wasn’t some ordinary kidnapping.
Ordinary kidnapping? Was she listening to herself? Nothing about being kidnapped was ever ordinary.
What was wrong with her? Was this what her life had come to? Where she classified being kidnapped as ordinary or not ordinary?
Okay.
She needed to think. She didn’t know how long she’d been here, but Keira and Zander were bound to notice she was missing soon, right? And then they’d come find her.
Simple.
Will they bother, though?
Shut up.
Of course they would. They were family. They said they loved her. They would come for her.
But that stupid inner voice just kept pounding on at her until she decided she needed a distraction.
Something to keep her occupied.
Like trying to escape?
Right. That was a good plan. Getting off the bed, she held her head as it spun. Must have been the drugs they’d given her.
Why the heck would someone kidnap her? It made no sense. She was no one now.
She searched around the room. There were no windows and two doors. One led to a small bathroom that again, had no window. And the other was locked and solid. She tried budging it, shaking it, she even attempted to kick it.
Which did not end well.
“Ow. Ow. Ow.” She hopped around on her good foot as she attempted to grab hold of what had to now be a broken toe.
Awesome.
Way to go. That is going to make getting out of here so much easier.
You have to start thinking first.
Living with Keira had made her soft. She’d stopped seeing doom and gloom at every corner.
Keira said she was now more optimistic. As though that was a good thing.
It wasn’t.
Her life was shit. And a few good years didn’t change that. Finally, she sat back on the bed and rubbed her toe.
Maybe she should yell for help. But that would probably just add to the ache in her head.
So what are you going to do? Just give up?
Why should she keep trying when life just beat her down?
Laying back on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling.
Why keep surviving just to be put through this?
Then she turned her head to stare at the pillows and an item came into focus.
Something that shouldn’t be there.
Why was it here?
Don’t reach for it.
You’re giving up, remember?
But could she give up when he was here? What did it mean that he was here? Was it a good omen or a bad one?
Did it mean that someone from her past had kidnapped her?
That couldn’t possibly be a good thing, right?
But why would he be here?
“Wally,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. She wanted to touch him. But what if someone was watching her? What if they saw how much he meant to her?
Then again, they obviously had some clue if he was here.
And they were likely too busy laughing over her pathetic attempt at a getaway.
Oh, screw it! She didn’t care what they figured out about her. No doubt she was going to die, anyway.
She might as well do it while hugging her whale.
But as she pulled him toward her, she saw it wasn’t just Wally sitting there.
Angie sucked in a breath. “Wallina?”
Okay. This had already been weird. Now, it was super weird. Who had taken her?
Wait. Zander wouldn’t do this in order to get her to come back to the compound, would he?
Surely not.
Hmm. Actually . . .
“Zander, if you’ve kidnapped me to prove a point, I’m going to kill you.”
Nothing.
Great. Not Zander then? He’d probably already be lecturing her if he was the one who had done this.
Crawling up the bed and ignoring her poor throbbing toe, she grabbed both toys and then climbed under the covers.
If anyone was watching her, she didn’t want them to see her hugging her toys. Or sucking on the tips of her fingers. She had no idea why she did that rather than sucking on her thumb.
It was just something that brought her comfort. She kind of liked the sucking sound that it made when she comforted herself with her fingers.
Also, she’d found that hiding from your problems was really good therapy.
Well, maybe not therapy. Perhaps it was just a really good way of ignoring the fact that she had issues.
She didn’t know how long she lay there, but she didn’t think it was long until the door opened.
“Well, of all the scenarios I thought of this wasn’t one. I figured you might be angry or scared. Maybe that you’d yell or cry,” a low voice said.
She tensed while trying to remain still and quiet.
That voice was familiar. It tickled something in the back of her mind.
“Kicking the door was kind of dumb, wasn’t it? What were you hoping to achieve? Did you really think that you’d be able to kick it down? Dumb move. You’re in bare feet. And did you break your toe? Yeah, that was a really dumb thing to do.”
If he didn’t stop calling her dumb, she was going to kick his ass.
Yeah? You and whose army?
Suddenly, the blankets were ripped off, and she stared up into the face of the man standing there.
She wasn’t surprised. Around the second time he’d said the word “dumb” she’d realized who it was.
But was North acting alone? He was Jared’s assistant.
Which likely meant that Jared Bartolli was the one who had kidnapped her.
She’d always known that a Bartolli would end her life. She just wished she’d had the chance to live it first.
She hadn’t wanted anything spectacular. She didn’t need to be famous or powerful or rich.
She’d have been so happy with something truly ordinary.
To wake up next to someone she loved. To complain about them not hanging up their wet towel or forgetting to put the garbage out. To have her biggest worry be what they were going to have for dinner.
She dreamed of having a boring, ordinary life.
Unfortunately, there was always a Bartolli ready to ruin that dream.
“Right now I should be overcooking the potatoes and have my husband complaining that the lawn needs mowing again,” she grumbled around her fingers.
Shit.
Her fingers were still in her mouth! She hastily drew them out. Then she sat up and put her soft toys behind her to keep them safe from him. No way was she letting anything happen to them.
North watched her without giving anything away. She wasn’t even sure that he was blinking. Why was it so hard to read this man?
It was like he had his facial muscles completely ironed out. So they were flat. And pinned back so they didn’t move.
Maybe it was Botox or a face lift.
Okay, it was kind of amusing to think about him getting a facelift in order to control his face. Or because of vanity. That was even funnier.
“Why are you smiling?” He studied her closely. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, just the idea that you might iron your face each morning.”
And she probably shouldn’t have said that. This man had kidnapped her for goodness sake!
But even though she should have learned when to shut up and think first . . . well, it seemed that lesson was a hard one for her to learn.
“Iron my face? I don’t understand.”
She shrugged. “It’s not funny if you have to explain the joke.”
“I don’t care about finding it funny. I can’t remember the last time I did laugh. Explain it.”
“You can’t remember the last time you laughed?” she asked, appalled.
“That’s right.”
“Why don’t you laugh?” she asked.
All right, she knew this was a really weird conversation to have with your kidnapper, but she was genuinely curious. Why didn’t he laugh? It was odd.
He hadn’t been like this the first time she’d met him. Sure, he’d been a bit . . . off. But he’d seemed friendlier, more sane.
Mind you . . . she hadn’t expected that he would be the one to kidnap her. There were lots of other people she could see doing it.
But not North.
He didn’t seem to want anything to do with her.
“Perhaps I don’t find anything amusing?” he suggested.
Yikes.
“You realize you sound like a psychopath,” she told him.
“I’ve been called worse.”
Worse?
“Although a psychopath might have a sense of humor,” she added. “The things they find amusing might be appalling, but they still probably find them funny. Where as you . . .”
“Have no feelings? Find nothing amusing or cute or sweet?”
Right.
Gulp.
“Why is me ironing my face amusing?” he asked.
“If you don’t have a sense of humor then you might take offense. And I’m guessing I can’t really afford to offend you right now.”
“No? Why can’t you offend me?”
“I think that’s pretty obvious. You broke into my house, kidnapped me, and now you have me locked up in your dungeon. Offending you right now wouldn’t be a smart move.”
“And yet I’m not sure you’ve ever made a smart move in your life.” He sighed, shaking his head
“Hey! I think I’m offended by that!”
“You think you are?”
“Fine. I know I am. Why am I here, North? Why kidnap me? Why bring me here? Where am I?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?” he asked. “It’s very tiresome.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she replied sarcastically.
“I can ask a lot more. In fact I think I might start. What’s your favorite color?
What sort of music do you like to listen to?
What was your favorite pet? Do you even like animals?
How do you keep your face from moving? Do you have regular Botox? Are you even human?”
He continued to simply stare at her.
Hmm. Seemed she was going to have to do better if she wanted to provoke some emotion from him.
But do you really? What are you hoping to achieve? For him to explode and hurt you?
She guessed he hadn’t done that at least.
Yet.
Are you listening to yourself? Oh, he hasn’t hurt me so he can’t be that bad of a guy.
Maybe she hadn’t had enough therapy. Because her criteria for someone who wasn’t a bad person was warped.
“You’re here because Jared wants you.”
She swallowed heavily. Right. So Jared had ordered North to kidnap her.
Angie didn’t know why that struck her so hard. It wasn’t like Jared Bartolli was a good person. He wasn’t a secret knight in shining armor whose main aim in life was to protect and take care of her.
She hadn’t even seen him in years.
No phone calls, no postcards, not even a smoke signal to show that he cared in any way about her.
So you shouldn’t care about him.
Logically, she knew that.
Emotionally, it was more difficult. Because she thought he might be the sexiest man she’d ever met. . .
No. Nope.
Not going there.