Twenty-Six
Bay
The breeze brushed against my face as I stood near the edge of the sunroom, where the entire glass wall overlooking the east side of the property stood open, making the room an outdoor space.
Ellen had come up to the bedroom and convinced me to come down here to get some fresh air and had tea set up.
For the past hour, I had enjoyed reading with the sounds of nature. That was, until I heard the voices. Immediately recognizing Hale’s deep timbre, I placed my book down and stood up to get closer. At first, I thought he was talking to Slash, and the idea had a small smile tugging on my lips.
However, that had been brief when Slash came sprinting around the corner and into the room with me. He was panting, and I gave him a pat in greeting, then told him to go get some water. Which he seemed to understand and left me alone once again as he padded out of the room.
Focusing on Hale’s words and whoever he was talking to, I eased even closer. I wasn’t normally nosy, but I wanted to know if they said anything about me. When I would be leaving. If anyone had come looking for me.
“Where did he get that kind of money? Is he gambling in their ring? Did he not know who they were? Jesus, they will skin him alive like they do their damn fish.”
Hale’s words had me frozen. Who would they skin alive?
“I don’t know. I need to think this through. I don’t want to give those fuckers that kind of money. But I don’t like the idea of what they’re gonna do to Rich either. He’s got a family. How much time did they give us?” Hale asked.
I hadn’t heard the other man say anything. It was clear this wasn’t about me, and I should walk away, but…who were these people? They were ridiculously wealthy, and they abducted women, were threatening to murder Harland.
“They’re gonna start slicing a finger an hour at midnight.
You pay well, but not that well. I’m guessing their interest is more than fifty percent, but even with that, it’s a damn chunk for someone like Rich to have on hand to gamble with.
You don’t think he was running coke for them, do you?
I’ve never seen him fucked up, so I doubt he was using. ”
The other man’s words caused my jaw to drop. Did they always have such violent involvements? Was all this drug money? Were they some kind of drug handlers or whatever they were called?
“He’s not using. He likes his whiskey, but he isn’t on anything.
I’d have known. But maybe…he might have been dealing.
I don’t know. If he did, he kept it off my property.
And no one there knew about it, or I’d have been told.
All right, let me get a shower, eat something, think on it.
I’ll let you know what I want to do after. ”
So, Hale would recognize someone who was using. He had known the gang Pooky was in, and the leader had been scared enough of him or those he was involved with to demand Pooky stay away. Did that mean they were some kind of drug lords. The powerful, successful kind.
Had Harland gotten mixed up with drugs? Not that I cared, but things were making more sense.
“All right. I like the guy. Always showing off pics of his kids. But he made a stupid mistake, and it ain’t yours to clean up,” the other man said.
That hadn’t been Linc’s voice. It was one I didn’t recognize.
How many of them were there?
I heard a car door close, and I backed up until I was at the sofa I’d been reading on earlier. Sinking down on it, I stared. At nothing really. Just stared.
I’d been abducted by some drug crime family.
“Would you like more tea?”
Ellen’s voice startled me, and I turned around to see her smiling at me. She was so out of place here. Did she know what the man she worked for did? Most likely. She knew I wasn’t here because I’d chosen to be. I’d told her I had been abducted, and she’d not been surprised.
“Uh, no. I, uh, I’m fine,” I stammered, battling the urge to dart out through the open room into the yard and keep running. That might get me shot. There were probably guns hidden all over this house.
“All right then,” she replied. “Dinner will be ready in an hour. If you need anything, I’ll be in the kitchen.”
I managed a smile and nodded. When she left the room, I leaned back on the sofa and reached for my book. Not sure this would distract me anymore. I’d just learned things I was never intended to know.
My grandmother, Claudine, telling me, “Curiosity killed the cat,” replayed in my head.
I shivered and clutched the book tightly to my chest.
Slash returned to my side, and I dropped my gaze to him. He laid his head on my lap, and I wondered what all he had seen in his life here. He was a good boy. He was well taken care of. Why that seemed so at odds with what I had just learned about Hale, I wasn’t sure.
The man had kids. Ellen was pleasant. It was very hard to balance out a drug lord with all the other I’d come to find out about him. Which was the real Hale? The caring father, excellent dog owner, successful distillery owner, or the man who was deep in criminal activity?
It didn’t matter. I would be gone soon.
“You keep taking my dog.”
Hale’s voice caused me to jump, and Slash’s head snapped up as he looked back over my shoulder.
I cleared my throat before responding, “It seems he likes me.”
Hale only grunted.
I didn’t turn to look at him, but listened keenly as his footsteps drew closer. If he knew I’d overheard him, would that hinder them allowing me to go home? Or were they never really planning on letting me out alive?
“You’re paler than normal, Snow. The book getting to you?”
The amusement in his tone had me glancing up at him as he stepped into my line of vision.
Giving him a tight smile, I started to say no, but decided perhaps that was a good excuse. “Maybe,” I replied. “I guess I should have chosen something less tragic.”
He smirked. “My daughter-in-law writes romance. There are a few of her novels in there.”
That piqued my interest. “She does? What’s her name?”
“Her real name is Noa, but she writes under the pen name Juliette Romeo,” he replied.
I sat up straighter now, wide-eyed. Was he lying to me? I’d seen interviews with Juliette Romeo. She’d been on the Today show, and there was a movie coming out about one of her books.
“You’re kidding,” I said to him.
He raised an eyebrow. “Why would I kid about that? Or even know the name of a romance author? Google it. Her real name isn’t a secret. It’s on her Wikipedia. Noa Carver, married to Ransom Carver.”
I started to reach for my phone before remembering once again that I no longer had one. He’d taken it.
“How do you propose I google it?” I asked.
He chuckled. “You still think I’m lying?”
No, not really, but it was hard to believe.
She was well known, and if she was married into this family, then that meant…
that meant she was part of this drug world.
She seemed so nice on television. Clean-cut, classy, and not at all like a criminal.
Wasn’t she worried that her connection would get out? That could ruin her career.
“I take it, you’ve read her books,” he drawled.
“No, but she’s well known. I’m going to read the one that has a movie adaption coming out. I haven’t had a chance yet.”
He nodded his head toward the door. “There is a copy of it in the library. It’s even signed. You can have it if you want it.”
I blinked. He was serious.
“Dinner is almost ready,” he then told me.
Had I really been sitting here an hour?
Slash nudged his head under my hand, and I began to gently run my nails behind his ears the way he enjoyed while mulling this new information over.
“You’re a conundrum,” I blurted out.
He tilted his head slightly as he met my gaze. “How so?”
I shrugged. “You…you abducted me, humiliated me beyond anything I could have imagined, and are clearly involved in something illegal, but you are good to your dog; you’ve got kids, a successful daughter-in-law, and a daughter, if you were honest about her; yet you have a female in your house you’re holding prisoner and giving her a signed book by a famous author.
” I could go on, but I stopped because he looked like he might laugh. I didn’t think this was funny.
He wasn’t married. That much I had come to be certain of, and I wondered if she’d left him because of his criminal involvement.
Maybe taken his kids when they were younger to get them away from the danger that this man dwelled in.
No woman would want to raise her kids in some drug cartel.
Even if it came with a fabulous lifestyle.
Well, okay, some women would. I was one hundred percent sure Lillibeth would have no issue with it. If only he’d abducted her.
“I’m assuming the humiliation was the strip search.”
He was grinning. Asshole. Nothing was funny about that.
“You’ve got a nice body. I don’t see why getting naked was such a big deal, and I’ve been honest with you. I’ve not lied.” He paused. “And it seems you were being honest too. I apologize for that.”
Not a big deal? He was crazy. That would forever haunt me. And when had he decided I wasn’t lying? This was a turn of events.
“What caused this change in opinion?” And did that mean I was going home?
“Vilmer,” he replied. “He didn’t know you. It was an unfortunate coincidence. But your past with Harland made that hard to believe.”
Vilmer was 1A. It seemed where they couldn’t believe me, they did believe Vilmer McKenzie.
“Then why am I still here?” I asked somewhat hesitantly. I didn’t know when this man could snap and become the darker version of himself that he must be masking.
He took a drink from the water bottle he was holding, then shrugged. “Haven’t decided how to handle the situation with you just yet.”
What situation?
“I would have thought you’d be ready to get rid of me. It’s not a secret you’re not thrilled with my being here,” I said.
The corner of his mouth quirked, and then he pointed at Slash. “My dog is though.”
That wasn’t an answer.
“Am I going home soon?”
“Most likely.”
Not the answer I had been looking for.
“I’m starving. Let’s go eat,” he said, then began to walk back toward the door.
That was it. We were just going to sit at a table and eat. Together. This bizarre world I had been forced into was just getting weirder.