Chapter 25
At some point, I surrender. Whether it’s sleep, exhaustion or something else, I don’t know, but when my forehead rolls on the cold metal table and my eyes open, the sky is charcoal, not black, and the rain has stopped.
The living nightmare continues. I swallow, trying to soothe my throat, and push myself back, sitting as straight as my cuffed wrists allow, my vertebrae cracking as I rise.
I feel the presence in the room before I see the figure sitting opposite me.
His tousled, dirty-blond hair looks dry, messy compared to his slick appearance at Thursday’s gala.
Steely greys are focused on me. His usually clean-shaven face is sketched with stubble and the remnants of a bruise I suspect Gregory made.
He wears a thick, warm, duffel coat, fastened to the neck, making his shoulders look even broader than they are.
His hands rest in the pockets of his coat.
‘Scarlett, so thrilled you’re awake. And, if you don’t mind me saying so, looking significantly less smug than usual.’
I stare at the missing piece of the puzzle. Nick Henshaw.
He leans his head to one side. ‘Nothing to say for yourself today?’
‘Why am I here?’
‘Speak up now, Scarlett.’
‘Why am I here?’ My effort to raise my voice is lost in the gruff of my words.
He stands, moving slowly towards me. ‘Well, because you just.’ His fist locks around my hair and yanks my head towards him as he grates his words into my ear. ‘Keep. Getting. In. My. Way.’
He releases my hair, pushing my head away from him, then pulls his chair around the table so it’s next to me, rather than opposite.
He straddles the seat, leaning onto the back, his face so close to mine I can feel his hot, liquor-laced breath.
‘You’re the brains of everything. Aren’t you, princess?
So good. You excel at so many things, Scarlett.
’ He taps my nose with the tip of his finger the way he might torment a child.
‘Including getting yourself kidnapped.’ Now he laughs, rocking back and forth on his chair.
‘So you intend to kill me, Nick? Wind up behind bars for life. Is that your plan?’
He laughs harder now, throwing his head back on a chortle then rocking forward, thumping his hand on the metal table and making me jump.
‘Ah, she’s funny. You kill me. No. I don’t intend to kill you, princess.
That would be a waste of such a pretty thing.
’ He twirls a finger in my hair and I lift my shoulder fast, pushing him away.
‘Oops. Gutsy. Perhaps I’ll change my mind.
My new friend – I think you’ve met her, Katrina Martin?
– she tells me anyone can pay their way out of a murder charge these days. ’
‘If you don’t want to kill me, what do you want?’
‘Oh, sweetheart, you’re just a pawn in a big boys’ game.
There’s something that means a lot more to me than your life.
Or Gregory’s. Or putting both your bodies into the ground.
’ He sits upright, drumming his fingertips on the metal frame of his chair.
‘The thing is, you keep taking it from me. First, you take my company when it was starting to turn a profit again. All those years of putting sweat and blood and money into my company, then you and the mighty CEO try to take that all away from me. Then, you force me to resign and I think you forgot to write my goodbye handshake into that resignation letter, princess, didn’t you? ’
He stands from his chair and starts to pace the floor behind me. I watch him move in the mirror, my body tense, waiting for a blow.
‘My wife left me.’ His face contorts in a strange mix of, I think, anger and tears. He swipes the back of his hand under his nose as he snorts. ‘She’s the only fucking reason I signed your letter. That bastard used her against me and she fucking left me anyway.’
‘Maybe you should have thought about that before you fucked someone behind her back,’ I snipe.
‘Maybe you should have thought about that before you fucked someone behind her back.’ He mimics my words like a puppet, then grabs my hair and yanks my head up so I’m staring at the scene in the mirror. ‘So fucking clever.’ The veins in his neck and temples are fat. His face red with rage.
‘Third!’ He releases my hair and his reflection holds up three fingers on a sadistic smile. ‘Third, you ruin my plan. AGAIN!’
‘Black Diamonds,’ I say, watching him move so his back is leaning against the mirror and he’s staring right at me.
‘Fucking Black Diamonds. I was supposed to get a payout. The game for three million.’ He folds his arms across his chest. ‘Poof! Like magic, there you were again, fucking up my plan. First, you convince Gregory not to pay what the game’s worth.
But he screws up, he offers us an in, lets Stuart take a position on the inside where he can see your next move.
And I know the market, so I start registering the game that I own. But there you were again.’
Finally, all the pieces fit together. ‘This is your new plan. You want a ransom.’
‘Ding! Ding! Ding!’ He rattles his hands in the air with an enormous fake smile. ‘Jackpot! And from where I’m standing, it looks like you can’t fuck this one up.’
‘I’ve got to hand it to you, Nick, you’ve played a good game.’
He takes a theatrical bow. ‘Why thank you, although, I already knew that.’
‘So call him, tell him where you are, ask him for what you want.’
He smiles, leaning his head to one side and pointing a swirling finger at me.
‘Oh, I’m going to, princess. But for now, I’m going to let him sweat.
He can wonder whether he’s going to get you back, whether he’s going to get what he wants.
You’ve been gone all night. He’ll be frantic by now.
’ He sniggers, his eyes rising to the sky, his hands forming prayer. ‘Then I win two times.’
He lunges towards me, grabbing my throat, digging his fingers and thumb into my flesh, hard. I try to breathe but I can’t draw air. My legs kick, desperate for oxygen.
He releases me and my head droops forward as I gasp.
‘Don’t get up,’ he says, laughing as he leaves me in the room alone.