Chapter 3
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Andrea woke up groggy, sore, with a fatigue that made her limbs feel heavy.
She didn’t want to move or even roll over in bed because she knew it would hurt.
However, hearing movement out in the sitting room brought all the memories of last night flooding back.
She winced and struggled to get out of bed, only to fall back again with an awareness that whatever she had done was now hitting her system hard.
When a knock came on her bedroom door, she called out, “Come in.” She watched as Hayden walked in.
Hayden. Just the sight of him made her body tighten in anticipation.
The two of them had been fiery in bed. They hadn’t been able to get enough of each other.
Her heart lurched, missing him over the intervening years.
When she’d seen him last, it had been a brutal reminder that people didn’t always appreciate her lies or her need to find a way to be herself without truly being herself.
He’d made it very clear that they were done. Not that he’d done it in a bad way, but it had broken her in a way she had never really expected. Yet she realized she had given him that much power. Even now, as she stared at him, she could see why she had done it.
The breakup remained startling, and it was difficult to understand what to do about it.
He was right in the sense that she had hidden things from him.
And, given the circumstances, she probably would do it again, even if that’s not what he wanted to hear.
But some things in life just didn’t always go the way you wanted.
And attending college in an anonymous way was not easy.
While the main office knew her father was a well-known billionaire tycoon, whether revered or feared, her classmates did not.
She didn’t want people to fear her.
She didn’t want people crawling all over her to get to her father either.
Nor did she want to be his pawn in a marriage brokered for power—or somebody else’s plan that involved using her to broker for power.
Not her style.
Hayden held out a cup of coffee. “I heard you moving around and thought maybe you would be ready for a cup.”
She smiled. “I am so ready. I tried to get up and suddenly realized I’m really sore and a little more scuffed up than I realized.”
He placed the cup on the night table. “That’s the thing about running for your life, as you did last night,” he noted.
“It’s not just about the physical activity, but there is also the adrenaline, the fear, every single muscle on guard.
All that time you were waiting for an opportunity to escape, every muscle waited for that opportunity to break loose.
So, when you did finally get that chance, that taut elastic was finally released, and it just springboards into a much bigger, deeper issue.
You used absolutely everything at your disposal. ”
He shrugged, then continued. “Now suddenly you’re exhausted because it’s the time for you to recuperate.
The adrenaline rush is over, and you’re left with just the sore and irritated muscles.
You’re lucky you’re not cramping, which still could happen when you least expect it,” he shared.
Then he asked, “But otherwise you’re okay?
Nothing broken or needing medical attention? ”
“No. So far, I’m good in that corner.” She shifted in the bed, pulling herself upright against a pillow. She fluffed the pillows and then pulled the covers higher up against her chest. She glanced at him and asked, “Did you get any sleep?”
“I did. Nothing new or different on the apartment front. Everything there has been fine. My team reported no suspicious visitors.”
“And I would expect that to be the case,” she noted. “I haven’t had any issues since I moved there.”
“And when was that?”
“About one year ago, somewhere around there.”
“And did you find that place on your own, or did your father have anything to do with it?”
“I found it on my own,” she replied. “I didn’t even tell him where I was until he came for a visit. And he was pretty upset because it didn’t have his security standards, but I wanted to be there,” she explained, with a shrug. “We make decisions for all kinds of reasons.”
He nodded.
“So, what did you and the bosses decide?” she asked as she reached for the cup of coffee. He must have ordered room service.
“That’s a good question.” He sighed. “On the one hand, we want to keep you safe. So, as you probably expect, everybody wants to pretty much lock you up so you can’t do anything.
I explained that you wouldn’t be amenable to that.
We did run a danger assessment. Since you got a good look at the Hulk, we want you to work with a sketch artist.”
“Are you working with the local police?” she asked.
“No, but we can certainly get police assistance to work with you.”
She pondered that. “I’m wondering if the two men who left me alone with the Hulk would make my captor pay for losing me. But we need to stop him any way we can. Don’t they have Arlene in custody too? Isn’t she talking?”
“The local authorities don’t have her. We have her,” Hayden shared. “She was picked up yesterday. The team will interrogate her first, before we hand her over. She’s not cooperating. She’ll soon be with the locals, put in a holding cell in jail, then transferred to prison.”
She frowned at him. “I didn’t know that.” He didn’t say anything, just waited. “You didn’t mention it last night.”
“You and I certainly didn’t cover everything last night.
Arlene’s half-brother is also in custody, and he was also involved in the kidnapping and the trafficking.
We’re working on his interrogation today as well.
What we don’t know is whether your trio of kidnappers are part of the same group Arlene was working with or not. ”
“I overheard them mentioning Arlene, taking over her part. Otherwise Europe was dropping them like Kryptonite or something. What are the chances I could just randomly trip over some other assholes?”
“Pretty high,” he stated. “The world is full of them.”
She snorted. “Yeah, thanks for that. I wasn’t really thinking along those lines though. I was thinking more that they were still dealing with the fallout of Arlene’s actions.”
“She was potentially involved in the kidnapping of other young women around the world, so we’re trying to see who else she might have associated with because this could be a bigger operation, having very far-flung repercussions.”
“Which would really suck,” she muttered, staring at him. She leaned back. “I suppose if she got into one university, she could get into more.”
“And from that one position,” Hayden pointed out, “an awful lot of women out there are vulnerable and have no idea they could be targeted.”
“Which is really lovely,” she muttered, “not.”
“I get it,” he stated, “but we have to sort out who needs help right now because half a dozen women could be associated with this one particular kidnapping ring, who have since been trafficked, who still need to be found—both the ring and their victims.”
“I hadn’t even considered that,” she admitted. “I wasn’t thinking about sex trafficking.”
“I’m not sure we are either,” he clarified, “but Tricia was kidnapped because her father is a powerful man, and they wanted to put pressure on him. So, from her perspective, it had nothing to do with sex trafficking. It was all about the fact that she had a powerful parent, which puts you into a position of interest for this group as well.”
Andrea considered that, nodding. “So, from their perspective, they may have hit a gold mine, only to lose that gold mine. In which case, the Hulk asshole they left me with probably got in big trouble for letting me slip away. Do you suppose he got a beatdown over it?” she asked, with a delighted smile.
“Or worse,” Hayden noted. “I don’t think this group is playing, so they probably wouldn’t waste time or energy with a mere beating. More likely, if he failed, even once, there would be severe consequences for that. However, we don’t know that yet. So, are you up for that sketch?”
“Sure, I can do that. First, I’ll have a shower, get dressed, and have a second cup of coffee.”
He smiled. “I’ll go make the arrangements.” And, with that, he turned around and walked out, calm and in control but steady, leaving her feeling the same.
Alone with her thoughts, she realized it was a better start to the day than she’d had in quite a while. She smiled, finished her coffee, got out of bed, and prepared to begin her day.
*
Hayden led Andrea into the police station, and they signed in, as he was not exactly known here. Yet Mason usually made these arrangements in cooperation with multiple jurisdictions, which was fairly common for him. Hayden just wasn’t sure how well it would work without Mason being here.
So far, it had gone off without a hitch. They were led into a small room with a huge interior picture window that helped open up the tiny space, plus revealed a police artist already seated inside.
He looked up, smiled, and motioned for her to come over and to sit down. He introduced himself as David Perry. “This is a pretty painless process.”
“You say that,” she joked, “but it doesn’t seem that way from where I’m at.”
David nodded. “That’s a good point,” he acknowledged, “since you were kidnapped and then escaped.”
She shrugged. “Hopefully I can get through this without too much trouble.”
He smiled. “Since you escaped, I am sure you will. Let’s get started.” He looked over at Hayden and asked, “Will you stay and watch?”
“Yes, he will,” Andrea answered for him. “I’m not staying here alone, Hayden,” she muttered.
His lips twitched. He pointed outside the window, seeing a coffeepot on a big counter on the opposite wall. “I hope it’s okay if I grab us some coffee.”