Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Elise
W aking up this morning, a forgotten item on a list dangled just out of my mind’s reach before I ever opened my eyes. Fuzzy-headed despite not having more than a few sips of wine last night, my brain felt bleary and almost cotton-stuffed.
What had I gone to bed thinking about? What was this thing I was trying to remember?
I lay with my eyes closed, filtering through what I remembered.
The realization that Luc had bought out Callum’s investment. Going home and crying all over Dove after she came over. Telling Luc I’d look at the papers he gave me, then sitting in stunned silence as I saw he’d put the investment in my name from the very beginning based on the date of the notarized signature.
Dove had stayed a while longer and I’d asked Marisol to open for me today. I’d fallen asleep on the couch a while after Dove left and dragged myself to bed sometime in the two-o’clock hour.
And then?—
I gasped as my eyes popped open, then moved to sit up in a scramble of legs and arms. These weren’t my walls. This wasn’t my bed. And my arm…
There was a cold metal handcuff around my wrist anchoring me to a radiator. I was on a mattress next to it on the floor, and the room appeared to be empty otherwise. Beige walls and dirty cream floorboards lined the small square space, and only one frosted glass window above me on the wall was letting in watery, weak light. The door was closed, and for some reason, that detail was the one to pull a sob out of me.
“Hello?” I asked at a far too reasonable volume considering the absolute panic raining down on me, pulling on the cuff around my hand with absolutely no success. “ Hello?!”
I leaned away from the heater, bracing the cuff around my wrist so it wouldn’t bite into my skin so hard, and prayed the other side would give.
No luck.
My hand ached. I couldn’t slide it out of the cuff, which was essentially a given, but I had to try. The metal ripped into my skin, and I could already see a dark bruise forming around my wrist. I couldn’t really afford to break my hand to get it out though, could I? I wouldn’t be able to do my job—either of my jobs—if I did that.
Yeah but if you’re about to get murdered, the broken hand won’t matter much!
I shut my eyes and tried to calm myself for a second, brain scrambling for anything that might help.
Wasn’t there some trick about forcing your hands down… wait, no. That was for zip-ties if both of your hands were together.
Helplessness and panic welled up again and I screamed. “Help! Help me! Heeeeelp!!!”
The door banged open, and I scrambled back in fear, then swallowed hard at the sight of Callum.
Callum?
“You need to shut your mouth, or I’ll have to tape it shut, okay, Leesy?”
Bile crawled up my throat at the hard, satisfied look in his eyes as he used his old pet name for me.
“What is this? Why am I here and what are you doing?”
My voice sounded scared and small. I hated it, but I couldn’t pretend I had the wherewithal to face down a man I knew was violent from a mattress on the floor of an empty room with one hand cuffed to a radiator.
He dropped to a crouch and his face took on a sympathetic expression. “Oh, Leesy. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to get through this and everything will go back to the way it was.”
“The way it was?” I asked, horror filling me.
He nodded. “Yep. As it should be. You being mine and us living happily ever after.”
The horror ebbed ever so slightly in favor of resounding disbelief and anger. I yanked at the handcuff, pain slicing through my wrist, and only barely resisted flinging out my free hand to try to push him further away from me.
“We’re not going to be together. Ever again. I’ve told you that before, and if it hadn’t been clear to me before, which it was, it absolutely is now.”
He squinted at me, his handsome face looking as put together as ever. He wore a medium blue shirt and khaki slacks like he’d come from, or maybe was going to, the office. What the heck was happening?
“I’m sorry you feel that way. This rich Euro-trash boyfriend of yours has made things confused, but I’ve got a way to solve that problem, and when this is all over, we’ll both be happy.” He tilted his face and got this soft, affectionate look I couldn’t stand.
He’d never been soft or sweet with me. At one point, he’d been charming and flattering, playing on my need for attention maybe, and any other vanities he could detect. In retrospect, I could hardly remember how he’d gotten so deep under my skin I didn’t know how to get out.
“I’ll never be happy with you. I’ll never forgive you for this, and you’re going to jail when this is over, not anywhere with me?—”
The pain in my cheek bloomed hot and loud with the contact of his hand. For a second, I could hardly breathe—like somehow my face getting hit had knocked the wind out of me. Tears pricked my eyes instantly, and I ducked away from him, instinctively putting as much distance between us as I could.
“You’ll learn. And until then, you’ll be here.”
His formerly calm facade had broken and here was the man I’d seen peeking out more and more toward the end of our relationship.
“They’ll get their money, I’ll get a little bonus, and you’ll be back where you belong. It’s all just a matter of time.”
He stood and marched toward the door, turning back right before he exited with one hand resting on the knob. “We don’t want the duct tape, do we?”
I shook my head, tucking down again. I definitely didn’t want my mouth taped. Just the thought sent a bolt of panic down my spine.
He smirked. “That’s what I thought.”
The door slammed, and I was alone again. My thoughts were muddled, my cheekbone throbbed, and my wrist ached. I didn’t know what to do. If I screamed loud enough, could I get someone’s attention before he got here to silence me? Were we anywhere near someone who could help?
My energy flagged, and I slumped down against the mattress and let the tears flow freely. Who was he talking about? Did he really believe I’d be with him again? This time, he was the one living in the fantasy and I was grounded to the here and now in the stark reality he’d forced me to see.
All of this had been real. Every moment with Luc I’d managed to trick myself into accepting as fiction so I didn’t have to fear the potential pain. But it had been real, and yes, it’d been painful, but also so clearly worth it.
His face when I’d talked with him last night… my heart clutched at the memory. He’d been wrecked, and even though I’d been justifiably angry, I should’ve made sure he knew I just needed time.
Callum? He’d been an awful partner, and I’d learned hard, horrible lessons no one should have to learn. But that didn’t mean I was my mother, and it didn’t mean I was doomed to do it again.
And this man looking at me like kidnapping me would somehow bring me back to him?
He was deranged. That much was clear. And he wasn’t working alone.
Luc will find me.
The thought echoed through my mind, and my heart grabbed onto it with both greedy hands. Gosh, I hoped so.
Then I realized… he probably would. If anyone in the world was equipped to find me, it was Luc and the Saint Security team.
My friends.
He wouldn’t rest until I was found, regardless of our fight and my inability to speak to him last night. He wouldn’t let a mood deter him from helping me.
He’d been the kindest, gentlest, loveliest man to me. His buying out Callum had been for me , not to control me. I’d seen it late last night and I’d wanted to tell him I understood this morning. I’d been ready to explain I couldn’t have him do stuff like that, but that I could see how he’d thought he was doing something good.
I’d planned to accept his apology.
I still will.
People made mistakes, and in a relationship, it wouldn’t be all billowing pirate shirts and fairytale settings. There would be real pain, and no amount of wishing it away could prevent that. But as I sat here in this dingy room missing the chance to apologize and accept Luc’s apology, the pain of missing that part hit me like a blow.
I wouldn’t hope for fights, but when they came, I would look for ways to repair instead of run. Based on the way he’d handled owning his choice and sincerely apologizing, it sure looked like I could trust Luc to do the same.
We’d work together, be together. Equals. Partners. I’d be his just as much as he’d be mine. And that was no fantasy. He’d shown me this was what it would be like.
I shut my eyes against the beige room and mattress of unknown origin, and I promised myself I wouldn’t give up hope. I wouldn’t lose it and beg Callum to let me go or cave to whatever sick demands he had coming for me.
No.
I’d stay strong and keep the faith in a man I knew. Maybe we hadn’t been close all that long, but I believed he’d come for me. He’d find me.
And when he did, we had some things to discuss.