I had been so calm and composed in the face of danger that the second I found myself alone, I finally panicked. I started sobbing, the silk scarf absorbing my tears until it was fully saturated. I cried until my eyes could no longer produce any moisture. Then, I couldn’t breathe. I felt as though I had already used all the oxygen in the small room. My heart rate and breathing sped up until I was wheezing and panting. I felt the room spinning around me as I gasped for air.
I was mentally saying goodbye to my friends and family. I thought that I was going to die. If not at this very second, then in a few days when someone finally came to check on me. Before I passed out, I thought of Josh and his strong arms wrapped around me, comforting me.
A cool rush of air blew through the open door, reviving me. Two hands peeled off my damp blindfold and cradled my head.
I cracked my eyelids open to see Josh’s concerned face close to mine. Fresh tears starting flowing. I was sure that in all its trauma, my mind was playing tricks on me.
The room was exactly how I had pictured it in my head. Even the walls were plain white, and there was truly nothing else in here but a bed. It felt like a prison.
From the slightly ajar door, I could see another small room. It looked like a living room and makeshift kitchen. It wasn’t much bigger than the bedroom, but at least there was a little more room to walk around.
“Amanda, you have to calm down.”
I closed my eyes tight, then opened them again, hoping it was all just a bad dream. I saw Josh’s face, but that voice, that accent, didn’t belong to him.
“Amanda,” he said again, “take a deep breath.”
I followed his directions, my heart slowing down to normal.
“You?” I scowled.
He looked toward the floor in shame.
“Was this the plan the entire time?” I asked.
“No,” he said quietly. “Amanda, I’m so sorry. I had no idea it would come to this.”
“Why did you approach me that day at the pool then? You speak so differently now. Who are you?”
“I’m not a British banker from London,” he admitted.
“What’s your real name?”
“Josh is my real name. I’ve been living in Las Vegas for the past few years. But, as you can tell from my accent, I’m not from here.”
“Why am I here?” I asked, growing more frustrated at the lack of answers. “Tell me what’s going on,” I shouted, pounding on his chest with my fists.
“I will,” he said, grabbing my arms. “I will tell you everything if you just calm down for a moment. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to talk right now. Reese and Abi went home, and Ben went outside to smoke. He’ll be back in here before long. I can’t let him catch us talking.”
“Ben and Reese?”
He sighed. “You aren’t supposed to know who we are, but you’re right. We’re not only roommates—we’re in business together.”
“What kind of business?”
“We find the most vulnerable and rich of Las Vegas and scam them for money. It usually involves telling white lies to get money wired to us, or sometimes a little blackmail. Nothing big. We’ve never done anything like this.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t have the answer for that. Ben usually does the research and puts me on the case to seal the deal. Women typically seem to like me.”
“Yeah, probably because of your David Beckham act.”
He tried to hide his smile. He knew that he was good at what he did.
“But why didn’t you just steal my credit cards and leave me alone? Why am I here?”
“Again, that was Ben’s idea. He said he was in gambling debt and we had to go along with his idea. Otherwise, we could all be in trouble.”
“And you just do whatever Ben tells you to do? How is this going to end well for any of us? I don’t even know the guy and I know he’s a creep.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to get you out of here.”
“You’re the reason I’m here in the first place!” I shouted. “What motivation do you have for getting me out? How are you going to get paid, then?”
“Shh, he’ll hear you. Look, I don’t know what we’re going to do, but I’m going to get you out of this mess. I’m going to get both of us out of this mess. I know you don’t believe me, but I never wanted anything bad to happen to you. I feel terrible that I’m part of the reason you’re here. You didn’t deserve this.”
I sniffed, feeling slightly better, but not much.
“I’m scared,” I said.
He rested his hand on mine. “I am too. I’m going to do anything I can to make you a little more comfortable, but I can’t let Ben know that I’m trying to help you out. I’m going to do the best that I can. I promise.”
I didn’t know if I could believe him, but I didn’t have much of a choice. When he looked into my eyes, I felt like he could do no wrong. The rational side of me knew that he could turn on the charm when necessary, but the emotional side of me wanted him to love me. I hated him for that.
Ben came back into the shack and burst into my bedroom.
“Where’s your mask?” he asked, sporting his own ski mask. “Why isn’t she blindfolded?”
“I think she was having a panic attack,” Josh explained. “I wanted to calm her down before she had a heart attack. She wouldn’t be worth much to us then, would she?”
“You’ve blown your cover,” Ben said, wringing his hands. “You’re fucked. Have you given anyone else away?”
“No, I didn’t tell her anything.”
“Keep it that way. You’re here to make sure she doesn’t bust out. Nothing more. You will keep as little contact as possible. Understand?”
“Got it,” Josh said.
“I’m going home. You should probably get some rest. It’s late.”
Josh nodded and followed Ben out the door, locking it behind him.
I was furious at Josh. I had so many questions that I didn’t know if I’d ever get the answers to. There were some questions that I wasn’t sure I even wanted the answers to. I was scared, but at least I knew that there was someone staying with me, even though he was banished to the other room.
I wanted to scream at Josh for doing this to me. I was also furious at myself for being so stupid. The first time I let my hair down and let a guy pursue me, he ends up kidnapping me and holding me for ransom. I should have known better.
I didn’t know the time, but I knew that it was late. Exhausted from all the crying and panicking, I flopped around a few times on the bed to get comfortable, and then finally fell asleep.
Chapter 13―Joshua
After making sure Amanda was okay, I followed Ben out of the shack. He waved me over to the car, and I got in the passenger seat.
“Do I need to be worried, Josh?” Ben asked.
“About what? The fact that we’ve committed a serious crime?”
“No. I’m not really worried about the plan. I’m worried about your role in this.”
“You’re insane if you think I’m going to call the cops on you. I’d go to jail for a long time. You don’t think I’m a snitch, do you?”
“No, I know you wouldn’t do that. Besides, there are worse things than jail time.”
“Like what?” I scoffed. I couldn’t imagine being shut off from the rest of the world while I waited for a sentence to be over.
“I don’t know. If we stick to the plan, we won’t have to worry about any of that, though.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to say. I didn’t know if I should have taken his words as a warning not to get caught up with the police or the mob, or if he was dropping subtle hints that he could dispose of me at any time. We had a long history of working together, but I didn’t know if I could trust him anymore.
“So, what’s the next step of the plan?” I asked.
“Reese is going to make the ransom call in the morning. He’s going to call Mrs. Halls and tell her that her daught
er has been taken, but she will be returned unharmed if she transfers half a million dollars into our account. Reese has the account set up already, and there shouldn’t be any way for the police to track it. He’ll give them very specific directions, and when the money shows up in a couple of days, we’ll drive her within the city limits and dump her.”
“Is there anything I need to do?”
“Just watch our girl. I’ve been thinking about it, and as much as I don’t like seeing the two of you together, I think you’re just going to have to stay put. You’re the only one without a regular job, so if you’re not home for a while, it won’t look suspicious.”
“Fine,” I said. It was an easy enough job. Plus, it allowed me to stay close to Amanda.
“I’m going to go now,” Ben said. “Try not to fuck anything up. If you have any problems, call me immediately.”
“All right,” I said, getting out of the car. I watched him drive down the dirt path and disappear into the darkness.
I walked back into the shack and pressed my ear against the door. I couldn’t hear anything. Still a little concerned about Amanda’s well-being, I unlocked the door and peeked in to check on her. Surprisingly, she was fast asleep on her back, her hands resting on her chest. I wanted to take the handcuffs off her so she could be more comfortable, but I knew that I would get into deep shit if she managed to escape.
Back in the living room, I absentmindedly searched through the drawers of the side table for some sort of entertainment, but there were only old hunting catalogs and soft-core porn. I flipped through a magazine before getting bored and turning off the lights.
I curled up on the sofa, pulling the old quilts up past my shoulders. I wanted to talk to someone about all the confusion and conflict I was feeling, but there was no one to talk to. Reese was probably asleep by now, and even if Amanda were awake, I doubt she would want to hear about my problems. I didn’t feel like I could express my concern with Ben anymore because he was becoming more suspicious by the minute. Besides those people, there wasn’t anyone else in my life. I didn’t have any other family or friends to go to. I was alone.
I fell asleep while weighing the pros and cons of different plans that popped into my head. I needed to get out of this situation, but there was no easy way out.
I woke up early the next morning, after just a few hours of sleep. I was tired, but too nervous to be able to rest. Today was the day of Reese’s ransom call, and I was waiting for updates.
I pressed my ear to the bedroom door again, but I heard nothing but soft snores. With everything that went on last night, I bet Amanda was exhausted. I wanted her to be able to sleep as long as she wanted.
After walking around the small square of empty space in the room for too long, I got a call from Reese. I scrambled up the steps and went outside to answer it. The sun was already getting warm, and there was no escape from the heat up there.
“Reese,” I said, probably a little more frantically than I wanted to come off. “What’s up?”
“I’ve made the phone call,” he replied, sounding a little on edge.
“And?”
“I talked to Mrs. Halls. Her husband wasn’t home, so she took down the information and said she would transfer the money once she spoke to her husband.”
“Which means she called the police immediately after you hung up?”
“Right,” he confirmed. “Of course, I told her not to get the police involved, but I highly doubt she listened.”
“How did she sound on the phone?” I asked, thinking about Amanda.
“Confused at first, but once it registered in her mind that Amanda never came back from her trip, I think it clicked. My guess is that she went on to call Amanda, her husband, and the police, in that order.”
“She wasn’t like, crying or anything, was she?” I asked. I hated seeing women cry. For some reason, it made me feel terrible, even if I wasn’t the cause of it.
“No, nothing like that. I think she was just shocked and confused.”
“What happened to Amanda’s phone anyway?” I asked. “Do you think it could be used to track her?”
“Abi destroyed it. We’ve already sold most of her clothes to secondhand shops around the city and destroyed anything that can be linked to her.”
“Heard anything from Ben?”
“I called him before I called you. I told him that the call went well and that I’ll be checking the account balance constantly.”
“I don’t think he trusts me,” I said bluntly.
“Why not?”
“I think he’s under the impression that I’m going to rat him out. He warned me that there are worse things than prison. I think he’s trying to threaten me.”
“Shit, man,” Reese said. “That’s pretty grim. Ben’s getting shadier by the second.”
“That’s what I thought. Has he said anything weird to you lately?”
“No, but Abi and I were talking about it on the ride home last night, and we’re thinking of planning an exit strategy. If you’re interested, we could really make this work.”
“What do you have so far?” I asked, very interested.
“Well, Abi has a lot of connections in the bar scene. She’s collecting as much intel on Ben as possible. If he does anything suspicious, it won’t be long before she knows about it. Once we know for sure that Ben’s crossing us, we’ll put the plan into action. We’ll take the ransom and run.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“Let’s face it—Ben doesn’t know anything about our bank accounts. For years, he’s been saying that he’s in control of the money, but I’m the one who set all of that up. He was only ever in control of distributing it. He needs me to get any of the ransom money. The second that half a million drops in the account, I can make it disappear. We’ll hightail it out of the country and collect our money then. Ben will never see us, or the money, again.”
“I don’t know. Don’t you think that Ben will catch on?”
“Abi knows not to be too obvious. I think if we act normal and only speak about this when necessary, we’ll be okay.”
“Well, if you guys are in, then I’m in,” I said. “Is there anything else I should do?”
“Yeah, actually, there is,” he said hesitantly. “Do you think there’s any way Amanda would be willing to help us?”
I nearly choked on my saliva. “How is she going to help us? We kidnapped her.”
“I know,” he said, “but she’s an important piece of the puzzle. If we escape, she’s going to tell everything she knows about us, which is probably quite a lot for the police. We’d be tracked down instantly. However, if she tells the police that Ben acted alone, then we’d have a better shot.”
“Yeah, but the police would just search the house and reason that we knew something.”
“I’ve thought about that too. When Ben is at work today, I’m going to try to rid the house of anything that links us to Ben. I’ll also pack you a bag in case we need to leave at a moment’s notice. I’ll start dropping word to people at work that I’m thinking about doing some traveling. That way, if anyone asks, it doesn’t seem like I’ve run away.”
“It sounds like you’ve thought of everything.”
“I think we have. If you can get Amanda on our side, Abi and I will take care of the rest of it. We need to all work together if we want to make this work.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do everything I can.”
“Sounds good. I’m going to go to work now. I’ll talk to you as soon as I have updates. Stay safe.”
“You too.”
I hung up my phone and tilted my face toward the sun. My eyes closed, I mentally pleaded to anyone out in the universe who could help to make this work out for us. It was a long shot, but it was our only option.
Chapter 14―Amanda
“Ah, crap,” I groaned the instant I woke up in my underground prison. My wrists were tender from being restrained and I had a pounding headache. I had forgo
tten about all the drinks I had the previous night, and I didn’t get the chance to drink any water. My tongue felt like sandpaper. Luckily, it was still fairly dark in the room, the only light coming in through the cracks in the door.
Josh came in with a startled look on his face.
“Did you say something?” he asked. “I thought I heard a sound.”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “Can I have some water? I’m so dehydrated, I feel sick.”
His eyes went wide, and he scurried out of the room and quickly emerged with a bottle of lukewarm water. I grasped the bottle between my palms and chugged, feeling the water moisturize my mouth to my stomach. When I finished the bottle, I handed it back to him.
“I’ll make breakfast,” he said quickly. He was acting strangely. In the short time I’d known him, he’d always seemed so cool and collected. Now, he was running around like a chicken with his head cut off and looked surprised and frightened. It made me feel good to know that he wasn’t always the most confident man in the room.
“Wait,” I called before he could get too far. “I have to go to the bathroom. There is a bathroom in here, isn’t there?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied.
He helped me off the bed and escorted me into the living room. On the other side, across from the bedroom, was an identical door that led to a tiny bathroom. He hesitated, as if he didn’t know how to supervise me, and then ultimately, he shut the door behind him. I struggled to pull my dress up and my underwear down with the handcuffs, but I finally managed to relieve myself.
I looked at the shower longingly. It was basically just a spigot that poured water onto the concrete floor, but I wanted nothing more than to rinse off, put on a clean change of clothes, and curl back up in bed.
When he heard me flush the toilet, he opened the door and escorted me back into the room.
“Is all of this necessary?” I asked, holding up my hands.
High Stakes: A Dark Romance Page 8
