by Lara Hunter
He looked genuinely surprised. “You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t think I like this game, either. Please untie me.”
He only shook his head. “Let me clarify something for you, Selena. This is no game. This is very, very real. You and I have a lot of things to talk about, so you might as well get comfortable.”
“Like what?” It came out as a whimper in spite of the way I struggled to sound brave.
His eyes hardened. “Like what you were doing in my office when I caught you earlier. And what you’re doing working for my company in the first place.”
My blood ran cold as I stared at him. So he wasn’t some psychopath. It was much worse than that.
It was going to be a long, long night.
TEN
So he knew. Or he thought he knew.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said. I couldn’t give myself away yet. I didn’t want to make his life any easier.
“Don’t lie, Selena. It’s beneath you. Even you.” Something like a sneer passed over his face, and I felt myself shrinking a little. I didn’t want him to hate me.
“How could you lure me here like this, just to do this to me?”
“Don’t try to turn the tables. It won’t work.” He stood with a sigh, clasping his hands behind his back. “This isn’t easy for me, Selena. I really enjoyed the time we spent together last night, regardless of the fact that you only did it so you could use me later on.”
“You don’t know that,” I insisted.
He sighed again. “Why do you insist on lying, even when I’m telling you I know the truth? Just admit what you’ve done. I had a lot of time to think this over today. I’ve already explored every possibility in my head, and only one thing makes any sense. Then I go back to my office to find you in there after everybody else has already left. What do you think I’m going to conclude?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I made my eyes go wide and fill with tears. How had he found out? Was I slipping?
“I wish I understood this,” I said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is all crazy.”
“You’re not that good an actress,” he said, shaking his head. “So stop wasting my time like this and tell me what I want to know.”
“You already think you have all the answers,” I spat. “Why don’t you tell me what you think you know?”
He snickered. “Even now, you have a lot of spirit. I have to give you credit for that.”
“Thanks.” I rolled my eyes. There I was, tied to a bed in my underwear, feeling like the world’s biggest sucker, and he was complimenting me for showing spirit.
“You want to know what I know about you? All right.” He cleared his throat, hands still clasped behind his back. Every muscle in his body was tensed, his body at attention. “Money buys a lot of things, doesn’t it?” His voice was soft. “It bought everything you’ve seen tonight. It bought the yacht you were on last night. And it bought information. You’d be surprised what a person can find out if they know who to ask and can pay those in charge of guarding the information to look the other way.”
My stomach filled with ice. So he wasn’t playing. He’d done his homework, just as I had. Only he’d dug a little deeper.
“You want to know what I found out?” he asked, looking down at me. “For starters, I learned that you worked at a dozen major companies in the United States in a four-year period. That seemed a little extreme—I mean, twelve in four years? That couldn’t be right. So I kept looking. And something finally revealed itself. A correlation. Do you know what that correlation was, Selena?” His voice was cold.
“No,” I whispered.
“I’ll tell you, then. Each and every one of those companies was involved in some sort of scandal—and every time, the scandal came out within a month of your employment ending. You’d start working, you’d stop working a few weeks later, then boom!” He shook his head, making a sympathetic noise. “You’re bad luck, Selena. Wouldn’t you say?”
I would have shrugged if I could have moved my shoulders. Instead, I glared at him, hating the idea that he’d been able to look into my life so easily. I felt more exposed than I had when it was just me in my underwear.
“So, again, I have to ask what you were doing in my office earlier. Why would you hang out on a Friday night, hours after everybody else left, then act so guilty when I showed up?”
“I told you what I was doing there,” I insisted.
“You lied,” he said instantly. “When you’ve been in business as long as I have, you can pick up a liar pretty quickly. I admit I fell for it last night. You were a little too tempting for me to think twice about why you were suddenly throwing yourself at me. But I started thinking today—once I had a clear head,” he added, smirking just a little. “That was when I decided to look into your history. I mean, beyond the fact that we slept together, I didn’t know anything about you. And here we are.”
Lucas sat down again, his expression and tone of voice softening somewhat. “So I’ll ask you again, now that you know I’m aware of your past: what were you doing in my office tonight? Just admit you were planting something there, and we can be finished with this charade, all right?”
I didn’t know what to say. It would have been easy to tell the truth, but what would he do once I did? Call the police and get them to take me away? On the other hand, if I denied it, he could leave me there for as long as he wanted. No one knew where I was.
“I have an idea,” Lucas prompted when I didn’t answer right away. “If you don’t tell me what I want to know—namely, who employed you and where I can find them—I’ll report you and have you extradited back to the States. From what I’ve read, the authorities in your home country got a little too close to you after your last job. That’s probably why you’re here, isn’t it? Waiting until the whole thing blew over.”
The way he could get to the heart of everything so quickly was enough to make me want to scream. There was no sense in fighting it anymore.
“Would you really do that?” I asked, looking him in the eye. No more games, no more attempts at pretending I didn’t know what he meant. “Would you really report me?”
“Hell yes,” he insisted, nodding. “I’d do whatever it took to make sure you couldn’t do this to anybody else, ever.”
I chewed my lip, wondering if I could believe him.
Finally, I blurted, “I don’t know who the client is, okay? I honestly don’t. I’ve never met them, and when we talk on the phone, they use some kind of device to alter their voice, so I’m not even sure if it’s a man or a woman. That’s all I can tell you, I swear. If I knew anything else, I would tell you right now. I wouldn’t have a choice, would I?”
Lucas’ face fell—had he still been hoping I wouldn’t know what he meant? I guessed it was one thing to know something in your heart but another to have it confirmed.
“Lucas, you have to believe me when I tell you I’m sorry.”
“I don’t have to believe a thing you say,” he spat.
“I mean it. I like you, Lucas. I think I really like you. And I hate working these jobs, but I needed the money. That’s the truth. It was only about the money for me. If I didn’t need it, I’d have walked away.”
I stared at him, forcing him to hold eye contact. I needed to make him understand.
“Will you help me find out who they are, then?”
“Yes! I’ll do whatever you want, I swear. Just please, don’t turn me in. There are people who depend on me back home. It would kill them—and that’s not just hyperbole. I mean it.”
I had no choice, did I? It was either agree to help him or face charges. I couldn’t imagine the shame my parents would feel if they found out what I’d done. The very thought made me shrivel up inside.
Lucas looked at me for a long time, like he was weighing his options. All I could do was wait for him to decide what to do with me.
Finally, he nodded, then stood. I heaved a heavy sigh of relief when he untie
d my wrists, my ankles. It took everything in me to keep from leaping up and running for the door. I couldn’t do that. I had to work with him. He held all the cards.
ELEVEN
“So, where should we start?”
I shrugged, wrapping my arms around myself. He’d given me something more comfortable to wear—an old pair of sweatpants and an oversized tee, both of which I practically swam in. But it was better than my work clothes. We’d been at Lucas’ house for hours and weren’t any closer to an answer than we were before. Maybe because he hadn’t spoken to me for over an hour after untying me. When he turned to me, sitting at the counter in his kitchen with sandwiches in front of us, I didn’t know what to say.
“I could call my contact in the States, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
“Why not?” he asked, picking up his sandwich and taking a huge bite. How he had an appetite was a mystery to me. I couldn’t imagine eating just then. I felt too sick, too unsure of myself. What was going to happen to me? Even if I worked with Lucas, the way he wanted, would he turn me in anyway? There was nothing stopping him from doing just that. I could only pray he had a sense of right and wrong.
“He’ll swear he doesn’t know anything. I don’t see how that could be true, though. I mean, people contact him. They must know him through somebody. They must have an introduction, something to get them into his sphere. He doesn’t exactly take out ads in the newspaper. He’s a fairly discreet man.”
“So you think he’s been holding out on you? Who is this guy, exactly?”
I shrugged again. “I don’t know much about Frank, and that’s by design. We kept our personal lives personal. I still don’t have a clue how he found out I went to Brazil—I certainly never told him I was going, and I didn’t give him my new number. But the next thing I knew, he was calling me. Out of nowhere. It was unnerving.”
“Sounds that way.” He tapped his fingers on the countertop. “I still think it’s worth a shot. You might be able to convince him to open up a little. Maybe let him know I’m onto him, too.”
“Are you?”
“Not any more than what you just told me,” he admitted, “but he doesn’t need to know that, does he?”
“True.”
“So tell him the heat is on, that you’re not sure what’s going to happen, or how you’re going to get out of it. Tell him you need information, or else you’re in deep—and him, too.”
“Okay. It’s worth a shot.” Better than nothing, anyway.
I dialed Frank up, looking at Lucas as the phone rang. How was it possible that I still wanted him after everything that had happened?
“Hello?”
“Frank?”
“Selena?” I heard fumbling in the background. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, slapping my forehead. We should have waited, but it didn’t seem possible when everything was bubbling just beneath the surface.
“I’m so sorry, Frank. Something big came up, and it’s really urgent. I couldn’t wait.”
“What is it?” he asked sternly, his voice thick with sleep.
“I need to know who the client is on this job. It’s a matter of life and death, Frank.”
“You know that’s not possible,” he mumbled.
“It’s got to be possible, Frank! The person I’m in charge of taking down knows about me, damn it! And he knows about you, too.”
“Baloney.”
“It’s not baloney, Frank. If I don’t find out who the client is, he’s threatening to have me extradited. And then what? Then I tell the cops about you. I’ll take a plea deal. Don’t think they won’t find you.”
“I know you’re not threatening me right now, Selena. I’m the tip of the iceberg, babe. You out me, you out a lot of other very dangerous people. Understood?”
My blood chilled at the thought. Just what had I gotten myself involved with all those years ago? Who did I work for, really?
“You can’t tell me there isn’t a clue you can give me, Frank. You can’t leave me hanging like this.”
“And what if I tell you, honey? What then?”
“Don’t call me honey,” I spat, incensed.
“Sorry, babe,” he snorted. “I don’t know any more than you do.”
“Well who put you in contact, then? I mean, how the hell does this work that you don’t know who you got me hooked up with?”
“Hang on,” he said, and his voice sounded clearer. “First, you don’t call me in the middle of the night and start screaming at me. I don’t appreciate it. Second, I didn’t hook you up with anybody. I facilitated the call, and you made the decision. You didn’t have to say yes.”
“Oh, stop splitting hairs, Frank. It doesn’t become you.”
“And acting like a screaming harpy doesn’t become you, honey, but that’s what you’re doing right now.” He snickered. “Sorry, babe, but that’s business. I can’t give you any info because I don’t have any info.”
“You’re such a prick,” I muttered, tears springing to my eyes.
“Do you think I’m playing games with you?” he asked. “Believe me, okay? In any other case, I might be able to help you. But this one went above and beyond to make sure I didn’t have a way to trace them, okay? And that’s the God’s honest truth, I swear.” He yawned. “And now that you’ve woken me all the way, I say goodnight. Sorry I can’t help you, Selena. You were one of my best.”
With that, he hung up.
I sat there with the phone in my hand, stunned. “I was afraid of that,” I whispered, tears spilling over onto my cheeks.
I knuckled the tears away as quickly as they fell, not wanting Lucas to see me fall apart when all I wanted to do was cry and scream and ask the heavens just how I’d managed to get myself into such a sticky situation.
“Well, you tried,” Lucas said through clenched teeth.
“That’s not our only option, I’m sure.” I scrambled, my head spinning. “There has to be a way to get the client to reveal something the next time they call. I just spoke with them this morning, so they’ll probably contact me over the weekend.”
“Okay,” Lucas said. “But until then, what do we do? I mean, I’d feel a lot better if I had at least some idea who was behind it before they called. That way, we could trap them into telling us something about themselves that would confirm it. It wouldn’t just be speculation.”
“That’s a good point.”
Lucas’ words made my head fuzzy. I couldn’t see the entire picture the way he did. All I saw was the dire situation I was in. The situation which included possible jail time and destitution for my parents. Lucas would have to do the thinking for a while; there was no way could I hold a thought in my head when I was so busy worrying about my family.
He looked down at where I picked at my sandwich. “Not hungry?”
“Would you be?” I asked, miserable.
“I guess I wouldn’t.”
“Well, there you go.”
I pushed the plate away, cold with shame. How could Lucas even look at me when he knew I’d deceived him? When he knew why I’d gone to his house that very night? How could he stand having me in his presence? I felt lower than low.
Lucas yawned, holding a hand to his mouth to stifle it. “Jesus, I didn’t realize how late it was,” he murmured, looking at the clock on the front of the microwave. It was well past midnight.
How had so much time already passed? Hadn’t it only been minutes earlier when we stood in his office? On his balcony, enjoying the view? What an idiot I’d been then. I hadn’t realized that he’d lured me into it. I’d been too quick to think he wanted me.
“Yeah, I feel like a tool for calling Frank in the middle of the night.”
“Don’t,” Lucas said, his voice firm. “A late-night phone call is the least of what he deserves.”
I had to laugh, even if the laugh was weak. What I needed more than anything else was the escape of sleep. I needed to get away from all of it�
�the job, the humiliating hour I’d spent tied to Lucas’ bed, the cold metal stool at his kitchen counter. I wanted to forget any of it existed. I wanted to go somewhere I could be happy for just a little while.
I felt his eyes on me and struggled to keep from lashing out at him. He didn’t need to torture me. He didn’t need to demand I not leave his sight until the situation was resolved.
“I can’t take any chances,” he’d said, shaking his head.
“What about my things? I don’t have any clothes, toiletries, anything.”
He’d shrugged. “I can get you new things. It’s the least I can do to make sure you don’t get itchy feet and flee the country.”
