by HELEN HARDT
How was I supposed to calm down when I’d been kidnapped? Taken? Abducted?
Was this the norm for my family now?
I needed something to focus on.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The rhythmic movement of the person carrying me.
Focus. Focus.
Then the orange warmth disappeared, and I was again left in darkness.
Gently—gently?—whoever carried me set me down on something soft.
“I’m so sorry about this,” said a voice—a familiar voice, though I couldn’t place it.
First the tape was removed from my mouth and I spit out the gag. All those screams that had been suppressed came out with a vengeance.
“Get away from me! Help me! Help me!”
“I’m not your enemy, Marjorie.”
He removed the blindfold.
A blurry image slowly began to clarify. My mind was fuzzy, but I knew this person. This man.
“Dominic?”
“Yeah. It’s me. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you.”
“Are you responsible for taking my mother? Where the hell is she, Dominic? You’ve taken a mentally ill woman against her will. You’ve taken me against my will!”
“Marjorie—”
“You transported me in the trunk of a car. I could have suffocated. Been killed by carbon monoxide!”
“You were in the back of a van, not a trunk. You were never in any dang—”
“The hell I wasn’t! You did something to me. Knocked me over the head with something. What gives you the right—”
“I took you to save you, damn it.” He stood and looked over his shoulder.
Another person entered the room, this one female.
“How is he?” Dominic asked.
“He’s all right. Dazed and confused.”
“So is she,” Dominic replied.
Was he talking about me? “I’m far from dazed and confused. You’d better tell me what the fuck is going on right now, damn it! Who’s that bitch? And who else is here with us?”
“Excuse me?” the woman said.
“Easy,” Dominic said. “She’s rightly upset.”
“No one calls me a bitch and gets away—”
“Easy,” he said again.
She quieted down, but she didn’t look happy.
“Marjorie,” he said. “This is my sister, Alessandra. My twin. She goes by Alex.”
“Do you think I care what she goes by? Now untie my hands and feet so I can get the hell out of here. If my brothers find out what you’ve done, they’ll fucking kill you.”
“Alex and I aren’t your enemies,” he said quietly. “But we know who is.”
Chapter Three
Bryce
Joe and I headed over to the gym. Marj’s new trainer, Dominic, was the only other person who might have seen her this morning.
“We need to talk to one of your trainers,” Joe said to the receptionist on duty, a new guy I didn’t recognize.
“Of course. Are you interested in booking a session?”
Joe lifted one eyebrow. “Do either of us look like we need training?”
The guy’s face turned pale. “Uh…”
Joe was going red. Usually I was the one to calm him down, but I was pretty nearly red myself. I wasn’t going to tame Joe’s hotheadedness today. No way.
“Dominic James,” I said through clenched teeth. “We need to talk to Dominic James.”
The receptionist eyed his computer screen. “We don’t keep a schedule of the trainers down here. I don’t even know if he’s working today.”
“Get us that information,” Joe said. “Now.”
“I don’t have—”
I walked past him. “Come on, Joe. I know where the trainers’ office is.”
“Wait. You can’t—”
“Watch us.” I headed past the reception and up the stairs to the main floor where the weights and machines were.
Joe followed me briskly until we reached the small office. It was empty.
“Fuck.”
“This is where you lost that card with the Spider’s info on it?” Joe said.
“Don’t remind me. I couldn’t find it when I came in the next day. It probably ended up in the trash.”
Before Joe could scold me further, a woman with short hair and buff as all get-out walked in. “Can I help you guys?”
“We’re looking for Dominic,” I said.
“He was in earlier, but he’s gone for the day, I think.” She eyed the computer screen. “Yeah. In fact, he’ll be gone the next couple days. He’s taking a few days off.”
“Great,” I said. “Who did he see this morning? Did he have a training session?”
“He did, but I can’t give out that information. Gym policy. Sorry.” She closed the scheduling window.
“We need his cell phone number,” Joe said. “It’s urgent.”
“I can’t—”
“Yeah. Gym policy,” I said. “We get it. But my girlfriend is a client of his, and now she’s missing. We think Dominic might have been the last person to see her.”
The woman sat down at the desk and regarded the computer once more, pulling up files. “Looks like I can help after all. His two clients early this morning were both men, so your sister wasn’t here.”
“I still want his information,” Joe said.
“I do too,” I agreed.
“I’m sorry. My hands are tied.” She clicked out of the screen once more.
Joe curled his hands into fists.
“Let’s go,” I said. “We’ve done all we can here.”
“Why is he taking a few days off?” Joe asked.
“I have no idea.”
“Who’s his supervisor here?” I asked.
“Actually, that’s me.”
“You just let people take time off whenever?”
She rolled her eyes. “I know who you are. You’re Jonah Steel, one of the Steel brothers. And you’re Bryce Simpson. We all know who you both are. We know about both your fathers.”
Joe’s face morphed into a scowl. I expected him to growl at any moment.
“I don’t owe you any explanation. Not after your father—”
This time I made two fists. “I am not my father.”
“Look,” she said. “I’m not trying to hit a nerve. But don’t come charging in here making demands just because of who you are.”
“We’re not,” Joe said through clenched teeth. “My sister is missing. We need to talk to Dominic.”
“Dominic is an independent contractor. He eats what he kills here.”
I cocked my head. “He eats what he kills? That’s an interesting way to put it.”
“For God’s sake. If he doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid. That’s all I meant. I didn’t ask why he needed the days off. It’s not my place. He’s not an employee.”
Joe finally seemed to calm down. “I understand your position, but please. We need to get in touch with him. We won’t say it came from you, okay?”
“I already told you he didn’t see a female client this morning.”
“Please,” Joe said again. “What would you do if your sister were missing?”
She sighed. “All right. But if I get in trouble for this—”
“If you get in trouble for this, you’ll be compensated,” Joe said.
She scribbled on the back of a business card and handed it to Joe. “This better not come back to haunt me.”
Neither of us responded.
We knew better than anyone that things you thought were dead and buried could always come back to haunt you.
“No answer,” Joe said. “And it says the voicemail account hasn’t been set up yet.”
I grabbed the card out of Joe’s hand. I had no reason to disbelieve him, but I had to hear it for myself. This was Marjorie. I had to be totally sure.
Sure enough. No voicemail account had been set up.
“What the fuck, Bryce?” Joe said.
“Just had to be sure.”
“And you thought I was lying?”
“No. Of course not. I just… Fuck. I don’t know.”
“I get it, man. I do. But we have to work together. We have to trust each other. The minute you and I begin to doubt each other, we’ll no longer be able to help Marj. Or my mom. Or Colin.”
I nodded. He was right, of course.
I thought about Henry, about my mom. I’d been texting her hourly to check in. No doubt she thought I’d gone crazy, but I had to make sure they were okay. I couldn’t worry about them on top of everything else.
Marjorie never left my mind. She consumed me, and a green sickness gnawed at me, forcing me to shut out the shivers that constantly threatened to erupt in me.
God, I loved her.
She saw past my emptiness, saw something in me that she could love.
I’d allowed myself to actually envision a future with her. The perfect mother for Henry and for the children she and I would have together.
Yes, I’d actually imagined more children, despite my horrific DNA.
Henry would love to have a brother or a sister, and Marjorie would be devoted to all her children, even the one she hadn’t borne herself.
I had to find her. I just had to.
I could not lose Marjorie Steel.
“Now what?” Joe said, pulling me out of my head.
“Wish I knew. Did you try Colin again?”
“Yeah. Still not answering.”
“Shit. And still no news from the Spider?”
“No. I called my friend from the club, the guy who set me up with the Spider. He hasn’t heard from him either.”
“Are they…friends?”
“I don’t know, honestly,” Joe said. “The whole thing is shady, to say the least. I mean, here’s a hacker who won’t deal directly with anyone, who doesn’t want anyone to see his face.”
“You said you trusted this guy.”
“I do.”
“Then let’s talk to him,” I said. “Maybe he can shed some light on what’s going on.”
“He won’t know who took my mother or Marjorie.”
“How do you know that? We need to check out all the possibilities.”
“He won’t see us,” Joe said.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because…he can’t risk being outed as a member of the BDSM club.”
I looked Joe straight in his eyes. “Just who is this guy, Joe?”
He looked away. “I can’t tell you that.”
Chills hit the back of my neck. Whoever this guy was, he was somebody important. Someone who might be able to help us.
“Then tell me this. How does he know a high-priced secret hacker?”
“Because,” Joe said, “he used to work for the FBI.”
Chapter Four
Marjorie
“Who? Where’s my mother? And why haven’t you untied me? This is illegal, you know. Kidnapping. Assault. Battery. False imprisonment. My brothers will see you both behind bars.”
Alex scoffed.
“Yeah, you, you dumb bitch.”
“Dom, if she calls me that one more time—”
“You’ll what?” I said. “Tie me up? Abduct me? Uh…I think you already did that.”
“I’ll crush your damned skull,” she said.
Alex looked like she meant business. She was olive-skinned and dark-haired like her brother. She was also just as muscular.
“Easy, Alex,” Dominic said.
“I don’t have to take shit from this spoiled rich girl, Dom. That wasn’t part of this deal.”
“What do you expect when you take someone? She’s pissed.”
“This is for her own good,” Alex spat back.
“Hello?” I said. “Still tied up here. I’d love to see how you’d act if someone kidnapped you and tied you up. I don’t remember anything until I woke up in the trunk of the car.”
“I told you. You were in the back of a van.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for that? It sucked. What did you do? Drug me? And who was in there with me?”
“I’ll untie you,” Dominic said, “if you’ll hear us out.”
“I’m not sure you’re the one who should be making deals,” I said.
“Oh?” Alex said. “Seems like you’re tied up and we aren’t. Of course we’re the ones who should be making deals.”
“My brothers—”
“Aren’t here,” she said.
“They will be.”
“They will be,” Dominic said. “We’re counting on it. And when they get here, I think they’ll agree that this is the safest place for you.”
“Was this all part of your plan?” I asked. “Train me for my company at lunch? Huh?”
“Marjorie, if I were interested in holding you captive, why would I train you? Make you stronger?”
Okay. A decent point. But I still wasn’t buying.
“So you fake credentials to be a trainer, and—”
“Okay, I didn’t go to UCLA. I don’t have any college degrees, but I am a good trainer, and I do coach baseball, though not right now. Those two things just aren’t my primary income source.”
“No, I’m sure you’ll make a lot more when you demand ransom from my brothers.”
“Oh my God,” Alex said. “Is this worth it? To put up with her shit? Let’s dump her back where we found her. Give her a little roofie to forget she ever saw us. Anything is better than this.”
“Alex, I’ll ask you again to put yourself in her shoes. We just took her against her will. She’s pissed, and she has every right to be.”
“Uh…still tied up here,” I said. “You two can bicker on your own time.”
“This is our time,” Dominic said, “and we’re being very well compensated for it.”
“By whom? Not my brothers. No way.”
“No, not by your brothers, but by someone who cares for you very much.”
The only person other than my brothers who cared for me very much was Bryce, but he didn’t have the money for this. Plus, he’d never order my abduction.
My mother? As far as she knew, I was a perpetual baby named Angela, and Talon and Joe were still little boys away at camp.
Colin? No. He cared for Jade and, by extension, me, but he didn’t have the kind of money to pull this off.
“Who? Who, other than my brothers, can afford you?”
“I’m not at liberty to say yet,” Dominic said.
“For God’s sake. Untie me!”
“I will. If you promise to hear us out.”
Before he could respond, another man entered the room.
“How’s he doing?” Alex asked.
“He’s scared, of course. Who wouldn’t be after what he’s been through? How’s she doing?”
“She’s not scared enough,” Alex said. “In fact, she’s a pain in the ass.”
“She is right here,” I said. “You can address me as a human being, despite the fact that I’m trussed up like a pig.”
Alex ignored my remark. “Maybe give him something to help him calm down. It might be a while before we get—”
“Drug him? Whoever he is?” I yelled. “Are you nuts?”
“Marjorie,” Dominic said, “we’re trying to help him. And you.”
“Who is he?” I asked, but I knew the answer before Dominic replied.
“Colin Morse,” he and I said in unison.
“I want to see him,” I said. “He’ll listen to me.”
“You’re not listening to us,” Dominic said.
“Actually,” the other guy interjected, “she may have a good point. If he sees a familiar face, he might calm down.”
“Finally, someone who is talking sense,” I said. “Now if you’ll untie me, I’ll be happy to talk to Colin.”
“You’ll make a run for it,” Alex said.
Damned right. She was no dummy. Not that it took the brightest bulb to figure out what I had in mind. But I
was also concerned about Colin. Having been through captivity and torture at Tom Simpson’s hands, he was most likely frightened beyond belief right now.
I was frightened myself, but though I didn’t trust Dominic—and I especially didn’t trust Alex—I no longer felt I was in any immediate danger. If they wanted to kill me, I’d be dead by now.
“I’ll untie your ankles,” Dominic said, “and we’ll take you to see him.”
I opened my mouth to complain but then shut it. I’d take what I could get. I could still run with my hands tied. Plus, I had to see Colin. Let him know I was here for him.
Dominic quickly unbound my ankles and pulled me into a stand. “Go with Dave.” He pointed to the other guy.
Dave was tall and thin and clearly not related to Dominic and Alex. He was fair and blond where they were tan and dark-haired.
“We’re not here to hurt you.” Dave guided me out of the room, touching my elbow.
I whipped my arm away. “Don’t you lay a hand on me.”
He nodded, and I followed him into another room. The lights had been dimmed.
“The brightness seemed to bother him,” Dave said.
Colin was lying on a couch in a fetal position, his legs and wrists bound as mine had been. Why would the brightness bother him? Then it struck me. He was reliving his captivity with Tom Simpson. He’d been kept in the dark, most likely bound as he was now. Tom probably turned on the lights when he… I didn’t want to think about what he’d done.
I approached him tentatively. “Colin.”
He whimpered. “No more. Please.”
“Colin, it’s me. Marj.”
“Please,” he said again. “Just let me go. My father will give you whatever you want.”
Yeah, he really was reliving his former captivity. Today’s Colin wouldn’t expect any help from Ted Morse.
“You’re not there anymore. You’re okay. No one is going to hurt you.”
In fact, Dave seemed to be concerned about Colin’s well-being.
“Please. I want my clothes back.”
“You’re dressed, Colin. No one took your clothes.”
“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “Why? Why me?”
I touched his face, but he jerked away.
“It’s me. Marj. Marjorie Steel.”
