Sleight Mistake (Stone Investigations Book 2)

by Scarlett Finn

  Her chest sank when she exhaled a puff of breath. ‘No. I love Ryder. Everyone knows that I do… I just… I need you to trust me.’

  ‘Trust you?’ Sorcha asked. ‘Trust you can have, but support? I don’t accept this. I don’t accept that you would flout your relationship with the man who has turned the world upside down to look for you… I can’t support it.’

  Sorcha’s morals were picking an odd time to assert themselves. But this wasn’t about her being righteous, this was Sorcha’s way of telling Lacie that she knew something was wrong and she was right. Lacie just couldn’t tell her that.

  ‘Thank you for coming,’ Lacie said. ‘I want to be alone for a while.’

  ‘You can be alone for as long as you like,’ Sorcha said, striding across the room with her nose in the air. ‘Just don’t be surprised if trust isn’t easy to earn back.’

  ‘Kiss Lulu for me,’ Lacie said, catching the door as Sorcha threw it open.

  Sorcha hooked her purse higher on her arm. ‘When you get your head out your ass, you can kiss her yourself.’

  Judgement coming from Sorcha might seem rich, except Lacie couldn’t blame her friend for her attitude. If Lacie could this easily turn her back on her lover then Sorcha had to be wondering if she would do the same if her best friend was in peril.

  Lacie stepped into the corridor to watch Sorcha flounce to the elevator and disappear inside. No one else was around, so she went back into her room. As soon as the door closed, she turned off the light and slid down the door to hold her head in her hands.

  Being separated from Ryder was hard enough, now the kidnapper had her isolating herself from her friends as well. This could be what the kidnapper wanted, to break her, and if it was, she started to believe that he might succeed.

  A buzzing sound made her lift her head. It was coming from within the room and it grew in volume. Crawling toward the noise, she tried to figure its origin and found herself pressing her ear to one of the drawers beneath the TV. It was definitely coming from in there so she yanked it open and was dismayed to find a cell-phone inside.

  The number was unknown, but she picked it up knowing that it could only be one person.

  ‘You are good at this, very obedient,’ the voice said.

  ‘What is the point of all of this?’ Lacie asked, collapsing back to sit on the floor with her spine flush on the bed. ‘Are you getting some sick kick out of alienating me from my friends?’

  ‘Once again I tell you, not everything is about Lacie Hart. I don’t give a damn about you.’

  ‘Then why are you trying to hurt me?’

  ‘I would think it was obvious that the person we’re trying to hurt here is your lover not your heart.’

  Then they were getting two for the price of one because hurting her lover meant hurting her heart. ‘You know what? You can go to hell,’ Lacie snapped. ‘I have spent all day fretting and arguing with the people I care about most. My friends think I’ve gone off my rocker and they’re not far from right.’

  ‘Cursing at the person who has your prize, do you think that’s wise?’

  ‘You tell me that you have him, why should I believe you?’ she asked. ‘How do I know he’s still alive? Maybe this is just some sick game.’

  ‘Killing Ryder would relieve me of my leverage. No, keeping him alive is your goal and to do it, you have to do exactly what I say.’

  ‘No,’ Lacie said, tipping up her chin in unison with her rising determination. ‘I won’t do another thing, not one thing, not until you let me talk to him.’

  ‘Talk to him? Why would I do that?’

  ‘Because if you don’t, I’ll assume that he’s dead. I’ll go to the police and I’ll tell them everything I know.’

  ‘That would result in his death.’

  ‘He might already be dead,’ Lacie said, grabbing the entertainment unit to haul herself onto her feet. ‘I want to talk to him, now. If he’s alive, then I don’t see why that would be a problem… unless you don’t have him at all.’

  ‘We have him!’

  Pushing the patience of this tormentor had paid off already. “We” suggested that there was more than one person involved, that or the kidnapper had a split personality. ‘Then let me talk to him,’ Lacie said.

  The line went dead and Lacie took the phone from her ear to look at it in case they’d lost signal. They hadn’t. Fixating on the reflection of herself in the wall-mounted mirror through the shadows of night she’d let encroach on her room. She could hear the deafening silence punctuated by her short, sharp pants. Had she made an error? Had the kidnapper understood his misstep? Now that she’d annoyed him, he could be taking out that annoyance on Ryder.

  Clutching the phone to her chest, she prayed that Ryder was safe, and prayed that the kidnapper would call back. Seconds, which felt like hours, passed and her breathing got faster. Though she’d been begging for it, she was startled when the handset burst into life and began to ring again.

  Answering the call, her hand shook as she brought it up to her ear. ‘Hello?’ she asked.

  ‘Dusty?’

  ‘Ah,’ she croaked and collapsed onto the floor again. ‘Baby, oh my god, Ryder. Are you ok? I love you.’

  ‘I love you too and I’m fine,’ he said, speaking as if there was some urgency at his end. ‘Listen to me, you go to Gabe, ok? You go to him and you tell him to forget it. Tell him I’m gone. Tell him I’m dead.’

  ‘Why would I—‘

  ‘Just do it, baby,’ he said. ‘I love you. I’ll always love you.’

  ‘Why are you—‘

  ‘Don’t do another thing that he tells you too, ok? He’s going to kill me anyway, you have to know that.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, I’m not going to let that happen. We’re going to get through this. I need you to fight. Believe in me like I believed in you. I knew you would figure Wallace out and I’m going to figure this out for you.’

  ‘No, Lacie’s it’s—‘

  ‘Time’s up,’ the kidnapper’s voice came onto the line and Lacie heard a scuffle in the background. There was some swearing, but Ryder’s voice was quickly muffled and then there was nothing but the usual silence behind the voice that tormented her.

  ‘If you hurt him—’

  ‘What?’ the kidnapper sneered. ‘You’re not capable of hurting me. You don’t even know who I am. Don’t know where Ryder is, what’s motivating me, or who I have on the inside listening to every word you say.’

  Her attention drifted up and she began to glance around the room. If he had been in here to plant the phone then it was possible he’d planted cameras or listening equipment too. Lacie wished she could speak to Toby. He would be able to tell her how to seek out bugs. He’d be able to tap into the hotel security system and check cameras that could reveal the kidnapper’s identity.

  Discovering her own conniving streak, she began to think of how she could get Toby to do what she needed him too without betraying her motivation for being here.

  ‘What’s your next instruction?’ Lacie asked.

  ‘Plan to ignore your love’s suggestion to return to your former residence?’

  ‘I plan to do whatever is necessary to protect Ryder.’

  ‘Good,’ the kidnapper said and the thread of pleasure in his tone made her scowl.

  ‘Your hotel stay was temporary. A stepping stone to take us to the next stage.’

  ‘Which is what?’ she asked, sitting on the bed.

  ‘A good friend of yours is out of town at the moment. He’ll be back tomorrow around lunchtime. I want you to call him and invite him to dinner tomorrow night.’

  ‘Dinner?’ Lacie asked, trying to fathom where all of this was leading.

  ‘Yes, dinner,’ the kidnapper said.

  ‘Who?’ she asked. Lacie didn’t know which one of her friends was in town or out. She hadn’t been paying attention to much since the kidnapping event, which she knew now was exactly what this guy had wanted.

  ‘Mr. Elijah Graden
of course,’ the kidnapper drawled with a heightened enjoyment in his voice.

  ‘What has Elijah got to do with this?’ she asked. As far as she knew, Elijah didn’t know that any of this was going on. Unless he was related and somehow was using this situation to his advantage. ‘Is he a part of your scheme?’

  ‘No, Elijah has been out of town for the last couple of days. I’m sure he’ll be very surprised to receive your call. But he’ll be even more surprised about your request.’

  ‘What request?’

  ‘In this time of need, I wouldn’t want you to think that it was my goal to isolate you,’ he said, but the kindness was contrived and he made no secret of that. ‘You’re going to ask if you can stay with him.’

  ‘What? Because you think that me being there will upset Ryder? Ryder knows that I would never—‘

  ‘Never what?’ he snapped. ‘You will do what you are told and you’ll have no say in that.’

  Could this person be considering using their current positions to coerce her into Elijah’s heart, into his bed? That was something she could never imagine. She couldn’t imagine any man except Ryder touching her. But she wouldn’t protest, wouldn’t put the idea in this man’s head. All she could do was hope it wouldn’t come to that.

  Chapter Twenty

  ‘I was very surprised to receive your call,’ Elijah said over dinner the following night.

  Lacie had asked him to meet her at the hotel because it was the least amount of effort and she didn’t want there to be any confusion that this was a fancy date or anything of that sort. They had gotten through the awkward first drink and the starter. The entrée in front of her didn’t appear to be appetising, but food had lost its taste the minute she heard Ryder was AWOL.

  ‘I just needed a friend,’ she said, using the kidnapper’s line because she was too tired to come up with her own. ‘I’ve been… struggling for a few days.’

  She had told Elijah about Ryder’s disappearance already, though as she said the words she felt like he already knew. That made her suspicious about his involvement. But this kidnapper wanted to play with her mind. This could all be a con. A ruse cooked up to make her crazy with paranoia. Even if Elijah did know about Ryder, it was likely he’d been told by a colleague or friend who may have used Ryder’s services in the past. That he was missing was no longer a secret. Even the police were investigating and she knew that because Deacon called her only to be surprised to hear that Lacie wasn’t a part of the S.I.S. investigation.

  ‘I was having my own men investigate your assault,’ Elijah said. ‘I had no idea that Ryder was at risk.’

  ‘None of us did,’ Lacie said, fumbling with her napkin in her lap.

  ‘I don’t see security here for you.’

  When they’d gone to lunch together on Lulu’s birthday, her security was visible. Today, she was alone. ‘They have to focus their efforts on finding Ryder.’

  ‘And you are not taking part in those investigations?’

  ‘I needed to get away, get some space, you know? I had to get out of that house, but was just filled with Ryder.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘Given your own history, this abduction must be bringing back painful memories.’

  ‘Yes,’ she said.

  The experience wasn’t bringing back memories of her abduction as it was bringing back memories of betrayal. When she discovered that Ryder’s best friend, Jamie, was behind her abduction, her heart had broken for her love. Every time Jamie came to talk to her, she wanted to spit at the man who would spit on her love.

  Lacie was betraying those around her because this lunatic wanted her to. Lying to her friends was difficult. But it was harder to look at the faces of the men and women you had trusted with your life and not know which of them were in league with the person causing this torture.

  They kept eating. Lacie was psyching herself up. This particular task was distasteful, she didn’t want to use Elijah. If he was not involved then leading him on could hurt him. She also dreaded the idea that the next task could lead on from moving in with Elijah and she couldn’t see any avenue other than an intimate one that they could take.

  Elijah sipped his wine. ‘This is a very nice hotel.’

  ‘It is,’ she said. ‘But…’ She didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to be social with a man who could be overbearing, not when her heart and body still belonged to Ryder. ‘I wanted to ask if I could stay with you.’ The sentence came out in one long rush of breath and she forced herself to make eye contact as she said it.

  Elijah lowered his glass to the table then reached over to take her hand. ‘Of course you can, Lacie. I’m so pleased that you would ask. That you would choose to come to me for help. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Lacie. I want to help you.’

  His smile wasn’t pitying, but it wasn’t really genuine either. Lacie was asking a favour of someone who was likely to read too much into what was going on. The kidnapper would call her again tonight and she would demand more answers because as far as she could see, this sequence of events had no purpose other than to humiliate and damage her and Ryder.

  Except the kidnapper didn’t call. Lacie went home with Elijah, who settled her into a guest bedroom. All night, she lay on her side staring at the cell-phone she had brought from the hotel and it didn’t ring once. At some point, she drifted off to sleep and she was awoken by staff bringing her breakfast in bed.

  Elijah was at the office. But his staff had been briefed to provide her with every luxury possible. In his vast mansion, he had the facilities to entertain and pamper her. Lacie tried to keep up the façade of gratitude, but she really just wanted to scream at these people to leave her alone so that she could brood and worry in peace.

  A second day passed with no contact and a third. Elijah treated her to lavish dinners and took her out to the opera. None of it meant anything to her, yet he was trying so hard to win her favour. If he saw this as an opportunity to steal her heart from Ryder then he was going to be disappointed. She wanted to believe that he couldn’t be that cold-hearted and callous, but he had tried to tempt her away from Ryder on the day Lulu was born, so it was no secret that he believed himself more worthy of her.

  Her nerves were fraying with every second of radio silence, she kept the cell-phone on her person at all times now, never sure when it could ring. She believed that it may never ring again. Maybe this was what the kidnapper wanted, to set her up here until she gave into Elijah’s charms. Maybe something had happened with Ryder, if there had been a fight maybe someone was hurt or worse.

  If the kidnapper had no leverage left, he could have tucked tail and run. In which case, Lacie didn’t need to be here anymore. Except how could she know? How long should she give it before she gave up hope of hearing this phone ring?

  In the bedroom, she sat on the bed to pull on her pantyhose, then she slipped into the dress Elijah had bought her for dinner that night. She still hadn’t been back to S.I.S. for the rest of her things. The men there hadn’t kicked her out, but they hadn’t sought her out either.

  Before she could put on her shoes, the bedroom door burst open and she leapt to her feet, believing Elijah was the only one as bold as to storm in. Except it was Sorcha who threw the door shut behind her with such a bang that it made Lacie jump.

  ‘Elijah Graden?’ Sorcha said, thrusting her hands to her hips. ‘You’re living with Elijah Graden?’

  ‘I’m surprised it took this long for you to find out. I’ve been here for three days.’

  ‘I heard about it on day one, but I assumed you would come to your senses. I made excuses for you with Gabe. I told him that you would have a reason. Three days later, you’re still here… do you want to tell me your reason?’

  ‘What are you doing with Gabe?’ Lacie asked, taking a step in Sorcha’s direction.

  ‘What am I doing there? The question is, what are you doing not there? I can’t believe you, Lacie. I really can’t figure you out. I am supposed to be the flake. I am suppos
ed to be the one who needs to have a man in her life in order to receive validation… Are you sleeping with him?’

  ‘No!’ Lacie exclaimed. ‘Of course not! This is a guest room. I have my own private bedroom… Do the guys think I’m sleeping with him?’

  ‘Probably,’ Sorcha said. ‘They don’t say it in front of me, they daren’t upset me when I’m still hormonal.’

  ‘Where is Lulu?’ she asked, looking around as though the baby would magically appear.

  ‘She’s in the car. We’re not staying,’ Sorcha said. ‘Some of us have work to do.’

  ‘You can’t leave a baby alone in a car,’ Lacie said, hurrying toward the door.

  ‘It’s a private driveway and it’s night outside,’ Sorcha said, which made Lacie stop. ‘Besides, I didn’t say she was alone.’

  ‘You’re still with Bruce?’ Lacie asked, peering at her friend. ‘How can you—‘

  ‘How can you? Do you not love Ryder anymore? Do you know something about this that the rest of us don’t? I just can’t figure out why you would run away like this. Ryder needs you.’

  ‘I know,’ Lacie said, clamping her back teeth together. ‘I know he needs me.’

  ‘So what are you doing here? Lounging around in some pretty boy’s mansion being waited on by the staff. This isn’t you. This has never been you! You used to argue when we were at my parents’ house that you had to help in the kitchen even though we had a four person dedicated staff. I never knew why you felt the need, but you would still go in and peel or stir, or do whatever the chef told you.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Then what the hell are you doing here?’ Sorcha asked, throwing up her hands then grabbing Lacie to shake her. ‘Enough, Lacie, you can’t run from this anymore. We need you. Ryder needs you. Why are you trying so hard to make us believe that you don’t care?’

  ‘I do care,’ Lacie insisted, but the tears were already blurring her vision. ‘I do care. I care more than you know. More than any of you realise.’