She still had no idea what this was about. Every time she’d tried to ask, the man with the gun had pressed it harder against her. Junior was wrong, of course. Tessa would figure out something was up very quickly, and she would call Michael. He wouldn’t scratch his head and wonder where she’d gone to.
Unless she’d convinced him she didn’t love him and never would. He might think she’d walked away from him. And then there had been whatever her kidnapper had sent.
“You sent a note to Michael, didn’t you?”
The man stayed beside her as the driver moved around, opening the door and getting a hand on her arm.
“Of course. The note is important,” her kidnapper explained simply, as though his job was normal. “What I love about these modern times is that I don’t have to match your handwriting. I can open your phone and send your lover a sad good-bye without too much trouble.”
So Michael might think she’d left. She was hauled out of the car. It was a shame she’d cleaned up the garage. The only thing in here was her own crappy car, the one she’d been forced to buy after Junior had kicked her out of her home and left her with nothing. It was a sedan she had to maneuver around. After she’d moved in, she’d cleaned out the whole place to make room for her car so she wouldn’t have to leave it in the driveway. Her tidiness worked against her now. There was room for both cars, and there weren’t any handy weapons she could use, and she couldn’t get the garage door open fast enough that she could get away. She would have to bide her time. “What exactly do you think you’re going to get out of this?”
“Satisfaction, bitch.” Junior walked ahead of her and tried the door. It opened easily because someone hadn’t locked it.
She knew she had. She locked every door and checked them all before she went to bed or left for the day. So it had to have been one of Michael’s men who forgot to lock it. Deke had been out here. She would be having a long talk with him about home security.
If she survived. She didn’t think she was here for a long talking to.
Please don’t let Michael accept whatever that damn text had said. Please let him get angry about me leaving. Let him find me.
Junior strode into her kitchen and turned when he reached the big island in the middle. “I get to watch you get what you’ve always deserved. I get to play a part. Do you know how much I’ve dreamed about this? Bill, I want half an hour with her.”
A chill went down her spine as “Bill” dragged her into the kitchen. “We talked about this.” He turned to his driver. “Go and wait in the car. We’ll need to move out fast when this is done.”
Vanessa didn’t like the sound of that. “What are you going to do?”
“We’re going to take care of you the way I should have in the beginning,” Junior said as the door closed behind the driver.
Vanessa’s brain whirled, trying to figure a way out of this. She couldn’t simply wait and hope Michael decided to hunt her down. The front door was her best bet. The back fence was pretty high, and she probably wouldn’t make it over before someone could shoot her. But the front door was another situation. It had a deadbolt. She would have to get that open and then get the lock open on the screen door. If she could make it to the front yard, someone would see her. There were tons of cameras in the neighborhood. Everyone was freaked about porch theft. All she had to do was make it to her neighbor’s porch and at least there would be a record of her murder.
“You’re going to remember what I told you,” Bill said. “We talked about this. I thought it was stupid as fuck for you to come here.”
“I’m the one who paid you. You work for me, and I want to watch,” Junior snarled back.
He wanted to watch what?
He wanted to watch her die.
“You’ve only paid me half, and if you screw this up, you’re going to be the one I deal with, not her,” Bill vowed. “If this is going to work, she’s got to be pristine. You damage her and the cops will have questions.”
They were going to do it. Junior was going to have her killed.
“Everyone will know it was you.” What was he thinking? “You recently tried to frame me. Do you honestly believe the police won’t ask questions if I turn up dead? It won’t matter if you don’t pull the trigger yourself. Only one person in the world wants me dead, and that’s you.”