King Maker (King Maker 3)

Matt sized him up and seemed to measure his response. “I love Bailey.” Matt stopped and let everyone absorb that statement. “Like a sister, though. I won’t lie and say I didn’t make a play for her when I finally took my head out of my ass. But she made it clear we are just friends and I respect that.”

He glared at Turner and me. “I hope whatever she decides, both of you will have the decency to respect her decision. Because when we find her, the last thing she needs is the two of you fighting over her.”

Then Matt cocked his head to the side, focusing again on Steven. “Don’t I know you?”

Steven looked away. “Nah, I have one of those faces.”

Matt didn’t seem convinced. “No.” He tapped his chin. “I’m sure I’ve seen you before.”

If I thought about it long enough, he did seem slightly familiar to me as well.

“I should get back to my wife. She’s really worried about Bailey and I need to update her,” he said and hustled off.

Suspicion burned bright in me, but Turner squashed that, bringing us back to the present. “Shouldn’t we be going?”

“Yeah,” Matt said as if part of his mind was still figuring out how he recognized Steven. “We’ll go now. When you figure out what car we’re looking for, we’ll hopefully have footage to view.” He looked at me. “You’ll stay here in case she turns up.”

I nodded and they left.

Just as I was about to call Griffin for a status update, my phone vibrated in my hand.

Three

Clawing my way to the surface of consciousness was slow. It felt as if I was reaching for a pinprick of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Through it all, I caught snatches of whispered words to my left. They were indistinct and indiscernible.

I felt the urge to move my head in that direction to give myself a better chance of making out what was being said. Something stopped me when I realized my arms were stretched out above my head. That was when I remembered.

I’d been outside trying to come to terms with my decision and deicide how I was going to explain myself when I heard a noise. I’d turned too late.

An arm clamped around me from behind before I could defend myself. A stab of pain lanced my skin and just as suddenly, darkness closed in on me like a shut door to the face.

A slow cloud had parted, leading me into consciousness where I held frozen, unsure what my next move should be. Knowing my situation was likely perilous, I did my best to fight the nausea that threatened to overtake me.

For once, I needed to be smart. If I was to survive, I needed to figure a way out. With as slight a movement as I could muster, I tested the bonds on my right arm. There was no give. I cracked my eyes open to a slit while trying to maintain slow and steady breathing.

My head was angled to the right and faint light filtering through heavy drapes filled my vision. I shifted to look below that where a beige air conditioning unit hummed softly.

Just to the left of that was a door. If I were to guess, I was in a motel of some sort. Where, I had no idea. I also didn’t know how long I’d been out.

Remaining calm was hard, but I did my best while listening to the continued murmurs from the other side of the room.

Too bad for me they were doing a good job of being quiet enough so that I couldn’t tell for sure if the voice or voices were female or male. There was no way to know without seeing.

Whoever trashed Lizzy’s apartment most likely was the culprit. The words die bitch written on my bedroom’s wall was certainly telling. Had the same person or persons set fire to Mary’s house or stolen from Kalen’s company? I would bet so.

Kalen. It all came back to him. The idea that I might never be able to explain myself hurt so deep I nearly cried.

The fact that I thought of Kalen and not Turner first caused me to lose control over the retching that had been threatening since I first woke up.

With nothing in my stomach, I gagged unproductively, fearing death and whatever else my unknown enemy had planned for me.

When I stopped dry heaving, silence filled the room. There was no need to pretend I wasn’t awake anymore. I turned my head and the movement caused metal to bite into the skin around my wrist.

Though I flinched, I caught sight of the stranger that held me captive. His face held a smile, but it wasn’t filled with amusement.

“She wakes.”

I couldn’t be sure he was speaking to me or to whomever he spoke with on the phone that was held to his ear.