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“You will not do anything more to harm Emilia until after we get the money, you hear me? We need her and I will not blow all my months of hard work because of your stupidity.”
She turned to me and her expression looked worried. “Oh, baby girl, don’t cry! Everything will be just fine.”
I hadn’t even realized tears were still streaming down my face until Janet mentioned it. I didn’t move when she moved out of my line of sight and returned with a tissue in one hand and the bottle of water she’d gotten for me to wash down the aspirin in the other.
“Here, let me clean you up a little.” She wiped my face and then uncapped the bottle, dabbing a corner of the tissue in it to wet it. I held still as she wiped the blood off my mouth.
“Would you like another drink?” She tipped the bottle up and I drank greedily, my throat parched. “Not too much at once or you’ll be sick.” I slowed down, but still managed to gulp half the bottle down.
Janet pulled the bottle away from my mouth and put the lid on it. “Just let me know when you want some more, okay? I need to make a phone call but I’ll be back soon.” She turned to Helena. “Where’s her phone?”
Helena pulled my cell phone out of her pocket and my heart leapt. Surely Jase knew I was missing by now, and if Connor could pick up on the signal they might be able to find me.
Rescue me.
I forced my expression to stay neutral, not wanting to tip them off that I was hopeful of getting out of here alive once more.
“Come with me while I make this call.”
Our mother’s command had Helena shaking her head. “I’ll stay here and watch her.”
Janet let out a tinkling laugh. “Why? Where do you think she’s going? She’s tied down securely and you know she can’t open the door from the inside without the key. There’s no way for her to get out, even if she did manage to slip out of the ropes. Now move!”
Helena glared at me and begrudgingly followed our mother through the door on the wall opposite the kitchen, which I assumed was an office of some sort. Made sense if the door at the end of the kitchen led to a bathroom.
While they were gone, I studied my surroundings carefully. If what Janet had said about needing the key to get out of the door we’d come in was true, then I’d have to find another way out. There was a large red button which sat on a switch to the right of the roll-up door, but it also appeared to need a key to operate.
Shit.
I breathed in and out slowly, trying to place the smell. The cement floor had various stains of different colors and sizes on it, and combined with the smell of what might have been oil, I deduced that this could have once held cars here. A garage, maybe? Whatever it had been was long gone.
The door opened and Janet strode out, Helena hot on her heels. She came over to me and placed her hand over my phone. “He wants to talk to you. Do not tell him anything about where we are or I’ll slit your throat right now, do you understand me?”
I nodded demurely and she held the phone up to my ear. “Jase.” My voice was croaky.
“Emilia, thank God. Are you okay, sweetheart? Please tell me they haven’t hurt you.”
Hearing his voice broke something inside me, and I wanted to sob my heart out. I wouldn’t be okay until I was safely in his arms. “I’m okay.” I didn’t like lying to the man I loved more than life, but telling him the truth would only torture him further and I knew he had to be going crazy right now.
“You hold on, baby. I’m coming for you. Do whatever they say.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Em—”
I didn’t get to hear the rest of what he said, because Janet pulled the phone away from me. “Jase!” I couldn’t help crying out his name as I began to struggle against my bindings again.
“Stop it!” Janet hissed. She walked away from me but didn’t leave the main warehouse. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the satisfied smile on her face when she’d ended the call and came back over to where I was told me he’d agreed to her demands.
She held my phone up in front of me. “Smile for the camera!” Before I could register what she meant, the flash went off.
I hoped she was texting the photograph to Jase, and that there would be something in it that might help him find me.
“There. Your precious Jason has the photo he demanded. Now, we can’t make it easy for your head of security to track us, can we?” Before I could register what was happening, Janet had thrown my phone on the ground and had stomped on it with the heel of her shoe repeatedly, smashing it to pieces.
My heart plummeted in my chest as nausea sloshed in my belly. Fuck. My hopes of being traced were now dashed and I had no idea how Jase was ever going to find me.
My chin wobbled, but I refused to shed any more tears in front of these bitches. He’d find a way.
I knew he would.
