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I ignore her comment and unnecessary cussing. “This way.” I take my cellphone and we saunter off to the side of the house where a wide path leads to the gated front. As soon as we’re out of sight, I huff a slow sigh of relief, but it doesn’t ease the tension in my shoulders or stomach.
In fact, I tense up more when I see two black SUVs with tinted windows parked in our driveway.
My gut tells me to get into the car with Vee and bail the hell out of here. My common sense tells me that the only way these cars could have entered the property was if Dad let them in. Which means it’s all fine.
“I’ll catch you later this week?”
“Yeah, sure,” I say, but I’m too distracted to think ahead. I see her off and make my way to the front door. If I can make it to my room and dodge that jerk and his entourage, my escape will be complete.
4
TASHA
I take the few stairs to our front door and open it with the security code, clutching my towel to my chest as it slips loose from my breasts. I walk into the foyer, expecting it to be empty.
Instead, Dad is there, surrounded by two of the suited men I saw on the veranda. They are both physically big, but one is bald and his head shines in the chandelier’s light. The other one is holding a small case in his hand, flicking the lid open and closed.
And then there’s him. The man who stripped me with his eyes alone. He is standing to the side, a mere spectator to whatever is unfolding here.
“Dad?”
“Natasha.” He clears his throat.
“What’s going on?” Another man is coming down one side of the dual staircase, my rose gold laptop and tablet in hand. I take a step back, only to feel the half-open door cutting into my back.
“I messed up.”
My gaze jumps from one man to the next. I freeze when I spot the guns, one pressing into my dad’s side, the other aimed at me, hardly visible in the way the goon is holding it. My heart hammers in my throat as chills of pure fear spread over my skin.
“How… what?”
“If you want—” Dad breaks off. Tears are flowing down his cheeks. “If you want us to live, you need to go with these men.”
If you want to live you need to run. But I don’t. Not when the man with the gun pressed against Dad’s side prods at him so hard that he stumbles. I reach out to curb his fall, but a hand shoots out and jerks me back. My phone drops to the rug with a soft plop as my towel loses grip and slides off.
“Not so fast, luv.” The guy with the bald head has his hands wrapped around my biceps and squeezes. “Be a good girl and make this easy.”
“No!” I heave forward, trying to reach Dad where he’s managed to get on his knees, but I don’t even move an inch.
“It’s the right thing to do, Tash,” Dad whimpers. “He has promised to bring you back… once… once I’ve paid up.”
On instinct my eyes shoot to the man who still stands to the side, clearly the one in charge although he hasn’t said a thing.
“Do you have any other electronics beside your laptop, iPad and phone?” shiny bald head asks, his voice a gruff scrape by my ear. He is such a huge guy, our bodies don’t even touch, his grip so firm I can’t move.
“No?” I’m begging now, my tone giving me away.
“Good. Let’s go.” They’re the first words I hear the man in the suit speak, his voice deep and masculine, but he isn’t even looking at me. He’s looking at the other guy who has the small case in his hand and gives him a nod.
When I see the syringe I buckle, but I’m like a twig in the bald guy’s arms as he pulls me into a straitjacket pose.
“Just one prick, luv, and it will all be good.”
Dad is weeping and it’s like nails scraping against the inside of my skull. I always do the right thing. I always put him first. I’ve always done what he expects of me to keep us safe, to be what he needs me to be for his political career. What has he done? Surely this isn’t something that will keep us safe.
A cold wipe of alcohol and before its scent can even reach my nose, I feel the prick of the needle in the soft flesh of my hip. My mind thinks heroin, or meth, but then a list of anesthetic agents flashes through my mind. I slip, but I don’t fall.
Instead, there’s a warm cradle of arms that catch me as Baldy lets go, and everything turns black.
