Page 13 of He Had It Coming

Before I could yell for help or issue a warning, the steps got louder. I heard it.

“Jerek?”

That voice. I knew that voice. “Maeve?”

Chapter Fourteen

Sabrina no longer sat on the steps. She bolted to the side. Stood just inside the bedroom door, facing me. Hid from the rest of the boat like the coward she was.

The events ticked by so fast, flipping on fast-forward before I could shout a warning. Maeve stepped into view, wearing that purple pantsuit she loved or at least it seemed like she did because she picked it often. It fit her serious, trying-too-hard-to-impress personality. Expensive but not flashy. Some quiet luxury brand that a random stylist somewhere likely told her to buy. It’s not as if Maeve had a mind of her own or a lick of dressing sense.

My mind still scrambled and in my disoriented state that’s where my thinking went. To the easiest piece to dissect. To the understandable in the middle of the unimaginable. It took a few more seconds for reality to hit. Maeve offered a lifeline. An unexpected savoir . . . and she needed to stop before she walked into a trap.

“No!” I couldn’t hold up my hand or wave her off. I needed the crack of my voice to telegraph how close she stood to danger. “Scream. Go get help.”

Instead, Maeve hovered on the second step, not coming fully into the bedroom. Not running off as ordered. “What are you doing in here?”

In her rush to show disapproval she missed the obvious, like the chair and rope. My injuries. The completely abnormal circumstances. “What is wrong with you? Go!”

“Actually, Maeve.” Sabrina slipped back into view. She didn’t make a sound as she pressed the tip of the knife against Maeve’s throat. “I’m going to have to insist you stay.”

Maeve visibly swallowed. “I don’t—”

“No, no.” Sabrina’s voice sounded light, almost amused by the events unfolding around her. “That wasn’t a question. You’re staying.” Sabrina motioned toward the open chair. “Take a seat next to your brother.”

Maeve’s eyes stayed glassy. Confusion showed on every line of her face and in her slumped posture. “Half brother.”

“Really?” Only Maeve. The stupid cow couldn’t even get a rescue right. Now they were both stuck and she was focusing on bloodline details. “Are you kidding right now?”

Maeve shook her head as her eyes snapped into focus. “We had a meeting.”

“Yeah, he’s going to miss that. So are you.” Sabrina shoved Maeve in the direction of the chair. “Sit.”

Maeve listened this time. Her gaze wandered over the cuts on my arm and to my tied hands.

“Are you getting it now?” I asked.

“Not really.”

“You remember Sabrina Forde.” The woman I vowed to use every resource, every last Hayes dollar, to destroy. “Also known as Anonymous.”

Sabrina shrugged. “You’re half right.”

“You were supposed to be at the building project a half hour ago. The hotel rehab. Why are you on a boat?” Maeve looked around the room. All of her attention stayed on me and the surroundings and none of it moved to Sabrina.

“Is now the time for a work ethics lecture?” The elephant in the room couldn’t be bigger or more vindictive. I pointedly glared at Sabrina who had retaken her position, sitting on the steps across from us, before looking at Maeve again. “How did you even get here?”

Ignoring my question, Maeve kept going, shooting right past the point as always. “If you were where you were supposed to be none of this would have happened. We’d both be at a conference room table. Instead, I got knocked out.”

I didn’t care about most of her meandering lecture. “Please tell me somewhere in the middle of all that you called the police.”

“I came down here. Looking for you. Trying to figure out what you’d done this time.”

Maeve didn’t know how or when to stop. I’d tried for years to ignore her disproportionate disdain and let the way she diminished me inspire my triumphant comeback. Every calculated move I made was to show her and Dad and Dad’s cronies that the crown should have been mine from the start. That the big office and fancy title belonged to me and that handing them to Maeve amounted to a catastrophic mistake.

Maeve and her failed quest for perfection.

Maeve and her demands.