Victoria
My nerves were on fire. “Forever,” I said, my voice trembling with agitation. I took a calming breath. “Forever is a really long time.”
“Yeah. So?” Trenton grimaced. “You never wanted me with Sage in the first place, let alone forever.”
I cocked my head to the side and glanced at my tied wrists before looking at him again.
He flushed. “I…”
“Forever shouldn’t start out this way,” I said quietly. “Let me go and—”
“No.” He shook his head. “I want to, but I can’t.”
“Please.” Sage threw her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest. “Just let my mom go. I’ll stay. I swear. I said forever, and I mean it.”
“Your finger didn’t slip. You wanted to call Grant. You wanna leave.” He shook his head. “Grant will come, all right. He’ll bring the money, and then you can go.”
Her gaze locked with mine. “You’ll allow my mom to come to the wedding, won’t you?” she asked.
Trenton flushed. “I don’t think—”
“She’s my mom!” Her eyes brightened. She was really starting to get into this acting thing. Sage clapped her hands. “I know! Let’s get married now!”
What in the world? But you needed a wedding license. They didn’t have one, right? Please tell me they didn’t have one.
Trenton shook his head. “We can’t—”
“Sure, we can! I have a nice white dress back at the apartment. I can go and grab it. Take a long shower. My mom can do my hair. I’m sure we can find a worker at the courthouse to be our second witness.”
“You’re not leaving,” he growled.
“Right. It’ll save time if you go and get it while I shower.” Sage giggled. “There’s no reason to wait.”
“You just want me to leave so you two can try to escape. I’m not stupid, Sage.” He gently pushed her away.
“Can you blame me?” She crossed her arms, and her eyes flashed. “Yes, I was crying. Yes, I was scared. You were scared, too. You’re still scared. That’s why we’re still here! The money won’t change anything. Us…” She grabbed his hands. “We’re all that matters. Not Mom. Not Grant. Not any of them. Let’s just go—”
“Damn it, Sage. You know we can’t.”
“We can! We—”
I cleared my throat. I’d heard enough. “I can write you a check for one hundred thousand. That enough for you to start over somewhere?”
Trenton gripped Sage to his side. “We’d be followed, and we’d be killed. We gotta pay them off.”
“We,” I repeated. “They know about Sage?”
I wasn’t quite sure who the they were, and I had a feeling I didn’t want to know.
“Don’t worry about it. Just stop talking about money. Stop talking about leaving. We’re staying put, and that’s final.” He released Sage and walked over to me, squeezing my chin so hard it hurt. “I would stop putting ideas into your daughter’s head if I were you.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” He released his hold on me so fast my head jerked to the side.
“Trenton,” Sage started.
“Don’t Trenton me. This will all work out. I swear it will. Just let me do what I gotta do, all right? Then we won’t have to worry about a thing. We won’t be followed, and we can get married, and we can be free to do whatever we want.”
I swallowed hard. He wasn’t getting Sage. He wasn’t going to get his way. He was desperate enough to kidnapping and ransom. What would he be capable of once he realized Sage was playing him?
“Let’s watch some—” His cell rang, cutting him off. Trenton mumbled a curse and left the room, banging he door shut behind him.
“Go to the window,” I instructed. “See if he’s out front or if you can make a break for it.”
Sage shook her head. “Don’t you think I would’ve left earlier if I could’ve? This place is a dump. It’s so old that it doesn’t have electronic keycard access. He locks the door from the outside. He switched the lock around when we got here.”
What a psycho.
“Well, not right when we got here. Once he couldn’t handle my…” Sage sniffed. “My crying. Oh God, Mom, I’m so sorry. I should’ve…I should’ve listened to you. I should’ve realized…I just thought he loved me, and I loved him and…”
“It’s all right,” I murmured. “It’s all right.”
It took me some time to console her. Once she finally stopped crying, I could hear footsteps outside and a mumbled voice. Trenton wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He was right outside.
“You don’t have your cell on you, right?” I asked.
She shook her head. “He took it away once he realized I made contact with you. I thought he hadn’t realized I took it, but he knew. He knows. Mom, what are we gonna do?”
Good question. Not that I had an answer for her.
I glanced around the room, desperate for anything that my help, and my gaze fell onto the room phone. “Does that work?”
“Nope.”
“Of course not,” I mumbled. “Did he rig it?”
“I think so.”
We were locked in without a phone. No way to call for help. No way to warn Grant that Trenton was desperate, so desperate that he couldn’t be trusted. No way to let Grant know Trenton had a gun. No way for me to get free. No way to talk our way out of this mess.
What were we gonna do? And would we survive whatever was to come next?
Grant, if you’re coming, be safe. Be smart. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Don’t you dare play the fucking hero and come here by yourself. We have to play our cards right. We have to be smart. We can’t become like Trenton. We can’t be desperate.
I cleared my throat. “We’ve gotta have a plan…”