CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‡
The murmur of voices and a shrilling ring were what brought Camryn out of a sound sleep. She struggled to open her eyes to see who was talking to her, but she couldn’t summon the energy to lift her lashes. The black void had almost drawn her back under its warmth when her inability to draw breath jolted her back to the present.
The realization that her mouth was covered with duct tape was the same as cold water being thrown on her, but for once she didn’t panic and react without thinking.
“…don’t know how to handle yourself in this industry. You were offered a gift, only to throw it back in their faces instead of being considerate to those fans who rose you to stardom. You don’t seem to understand that there are people like me who would have taken such a reward and cherished it forever. You…”
Oh, my God.
It was Noel Cassi who was speaking a mere few feet away.
Flashing memories much like a strobe light began to materialize. Camryn had been pumping gas while Dylan had run inside to get them food. She’d been worried when she couldn’t locate the protective detail assigned to be following her, and…wait. There was something else.
The gold present that Dylan had brought, only it hadn’t been tickets to Wicked.
What had been in the box?
Fear had already been coursing through her veins, but now terror was all but consuming her. A piece of paper had been inside the box…with today’s date.
Camryn was instantly and completely awake now, but she couldn’t move the way she wanted. Her arms were stretched tight above her head, and her legs were tied at the ankles. It was all she could do not to break down in sobs.
She was afraid to make any noise, shift in any direction, or even breathe differently for fear that Cassi would see that she was awake. She could barely get enough oxygen through her nose as it was, and she had to tell herself over and over to inhale slowly so she didn’t hyperventilate.
Think, Camryn.
Various bits of advice given to her by her brother over the years started to replay in her mind, only to be mixed with Sawyer’s voice telling her to think things through before taking action.
“…doesn’t believe in me, but he’s given me so much. I need to prove to him that I’m thankful. Did you know that I would write to him every week about these fantasies I would have in my head? It was him who taught me not to be afraid of them. They were messages. He…”
She had no idea who or what Cassi was talking about, but it didn’t matter. Nothing was more important than figuring out how to escape. They had to get out of here.
They.
Dylan.
Where was Dylan? He’d been in the gas station. That worry alone had her slowly peering through her lashes in hopes of seeing something that would let her know Dylan was safe.
Camryn tried to clear her blurry vision. What had Noel Cassi done to her?
She’d been looking inside the box, and then…
Someone had come up from behind her. She recalled a sharp pain in her neck, like being stung by a bee or wasp. Had he injected her with something?
Camryn was able to open her eyes enough to see a lamp, though it didn’t have its shade to conceal the bright light. The glare made it hard for her to see what was on the other side of the room, but she finally recognized a bed.
She had been brought to a hotel room.
“…follow instructions. That’s all I have to do to get him to see that I’m grateful for everything that he’s done for me. I can—”
He knew she was awake.
It was too late for Camryn to close her eyes before Cassi’s face appeared before her, studying her as if she could change his mind about what he had planned for her. She tried to talk underneath the duct tape, but none of her words were distinguishable.
“Camryn Novak. I-It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I was your biggest fan.”
Was he serious? A sob rose up in her throat, with nowhere to escape with the exception of the lone tear that slide down her cheek.
“See? I knew you only needed to be shown the error of your ways for you to realize what you’ve done.”
What had she done?
Camryn had no idea why Noel Cassi was so fixated on her, nor did she care. She only wanted away from him.
“You know, at first I imagined what I would do to you to get you to see how greed has tarnished your view of the world. They were horrible thoughts. Just horrible,” Noel Cassi said, reaching out and running one finger down the side of Camryn’s face. Bile rose in her throat, but it had nowhere to go. “I would write letters to those inmates who had done some of the things I was visualizing doing to you. He wrote me back. He made me realize that what I wanted to do was a perfectly normal response for your abuse. I’m sorry, but I had to remove all your clothing. I need room to work.”
Camryn couldn’t look at Cassi’s face anymore, not when he appeared to be normal on the outside and yet his words gave way to the darkness within his soul. She tried not to panic any more than she already was, doing her best to ignore the cold air blowing out of the vent and over her nude body.
Don’t focus on that.
She quickly glanced around the room as much as her confines allowed her to, though her sweep of the small area produced nothing. Dylan wasn’t here. Had he gotten away? Had Cassi taken her away before Dylan had walked out of the gas station?
“I-I just don’t know if I can go through with what he’s asking of me.” Cassi sat down on the edge of the bed, as if settling in for a long conversation. Camryn tried her best to move her hands, but the duct tape around her wrists wouldn’t allow her to move at all. If only she could see what she was attached to and somehow figure out a way to get away from here. “Do you remember your first role and that beautiful gown? It would look so good on you now, not that I don’t enjoy seeing you like this. I mean, you’re perfect.”
There was a clock on the nightstand.
Don’t listen to his words.
The red illuminated numbers read five after three in the afternoon.
Camryn barely restrained herself from breaking down.
She inhaled as slowly as she could, forcing herself to think.
It was in the middle of the day, because there was a slit of sunshine that could be seen in between the curtains over the window.
Camryn tried to scream when Cassi grabbed her by the face, his thumb and finger digging into her cheeks as he forced her to look at him. There was a vein popping out near his right temple and his face had become red with anger.
“I asked you a question!” Cassi had leaned forward and was practically spitting on her with each word said. “Do you remember your first role? Do I need to start cutting parts of you off before you take me seriously?”
Camryn nodded quickly, not wanting to anger him any more than she already had. More tears filled her eyes, despite the fact that she tried to keep her composure. All she’d wanted to do was see what time it was to give her some semblance of balance.
Had Dylan contacted the police?
Did her brother know she was missing by now?
And Sawyer…
He’d known something would go wrong on this day, and it had. She hadn’t listened to him, thinking that she could make the quick trip and somehow talk him into flying up to Chicago to meet her mother.
Those introductions would no doubt never take place, at least not the way she’d imagined.
Would Brody hold her funeral service in Florida, L.A., or Chicago?
“You were in New York at the restaurant I worked at when you received the call,” Cassi gently reminded her, almost as if he’d been standing right there to share in that amazing moment. To her horror, he went on to admit that he’d witnessed one of the most special accomplishments of her life. “The happiness written on your face was something I wanted to capture, but I didn’t have my camera with me. I had no choice but to etch that memory on a piece of paper, but I could never capture the blissful emotion you were feeling that day. It was the first moment we shared together.”
“Your meal is on the house today,” the waiter said with a shy smile. “Congratulations on your success. I know you’ll go far. One of these days, I’ll get one of those calls.”
“Thank you so much,” Camryn replied with an ecstatic laugh as she laid her hand over the waiter’s in appreciation. She squeezed his fingers in support. “And yes, never stop pursuing your dreams. If it happened for me, it can happen for you.”
Noel Cassi had been her waiter that day so long ago. Had he followed her career over the years? What had she done to cause him to hate her so much that he would go to these lengths to abduct her? Why would he tie her up on a bed, strip her naked in some nameless hotel room, and then lecture her while threatening to cut off parts of her body?
Camryn hadn’t realized she’d been crying this entire time, and now it was becoming harder and harder to breath as her nose began to run. She tried to inhale deeply but still couldn’t manage to draw in enough oxygen. Nothing she did could prevent the panic of death from being overwhelming. She started to struggle against her bonds, somehow ripping the duct tape away from whatever had been holding her arms above her head.
“Shhhh,” Cassi consoled her as he leaned forward to hold her wrists in place while grabbing a side of the duct tape around her mouth. “Do you promise not to scream?”
Camryn would have promised almost anything at that moment. All she wanted to do was breathe, but his face started to disappear little by little behind the flashing white and red lights that had appeared in her vision.
Suddenly, her lungs filled up with oxygen as her eyes continued to water.
She leaned her cheek against her right arm as she kept her lips open to gulp whatever air she could manage before he decided to take it away from her again. She was bound and helpless at the mercy of a psychopath.
“If you so much as raise your voice, I will make you choke on these panties when I ram my fist down your throat. I’ll do things to you that you could not possibly imagine in your wildest nightmares,” Cassi instructed with insane malice, yet there was an excitement in his words that caused her to realize he wanted to do those things to her. “I might have to do them anyway. Certain reactions are involuntary.”
“Y-you don’t have t-to do anything you don’t want to do,” Camryn managed to get out, trying to shift so that he wasn’t still lying on top of her. He reached above her and adjusted something so that her wrists were once again fastened to something on the headboard. She could think a little more clearly now that he was sitting next to her. “T-tell me what it is you want. We can work something out.”
“I want you to truly appreciate what you’ve been given and admit to the world that you only took that role in Matters in Space because of greed.” Cassi was once again watching her very carefully. She wasn’t so foolish as to disagree with him, but she was smart enough not to reply right away. “You sold out, Camryn. You took a role that meant nothing, all for the sake of money and the need to show yourself to all those men and women. Shame on you.”
Noel Cassi stood up from the bed and looked over his shoulder. She tried to see what he was looking at, but she only saw a television with a small refrigerator underneath inside of a large cubby hole. She startled when he quickly turned back to her, obviously wanting an answer.
“Will you admit to that in an interview? Would you go on national television and apologize to your fans for being a greedy, filthy whore when there are those of us who would give anything for the important, decent roles you turned down all because of money?”
“I-I can do that. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that I took that money, and I never should have taken off my clothes for that role. It was wrong of me.” Each minute that passed gave Sawyer and Brody a chance to find her, so she would do whatever it took to delay whatever Noel Cassi had planned for her. At most, at least she’d be able to call Natalie and then have her call the police. “I can make a call now and have everything set up for the interview by tonight. Please let me make that call. Let me set things right by my truly devoted fans.”
Cassi appeared torn and once again looked over his shoulder, as if seeking someone’s approval. Was he delusional? Had his imagination conjured up a person who was guiding him to do these things? While he struggled with her offer on setting up an interview, she ever so carefully looked above her and what could possibly be hooked to the tape around her wrists.
Hope spread throughout her body when she realized that he’d somehow screwed a hook into the headboard of the bed. He’d created a hole in the grey tape that she could easily tear loose. Unfortunately, her wrists would still be bound, as well as her ankles.
“I want to believe that you would follow through on your promise, but Shepherd asked that I do something for him in return for helping me teach you right from wrong.”
Camryn froze as she tried to tell herself she’d misunderstood what this sick freak of a man said, but somewhere deep inside of her recognized the truth.
Somehow, someway, Noel Cassi had been working with Shepherd Moss this entire time.
Fear grew into horror until sheer terror had her heart stopping inside of her chest. She forced herself to look past Cassi, attempting to find who or what he was fixated on. It was then that a small, red flashing light caught her attention.
It was a video camera.
Another hysterical sob rose within her as she realized the significance of what that equipment meant—Shepherd Moss, the notorious serial killer who’d brutally tortured and murdered eighteen women, was somewhere watching and waiting for Noel Cassi to murder her in Moss’ signature.
*
Shepherd was his mentor…his friend.
The first letter he’d received from his idol had been nothing but a thank you for having taken the time to reach out, but it had been so much more. Shepherd understood that, and he explained his reasoning on why using someone else’s identity to gain access to the prison was necessary.
No one had ever caught on to their little ruse. Turning into Isaac Leon had allowed Noel to learn so much over the course of those visits. It was only after Moss’ escape that he’d reached out for a favor in return.
One small kindness—allow him to witness Camryn Novak’s ultimate punishment.
He found he couldn’t disappoint his friend, no matter how apologetic Camryn was in her bid to be released from her physical bonds.
He sighed with regret, reaching for the roll of duct tape and her panties that would silence her through all the pain. It was a shame he had to do this, but Shepherd had taught him that words were meaningless.
“You can make your call afterward, Camryn.” He held up the duct tape and her satin panties for her to see. “It’s time for your punishment.”