Chapter 24

Skylar

I was crammed against the door in the back of the sedan. The trunk hadn’t had enough space for all of our luggage—mostly because Nikki had packed for a medium-sized family—so one of her carry-on sized pieces of luggage was on her lap, and the bottom wheels were digging into my hip and thigh.

Had Renee not ignored me the entire morning and spent the first twenty minutes of the car ride staring out the window in stony silence, I might have complained about how uncomfortable I was. There were going to be bruises on my leg from the wheels. I was certain of it. Each and every turn we made or bump we hit in the road felt like someone was wedging their knuckles into my leg.

I grimaced as we took a sharp right, and I tried to press myself even tighter against the door panel. It did no good. As soon as I had given Nikki a bit more space, she shuffled around. The suitcase was wedged up against me once more, this time lower down my leg.

I sighed and rested my head back against the top of the seat. This was the worst car ride I had ever endured.

Not only was I surrounded by two girls who were presently pissed at me, but I was leaving behind a man who I had started to really care for. I knew how abnormal it was to have such strong feelings for someone I had only just met, but I also knew that there was something different about Greyson. I had known it from the first time I spoke to him. The way he made me feel when I was with him had been so liberating. I didn’t worry when he was around. I wasn’t constantly nagged by anxiety or stress that I should be doing something different. I always felt like I was right where I should be.

We passed a turnoff onto the highway. It was the turnoff Greyson had taken to get to Boulder City, and I knew it was also the route to the airport.

I leaned to the side to peer over the driver’s shoulder through the windshield. Perhaps he knew a quicker way to the airport. I considered asking him, but then I would have to knock on the glass partition between us and the front of the car, and I didn’t want to be one of “those girls.” He was the driver. He knew how to get to the airport.

I glanced across Nikki to steal a look at my sister. Her elbow was on the window frame, and her chin was in her hand. I could see the reflection of her face in the window as she stared out at the desert rolling by outside. She sighed, and a little bit of fog frosted the glass.

I almost said something. The words were right on the tip of my tongue. Then I thought better of it and leaned back in my seat, clasping my hands in my lap. I felt Nikki look over at me.

I supposed she was in an awkward spot. Renee would have told her everything going on between us. Nikki would agree with Renee, of course, not that I thought she shouldn’t. Now she was sitting between us. She had the worst seat in the car.

We took a left turn down a two-lane road lined with old fashioned light posts that hung over the street.

My stomach rolled as my brain screamed a very simple fact at me: we were not going to the airport. The airport was in the opposite direction.

I leaned forward and knocked on the glass between us and the driver. He didn’t even look at me or react to the sound. I knocked harder.

“Hey,” I said. “You’re supposed to be taking us to the airport.”

Nikki and Renee were both looking at me now. Renee spoke first. “What’s the deal, Sky?”

I glanced over at her. “This isn’t the way to the airport. I don’t know where this guy is taking us.”

Renee’s eyes widened, and she looked down the road in front of us.

Nikki leaned forward, the wheels of her suitcase digging into my knee, and slammed her open palm on the glass partition. “Hey, driver!” she shouted before promptly banging on the glass repeatedly. “We have a flight to catch, and you’d better not be trying any funny business. Pull over and let us out.”

Brown eyes flicked to us in the rear-view mirror. His stare was hard and made something in my chest tighten. He didn’t answer us.

“Please let us out,” I said, hoping a gentler approach might get him to see reason. “We’re frightened. We know you don’t want to hurt us. We can just catch another cab and find our way to the airport on our own.”

Those brown eyes slid to me. I couldn’t see his mouth, but the corners of his eyes wrinkled, and I knew he was smiling at us.

“You must be Skylar,” he said. He sounded far away, but I knew it was just because he was on the other side of the partition. His words made me instantly nauseated.

Nikki and Renee both swung their heads to stare at me.

The driver chuckled deeply, and his eyes slid back to the road. “Just sit tight back there, ladies. I’ll get you to where you’re supposed to be.”

“And where is that?” I asked. I didn’t want the answer. I was afraid. I hadn’t been afraid in a long time, but this was soul-gripping, heart-wrenching fear. It was clawing at my gut.

“I don’t owe you any answers,” he said.

“Yes, you do,” Nikki snapped as she banged on the glass again.

“Hey!” he yelled, looking back at us over his shoulder. “Hit that glass again, and I will pull over. You hear me? Now settle down. Nobody’s going to get hurt if the three of you just play your parts.”

“Play our parts?” I asked, my stomach now performing somersaults.

He turned back to face the road and nodded. I watched his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Yes. Your parts. My boss needs you. That boyfriend of yours owes him a lot of money. You can thank him for the position you’re all in now.”

Someone had kicked me in the gut, and I couldn’t breathe. Nikki and Renee were both staring at me. My palms were sweaty. I felt lightheaded. “Greyson owes someone money?” I whispered.

Those brown eyes fell on me again in the mirror. The driver nodded. “A lot of money. Sorry, sweets. The three of you are just a means to an end. But like I said, as long as you all just go along with it, no one will be hurt. Got it?”

“What if he doesn’t pay the money?” Nikki asked beside me. Her voice was shrill. Her hands were shaking.

“We will cross that bridge if we come to it.”

“He’ll pay it,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. Had I even known Greyson at all? Were there signs I had missed? How could I have been so blind as to let something like this happen?

“How can you know that?” Renee hissed, leaning forward to peer at me over Nikki’s suitcase. “You barely know the guy. I told you to be careful! I told you the men here were different than in Houston. How did you manage to find the one guy who could put us in a situation like this?” Her eyes were wide, and there were tears building in them.

“I’m sorry,” I said, fighting back my own emotions. “There was no way I could have known. Greyson’s not like that. He couldn’t be. I don’t know. I’m so confused.” I buried my face in my hands.

“Keep it together ladies,” the driver said. “We’re almost there.”

There? Where was there?

The car pulled up in front of a massive set of gates. The driver rolled his window down and flashed some sort of identification in front of a camera. Then the gates began to open, and the car pulled through.

We drove down a narrow driveway lined in brightly colored flowers and palm trees. We stopped in front of a Spanish-looking mansion made of white stucco. The dozens of windows were trimmed in dark brown that matched a massive front door.

Two men in suits were standing at the top step by the door. When our car stopped, they descended and came to open my door and Renee’s.

Neither of us moved until the men reached in and took our arms. The one who had me wasn’t rough. In fact, he was rather gentle. He eased me out of the car and then offered a hand to Nikki.

“Leave your bags here, miss,” he said.

Nikki did as she was told and stepped out of the car. The driver took her arm, and all three men escorted us to the door.

When we were at the bottom step, I dug in my heels. I knew going in the house was a bad idea. What if we could never get out once we were in?

“I don’t want to go in there,” I said. My voice was fluttery with nerves. My mouth was dry. Panic gripping me.

The driver paused and turned back to us. Nikki turned with him to look at me with wide, terrified eyes. “Like I said, Skylar,” the driver said calmly. “Play your role, and no one gets hurt. Come on. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait long.”

The man who had me pulled me up the stairs with him, and we all went inside.

The house was beautiful. It hosted white marble floors that were so shiny I was sure they had been waxed that morning. We crossed the foyer to a door that led down a flight of winding stairs into a basement. Down there, we went through another door, and the men let go of us.

The room they left us in had two leather couches and one table full of sealed bottles of water. They closed and locked the door behind them without another word to any of us.

The three of us stood in the middle of the room and looked around.

There were blankets and pillows on the couches. A plush area rug beneath our feet gave the space a cozy feel. There was a fireplace set in the wall that burned behind a clear glass cover. The space was dimly lit with a chandelier above our heads.

It was definitely not what I had been expecting.

“We’re going to die here,” Nikki breathed, running her fingers through her hair.

“No, we’re not,” I said.

She nodded up and down frantically. “Yes, we are. They’re going to come back in here, and they’re going to kill us. Or they’ll keep us around until they get tired of us, and do who knows what to us. Oh my God. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Nikki,” I said, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her to sit on one of the sofas. “Look at me.”

She did. Her teary eyes lifted to mine, and she sucked in a shaky breath.

“Good,” I said. “Now, listen. We are not going to die here. They don’t want us for anything. They don’t want to hurt us. They just want their money.”

“And you think Greyson will just hand over his cash for us?” Renee asked behind me.

I looked back at her over my shoulder. “Yes,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt.

Renee sat down beside Nikki, and the two of them pressed their shoulders together.

I sighed. “Greyson won’t want any of us to get hurt. He has a lot of money to spare. Trust me. He will get us out of this.”

Nikki rested her head on Renee’s shoulder. Renee looked at her hands and took a deep breath. “I hope you’re right about him, Sky.”

So did I.