Chapter Thirty-Two
I came out of the bathroom to find Navarro waiting. He remained unfazed, too calm. As I walked toward the empty chair, he kept his distance. He cocked his head as he watched my every move. It left me uneasy, and I shifted on my feet.
“Come, let’s eat.”
For a moment, I paused. “May I ask another question?”
“Of course.” The man had nerves of steel, standing there completely unfazed and talking to me as if I weren’t there against my will.
Should I ask? He’d answered my earlier questions, so I took the chance. “What’s the real reason I’m here?”
“Dinner first. Then I’ll explain. It’s a bit of a…story.”
Story?
That only brought up more questions.
Of course, I had no idea if his story would be the truth or not. In silence, I followed Navarro out of the bedroom to the hallway. Our steps were silent on the thick rugs that lay on top of the floor. There were guards posted at the end of the corridor as well as in front of the room directly across from the one where I’d been held. Is someone in there?
Every so often, we passed a pedestal where vases of white lilies were displayed. I hated lilies.
We turned and came to a landing where there were even more guards. This place was a fortress. If this was how his entire house was armed, it would be nearly impenetrable. My heart sank at the thought. How can I be rescued? How will Garrick be able to get to me? If he was unsuccessful…I couldn’t bear the thought.
Surely he would get my parents to safety before coming for me.
If I waited for the right time, I could escape…I could find a phone…warn everyone. Patience. I would have to find the right time to make my move. I shook my head, hoping my jumbled thoughts made sense. The effects of the tranquilizer still lingered in my system.
As we walked, I noticed the ornate fixtures and heavy draperies seemed a recurring theme in the tackily decorated house. There were cameras mounted in each corner. So if a guard wasn’t posted, the occupant’s movements were recorded. Even the windows had bars on them.
I was a prisoner. The knot grew in my stomach. Had he taken me far? “Where am I?”
“My home.”
His home. The first place Garrick would think to look, but with the security, I would likely remain just out of reach. A wave of dizziness came over me, and I leaned against the wall for a second as the blackness closed in. I tried to fight it.
Navarro stopped beside me. “Are you all right?”
“I need just a second. Please. It’s the drugs.”
He snapped a finger. Someone brought me a chair, and I gratefully sat for a moment. After a few deep breaths, the blackness began to recede. I told myself I had to remain strong—for me, for Garrick, for those I loved.
Navarro watched me closely. “She gave you too much, I think. I’m sorry for that. My intention was simply to get you here. It will wear off; the food will help. I know it’s late, but I don’t want you feeling sick. I promise I will make this right.”
Is he insane?
He spoke of kidnapping as if we were simply noting the weather outside had been slightly more rainy than expected. I looked into his eyes. The panic threatened to swallow me when I let the reality of the situation sink in. He was crazy. And to him…I was his.
Never.
“What time is it?” I shifted slightly and kept my breathing slow and steady. Stay calm. The more I reacted, the more Navarro would realize and ultimately use against me.
“Nearly two in the morning.”
Garrick had to be home. He was due home after dinner. That meant he would have been searching for at least five hours.
“Your husband believes you’re sound asleep in bed. He hasn’t made it home yet due to a mechanical failure.”
Mechanical failure. I remembered the brake lines to Tonya’s snowmobile were cut. “You haven’t done anything to his plane, have you?”
“Nothing permanent. Garrick will live. He’s the largest piece of leverage I have over you. His life for your submission, Knoah.” My head jerked up. Submission? My breathing came faster and I focused on slowing it down.
“With the message you left him from the restroom, you gave a reasonable explanation why you might be unreachable. You said so yourself you were sick and may not answer.”
Marlena had heard everything, and she’d told Navarro. And I’d unknowingly bought them more time before Garrick would be aware of my disappearance. By then, Navarro could have moved me or done irreversible damage. I shuddered at the thought. If he tried to rape me, I would fight to the death.
But I couldn’t understand how Arnold didn’t notice me coming out of the bathroom. I focused on the memories, trying to put it all together, but it was hard to hold on to my thoughts as they skittered around my fuzzy brain. I massaged my temples. “I just don’t understand how I got out of Shaw Tower.”
“Knoah, I had someone waiting in the restroom, staged to look like you. She took your clothes and went upstairs to the apartment. You’ve been carrying the same purse for a while. It was easy to get a second and get what was needed to get her into the apartment. The bedroom has been staged, as well. It looks like you’re sleeping. I have thought of everything.”
I froze at his words. I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud.
For the first time, I noticed I was not in the same clothes I’d been wearing. He had thought of everything. And Garrick would return home in the morning to find me gone. I swallowed hard to keep the bile down.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
He shrugged arrogantly. “Because there’s nothing you can do. And once we finish talking, you won’t try to do anything.”
Fear gripped me.
“Are you feeling well enough to walk again?”
“Yes,” I lied. I wanted to be sick.
I managed to get up, but still had the crampy, achy feeling within my abdomen. The ipecac had done a number on me when it had been combined with the tranquilizer. At a slower pace, we descended the stairs. Besides the guards and surveillance, this appeared to be a normal home. A television hung on the wall in front of a sectional couch. A dining room table was set and prepared to entertain guests. We entered the kitchen, which was furnished with the latest appliances. Yet everything was hard and unloving…like a tomb.
In the kitchen, a breakfast table had one place setting laid out. Some sort of soup steamed in the bowl.
“The soup will help calm your stomach. Please eat.”
What if he poisoned it? Or it did something else to harm my system that had longer-lasting effects? Given the situation, my appetite was nonexistent.
“If I wanted you dead, I would have put a bullet in your head before now.”
“You tried to kill me but murdered my neighbor, Jessica, instead,” I snapped at him before covering my mouth with my hand. There was only so much I could take. The memory of Garrick showing up on my doorstep with the police sent chills through my body.
“Yes, I did.”
With those three simple words, my eyes flew open. Jessica had been a mistake. The kill had been meant for me.
The hard glint in his eyes frightened me. He felt no remorse. Killing meant nothing to him. “Then why not now? Why let me live?”
“I have additional information. When I killed Jessica, I thought she was you. I hadn’t made an error like that in quite a while. But your name was on the lease, and my information said you entered the apartment several times that week. When I looked at her ID, I realized my mistake and turned it into a warning.”
Cold. Calculating. Heartless.
“To Hastings?”
“Nobody fucks with me and gets away with it, Knoah. Hastings played me. We had a simple deal. Your identity for more territory. Simple. Easy. Then he tried to fuck me over. I don’t take kindly to that.”
“What about Energy Source?”
He smirked confidently. “It seems Hastings has shared a lot of information. I needed a diversion. It was a means to an end.” A shiver went down my spine. Navarro took a spoon from the drawer and tasted my broth. “Eat. I’m not going to ask again.”
Without further argument, I sat and tasted the soup. It was warm and welcomed in my empty stomach.
Navarro watched me intently. “You are exquisite. I can see why Garrick is taken with you.”
I remained silent. The word exquisite coming from Navarro made me sick to my stomach all over again.
A guard came up to whisper something in his ear. Whatever it was agitated Navarro and his jaw became taught. “Very well, escort her and Carrie to the study. As soon as Ms. Knox is finished, we’ll be up.”
Carrie.
My parents’ daughter.
Ms. Knox.
Navarro turned my way and added, “Well, I should say the future Ms. Knox.”
“Fu-future?” I dropped my spoon in the bowl.
“Yes, once the divorce is final.”
“Divorce?”
He thought I would divorce Garrick. I was scared of the victory in his eyes; he would use whatever means possible to make that happen. Not being Garrick’s wife…I couldn’t imagine it.
The broth turned to acid in my stomach. Navarro got up to pour himself some wine. A few moments passed.
Navarro leaned against the kitchen counter, thankfully giving me space. I pushed my bowl away, the smell not helping my upset stomach. Finally, I spoke. “Why do I need to divorce Garrick? You know I don’t want to do that. I won’t do that.”
“Oh, you will. And you’ll do it willingly. Just as you won’t say a word of what I’m telling you.”
My eyes widened, and I turned to face him. “What makes you so sure?”
He held up his hands and touched a finger with each name. “Garrick, Barb, Wyatt, Evelyn, Ricardo, Kurt, Sawyer, and Hastings. I’ll bring each one of them here and kill them right in front of you—but not before I spend hours torturing them. And you will have to watch every second of it. Then I’ll fuck you right in front of them. It will be the last thing they see.” I felt the blood drain from my face. “And, of course, there’s Garrick’s nieces and nephews. I could sell them to a human trafficker I know.”
I gasped. Without a doubt, he meant every word.
Every. Single. Word.
He laid a white lily on the table in front of me.
The white lily. It was what he placed on all his victims.
“Why do you want me? Please just let me go. Garrick will give you anything.”
“You’re an heiress in a sense. Even if Garrick gave me everything he owned, it would be nothing compared to what you’re worth.”
Heiress?
Me?
“Does anyone else know?”
“No.”
How was this possible?
Again, Navarro had the uncanny ability to read me. “The Allaways originate from Scotland.”
“Allaways? Scotland? What does this have to do with me?”
“Your mother’s side of the family.”
I knew both Evelyn and Ricardo were estranged from their families. As per a conversation I had with Hastings while we had lunch one day, their marriage had been forbidden by both sides. That was one of the reasons they married quickly.
“How do Evelyn and Ricardo not know about this? What about Hastings? He’s part Allaway.” No one had mentioned this to me. Were they holding out on me? That made no sense if they wanted me to claim it for them.
Navarro lifted another lily from the vase and admired its beauty. “She’s estranged from the family. When Evelyn married Ricardo, she was written out of the will. Upon her father’s passing, she never got this information.”
“If she’s estranged—”
“It doesn’t matter. And only a female Allaway can make claim to the fortune.”
This made no sense. No sense at all. “What about Evelyn? There has to be others.”
He sighed. “Evelyn is of no consequence. She doesn’t know. Even if she did, she wouldn’t make a claim as I have you. So your biological mother is of no consequence.”
To myself I looked down and said, “There have to be others.”
“As of yesterday there’s only one. You.”
“As of yesterday?”
“Yes, the rest have been killed.”
“Killed?” The word dried out my mouth. “What happened?”
He cracked his neck to the side. “I happened.”
I swallowed hard.
Only me? “There are no other females?”
“Besides your biological mother, no. None.”
“The laws of the clan are very specific. Duncan Allaway created a binding will that only allows females of Allaway blood to take controlling interest of his clan. With it comes international territory—wealth and connections beyond your wildest dreams. You’re an heiress to one of the greatest mobs in the world.”
Heiress.
Mobs.
World.
“Why just the girls?”
“Duncan hated his sons.”
“Duncan?”
He carefully laid the flower on the counter and watched me, an eyebrow cocked. “Yes, your great-great-grandfather, Duncan Allaway.”
If only I wasn’t the only person. If only there was someone else. “There had to be several descendants.”
“There were. But not any longer.”
My eyes grew wide.
All this time, it had been about money and power. That had never crossed any of our minds because my money from Dylan was insignificant compared to Garrick’s or the Monroes’. “How much money and power are you talking about?”
“Enough to run a small country. And it would ensure my growth. We will be the most powerful couple in the world.”
Couple?
The thought alone was unimaginable.
I took a few minutes to process this information, thinking of ways it could be spun. How was I going to get out of this? The threats hung over me. I saw the hunger in Navarro’s eyes. He wanted Duncan Allaway’s territory. Bad.
“So what will it be, Knoah? Will you watch all those you care about die? It would be terrible for you to have to watch Savannah be violated. Or will you cooperate?”
I swallowed back the bile. “You know the answer.” Looking up, I asked, “Will I ever be able to see them again?”
“Of course.”
This made no sense. None at all. I shook my head.
“You’ll conform and be rewarded. If you step out of the lines, you’ll know the consequences. It’s simple. Cause and effect. And if you go behind my back, there’s no way you’ll be able to protect all of them. If they try to stop me, I’ll take it out on you.”
Anger seized me. “You really are a bastard.”
“That I am.” He winked and took another sip of his wine.
He would use the threat of killing them to ensure I stayed submissive. If I strayed ever, I was sure Navarro would follow through with each threat. There was no winning against him. Navarro had to die.
My head ached.
How will I ever get out of this situation?
I looked at the ceiling. More cameras. My every move would be watched. There would be no chance to poison him, arm myself, or simply escape. The scenarios raced across my mind.
“Come, I need to attend to some business in my study. We’ll be leaving to an undisclosed location in a few short hours until things are…settled.”
Carrie and the mystery lady would be there. “Where am I going while you attend to business?”
“With me. Then we’ll get better acquainted.”
More acquainted. I will die before I let him touch me.
I stood and braced myself. “I won’t ever let you touch me.”
Navarro twisted the white lily in his hand a few times before laying it down. “You will. At some point, you’ll break and willingly invite me into your bed. I’m a patient man, Knoah. Very. Patient.”
Desperation clawed at me. I wanted out of there and into the comforting arms of my husband. “What if I gave you the money? And the territory? You can have it all.”
“It’s not enough now. I want you, too.”