by Chloe Barlow
The door swung open, revealing A.J. and Louis on the other side. She looked smug, while his expression was unreadable.
“You rang?” she mocked.
Trey resisted the urge to strangle her, knowing it wouldn’t get him anywhere. His breaths were hot and rapid, like a bull ready to run in Pamplona.
“Calm down, Trey. You’ll give yourself a heart attack.”
He tried to speak through his rage, his hands alternately clenching and relaxing. When he could finally form words, they came out in a sharp staccato.
“If you want me to make a choice, I need to know if you’re lying to me, or playing tricks with these cameras.”
“You can see the happy family dressed up and having dinner. You know they’re still safe. Once they try to leave for the night, we will have to make them aware of the change of plans. I warn you, if you choose to save them, you should do so quickly. I’d hate to traumatize that sweet little boy unnecessarily.”
Trey stared at the monitors for a few breaths. No matter how much he wanted to yell at her, he needed more information. He looked back at her.
“Then I want to speak to my mother.”
“My pleasure. I would love nothing more than for you to have some more incentive. Louis, hand me my phone.”
Louis reached into his pocket, pulling out an iPhone for her, which she took from him with a pleasant smile, as though she were about to use it to take a picture of kittens playing in a cardboard box.
“You carry her purse for her, too?” Trey taunted, disgusted with anyone who’d choose to help such an evil creature such as A.J.
“I advise you to watch what you say to me, Mr. Adler,” Louis responded, his British accent coming as a surprise to Trey.
“Right, because it’s my words that are the offensive part of what is happening here today.”
“I’d listen to him if I were you, Trey. Louis here is my second in command. You wouldn’t want to make him so angry he changes the rules, would you?”
“Congratulations,” Trey retorted, turning to Louis. “This must fill you with such pride — watching an innocent, beautiful young woman be tortured for no reason other than being stupid enough to love me. I hope you don’t have a soul, like A.J. here, because if you do, it’d be damned.”
“Enough with the theatrics, Trey. Do you want to talk to your mother or not?”
“Yes,” he growled.
A.J. appeared to pull up a contact, and waited as the phone rang.
“Bryce, I need to speak to the woman. Thanks.” She waited a moment and Trey watched as a man appeared on the video feed with his mother and handed her a phone.
A.J. moved to put the phone on speaker, but Louis took the phone from her and handed it to Trey.
“It’s his mother, I think you can let him have a little privacy.” A.J. looked aghast for a moment. “If you want him to understand the impact of this decision, he needs to be able to really feel it, and us listening in won’t do that.”
“Fine. Good point. Proceed,” she stated, with a slight nod.
Trey glared at A.J. and said, “Mom, are you there?”
“Theodore! Are you okay, my angel? Please tell me you’re okay.”
“Mom, I’m fine,” he lied. “How are you?”
“Oh dear, I don’t know what’s happening. These people just came to my apartment in Paris and took me to God knows where. Between all the flying and driving, I don’t even know what day it is.”
“Have they hurt you?”
“No, not yet. I’m just so scared.”
“I know, Mom. I am so sorry you have to go through this.”
“It’s not your fault. I’ll be fine. Over the years, I have managed to create some very sticky situations for myself. I am sure it is just a misunderstanding.”
His mother’s blithe ability to ignore ugly things still amazed him, but in this instance, it filled him with a strong desire to protect her.
“Sure, Mom,” he muttered.
“You do need to be careful, though, Theodore. I think this may have something to do with my friend Brian.”
“Who’s that?”
“I met him a couple weeks ago. He has green eyes and was so charming, but he wanted to know so much about my life. I never told him about you, I swear. But I know he’s involved.”
“Why?” Trey asked carefully, not wanting A.J. to pick up on the content of his conversation.
“Because he just arrived here. I see him through the French doors in my suite. They have some kind of an office through there.”
It had to be Colin, arriving from Vietnam. He would never let them hurt his mother. Trey’s heart soared for a moment, but quickly sank at the realization that Althea, Griffen, and Johnny were still in danger. A.J. had provided herself with another layer of insurance. Trey continued to face a horrible choice.
“Mom, I need to go. I don’t want to make this any worse for you. Please just stay calm, and do what they say.”
“Of course, Theodore. I love you, my sweet angel.”
“I love you, too,” he answered, feeling his voice break on the last word.
Louis took the phone from him and disconnected the call, before placing it back in his pocket.
“That was touching,” A.J. cracked.
“I still need time to think,” Trey stated, after collecting himself. “But Claudia may be hurt. She fell hard. I need to see her.”
“No way.”
He gritted his teeth.
“Then send someone to check on her, at least. I can watch from the monitors to make sure she’s not hurt any more than what you’ve already done to her.”
“Fine,” A.J. grumbled. “She might as well be comfortable for her last couple hours. Louis, send Hugo to check on her. He hasn’t done anything for hours but bitch about his knee and play poker with Cam.”
“No, I’ll do it. Hugo can try to help Cam get firewood.”
“I’ll be watching you, Louis. Don’t you dare hurt her.”
A.J. laughed, clearly amused by his impotent threat, but Louis wasn’t so unfazed.
Louis grabbed Trey and pushed him to sit on his bed. Louis crouched on his knees, checking fastidiously to make sure the chain was secure. Trey held his breath, hoping he wouldn’t see the progress he’d made easing up the floorboard.
When Louis stood, Trey released his breath. He then allowed the horror of his predicament to sink in again, as the door closed behind A.J. and Louis.
Trey threw his head into his hands, elbows pressing hard into his thighs. His eyes opened slowly, as if he were coming out of a nightmare.
A tiny streak of light glinted off something metallic hidden along the edge of his right foot, and Trey froze.
The gentle touch of a man’s hand on her shoulder awakened Claudia.
“Trey, is that you?” she croaked, her breath coming in short, challenging little bursts.
“Yes, it’s me, little one,” he answered, touching her face. They were in the living room of his Pittsburgh row house, and the warm glow of a sunset was coming through the bay window.
She smiled, overcome with happiness by his presence. Although she wanted to touch him, her arms wouldn’t move right, so she continued to lie still on his sofa.
“Why’d you let me sleep so long?” she queried.
“You needed your rest. The storm is over. Do you want to go outside with us?”
“Us? Who’s here?”
“Don’t you remember? Tea and Griffen brought Johnny over. He wants to play with everyone.”
“Oh, good. I know how much you love him. I’m crazy about him, too.”
“Of course you are. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to either one of you. It’s so very important to me both of you are safe.”
“What an odd thing to say. You’re always so dramatic, Trey,” she teased.
“You’ve got me pegged. Now come with me.”
“Okay,” she replied, her mouth almost too dry to speak. “Are we going to be tog
ether forever now?”
“We will. We can have all of these things. I just need you to hear me. Can you hear me, Claudia?” Trey shouted. As he began shaking her, he faded away from her view. In his place, she saw Louis leaning over her.
“Louis, what are you doing here? How do you know where Trey lives?”
“Claudia, you’re still being held hostage. You’re hallucinating. Do you know what is going on?”
“Wait, oh no, that means Trey is still…”
Claudia tried to get up, but her head fell immediately back onto the pillow.
“He’s okay. He wanted me to check on you. I wasn’t able to come right away.” He touched her head with his hand. “You’re burning up.”
“It’s the high blood sugar and dehydration,” she muttered, before laughing maniacally. “At least I remembered that fun fact,” she added.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner… I hunted down some more blankets and pillows for you. I have some cold water, as well. Louis put a glass of water to her lips and helped her sip it.
“I wish you hadn’t brought me out of it, Louis. I was in such a lovely place,” she whispered, thinking back to Trey’s illusory words with whimsical glee.
Then a burst of clarity broke through the fog, and she yanked feebly on Louis’s sleeve.
“Louis, you have to tell me. The other people your boss is threatening — are they a family? Do they have a little boy?”
“You shouldn’t strain yourself. That’s supposed to make it worse.”
“There’s no stopping it from getting worse, not without insulin and a hospital. Please answer me.”
“Yes. They have a little boy,” he responded, making her sip more water.
“Louis…I need you to promise me you won’t let Trey choose me over them.”
“I…”
“Promise me… Because I could never live knowing I caused those people to die.”
He moved her pillow and looked away from her, before standing to leave.
Claudia snatched at his hand desperately.
“Promise me, Louis.”
He paused and met her eyes.
“I promise I won’t let him make that choice,” he finally answered, before releasing her hand and leaving.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Trey gripped the curved end of the pry bar Louis had hidden for him so tightly, he worried his hand might cramp up, but even that wouldn’t have stopped him from trying to get out of his room.
The tool was a little less than eight inches long, which made it small enough for Louis to have presumably hidden it in his sweater sleeve before slipping it under the bed, unnoticed. However, its size also made it difficult to achieve maximum leverage against the floorboard, especially without immediately alerting someone watching him over the video feed to his efforts.
The process was maddeningly slow, but still so much faster than the other methods he’d employed.
He wasn’t sure what Louis’s objective was in leaving it for him, nor what Trey would do when he got out of the room. For once in his life, he had no clever tricks or plans in place to control the world around him. Instead, he only had faith, and that was going to have to be enough for everyone.
Louis finally appeared in Claudia’s room, checking on her as Trey had asked. It seemed as though it took the guy an eternity to get there, but the look of deep concern on his face as he spoke to her spurred Trey to push with greater force. As if it sensed his urgency, the plank of wood popped up, and he was able to remove it, freeing his leg, as well.
Trey moved the floorboard to his bed. With his back to the cameras, he forced the chain off the board. Stretching the long chain along the length of his leg, he wrapped it once around his waist, and tucked the remainder of it in the pocket of his suit pants.
Althea and Griffen were puttering around the house, gathering items to visit someone, most likely Johnny’s grandmother. They were seemingly still unaware of the danger they faced.
Trey moved to the door and made quick work of prying it open. Now that he had full use of his limbs and body, everything was coming more easily to him. Flipping the bar in his hands, he held it like a weapon, carefully moving through the halls of the unfamiliar cabin.
It wouldn’t take long for A.J. to notice he’d left the room, but there was no time to wait. He just needed to get to a phone before she did.
He heard a door open around the corner. Plastering his back against the wall, Trey watched Cam exit what appeared to be a bathroom. As he bent over to zip up his fly, Trey hit him hard at the base of the skull. Cam immediately went limp, forcing Trey to grab under his armpits quickly, before he made a crashing noise. Hunching over, he juggled Cam and the pry bar as he walked backward.
After dragging him into the bathroom, Trey slid the pry bar behind the toilet and removed a phone, a semiautomatic handgun, and keys from Cam’s pockets, which included one to his Mercedes. Apparently Cam thought the sweet ride was a spoil of war. Trey was more than happy to repossess it from him.
The bathroom was equipped with various tools for hostage management, including rope and cable ties, but no insulin. Not willing to take any chances, Trey tied Cam at his wrists and ankles as quickly as he could, and shoved the cable ties in one of his pockets.
His heart pounded so loudly, he thought for sure it would wake the injured beast. Trey dialed Stephen’s number, feeling eternally grateful he had it memorized.
“You’re calling from an encrypted line. Identify yourself immediately,” Stephen demanded crisply, and Trey couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s Trey.”
“Fuck me. Your mother’s been taken. Colin’s with her, but we haven’t made a move yet.”
“Good. You should be able to now. Do you have all your usual capabilities?”
“I’m with Feng and the rest of my team at your war room in Pittsburgh. We might as well be at NORAD. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Perfect. But we have to make this quick. Get a detail to Griffen Tate’s house. It’s surrounded by several of Lexis’s men. Griffen and his family have no idea anyone is outside — but they’re about to leave and that means all hell will break loose.”
Trey knew he’d have to share with Stephen exactly who Lexis was, and what she represented to him at one time in his life, but that would have to wait.
“The team that protected Jenna Sutherland’s home is nearby. Consider it done,” Stephen assured him.
“Also, have someone go ahead and acquire FBI agent Drew Jaworski, from the Pittsburgh field office. If he’s really a Lexis mole, we can’t keep delaying while we look for evidence against him. It’s too risky.”
“Damn,” Stephen cursed. “That’ll ruffle some feathers.”
“I don’t care if you have to pluck the whole goddamn bird, pick him up.”
“You got it.”
“And I need a medically-equipped helicopter sent my way. Now.”
“Medical? Are you hurt?”
“Claudia’s very sick. She needs insulin and treatment for the effects of extreme insulin deprivation. We’re somewhere in the mountains outside Pittsburgh. Are you able to locate me through this phone? It belongs to one of Lexis’s men, and I don’t know what they did to it.”
“Donovan, can you do it?” Stephen asked, addressing the question to one of the best hackers on his team.
“I’ll make it happen, man. Just be sure to leave this call connected,” Donovan added, and Trey let himself breathe for a moment.
“What about you, Trey? Are you secure?”
“No, but I’m working on it,” he answered. “Make sure to check in on my dad, too. See you soon.”
Trey moved the phone to his back pocket, making sure to leave it connected.
He exited the bathroom and moved toward the sound of voices. One belonged to Louis.
“He’s not on the monitor, we need to find him, damn it! Hugo, go get him.” A.J. shouted.
“Hugo’s on so many painkillers for his knee, he
can barely keep from drooling…let me look,” Louis responded.
Trey eased around the corner and peered into the kitchen. Syringes were on a counter, giving him the thought the insulin could be in the refrigerator, as recommended on the vials.
“Fine,” A.J. grumbled. “He’s got to be in the cabin. He hasn’t been gone long. When you grab him, meet me at the girl’s room. I’m going to call in the order to take down that family, then I’ll shoot the girl. I want Adler to watch the consequences of his actions. Louis, give me my phone.”
“It’s in my room.”
“What? You never leave it anywhere. Damn it, Louis. What is going on with you right now? Hugo, go get my phone. You should be able to do that. Morons,” she muttered.
Hugo lumbered out of his chair, his injured leg clearly slowing him down.
Trey ducked into a linen closet behind him until he could hear they all had exited the kitchen.
Slinking back into the hall, Trey followed the sound of Hugo’s labored breathing and heavy steps. He caught up to the big guy in no time. Using the butt of Cam’s handgun, Trey was able to knock him out before he even got a chance to turn around. After securing him with cable ties and removing his gun, Trey dragged him into a room and closed the door.
A.J. was the only thing left for him to face.
After dumping the second gun behind Louis’s bed he ran down the hallway, no longer worried about noise. He moved to the opened door and saw A.J. standing in its frame. Trey held his remaining handgun at the ready.
She turned and raised her gun, perhaps to threaten, maybe to kill, but he didn’t care. Fury had made him quick, and he kicked her hard in the stomach, knocking her down. Stepping on her gun, he shoved it out of her reach, and pointed his own handgun straight at her head.
She clutched her stomach in pain on the floor beside Claudia’s bed.
Claudia looked tiny, even on the twin bed, her breathing labored, and her skin jaundiced and sickly. The sight filled Trey with such a boiling, fierce rage, it made him wonder if his blood had transmogrified into liquid, sadistic desire — the craving for A.J. to feel pain, to experience his vengeance.