Amir tied my hands behind my back and pulled me to my feet. He led me over to the elevator, around the corner from Taj, and shoved me into a velvet chair. My legs were wobbly and not following directions well.
Around the corner, Taj came to, shouting in a hoarse voice, “Nikki?”
I jumped at hearing his voice. Amir picked up a phone from an end table and spoke into it. “We’re ready.”
I kicked the lid of the trunk with my boots, but the sound of shouting, gunshots, and breaking glass outside drowned the noise out. As soon as the trunk lid had slammed down, engulfing us in darkness, I’d felt a surge of energy brought on by pure fear and adrenaline. The wooly feeling in my head was gone.
The car bumped and lurched, sending me flying up to smack the lid. We must have just left the parking garage and were on the street outside the star mansion. I was flung sideways as the car squealed around a corner. I was lying on something slippery that stuck to my bare legs. Plastic? I bumped into Taj’s body as the car swung around a corner.
He rolled up against me, his face pressed against mine. He kept moving his Duct-taped mouth against mine, mumbling. In a flash of understanding, I felt around with my mouth and grabbed a corner of the tape with my teeth and yanked on it. Nothing. I tried again. No luck. I worked down to the other corner and it was a bit looser. I used my teeth to gnaw at the edge of the tape until I got a grip and was able to yank the whole thing back with a loud rip. “Thank God,” Taj said. I collapsed from the effort. He pressed his mouth against mine. This time in a long kiss before drawing away.
“Let’s hold that thought,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how to get out of here. Scoot over and bring your hands up to my mouth. I’m going to try to work on the knot.”
The calm in his voice quelled the terror and panic surging through me. The trunk was dark and cramped and I scraped my cheek on a piece of something sharp as we both tried to maneuver in a position where Taj’s head was down by my hands behind my back. I felt the rope around my wrists tightening and could feel Taj’s warm breath on my hands as his teeth worked on the knot. The ride was making me nauseous. I gulped and concentrated on not throwing up since rolling around in a big pile of puke would not help us. A bump and sudden screeching stop sent us tumbling toward the front of the car. I accidentally bit my lip and tasted blood.
“You okay?” Taj asked. He was still tugging on the rope around my wrists. Within seconds, I had my right hand free and a loose wad of rope around my left hand. I felt around for a latch to undo the trunk lid but only managed to slice my finger on a sharp piece of metal.
“Give me your hands!” But Taj had already scrunched around so I could get at him and I managed to untie his knots.
With our hands free, we both started kicking at the taillights, loosening one panel and putting out one light. Maybe Amir would get pulled over by a police car and we’d make such a racket the cop would hear us. Then, I remembered that with the rioters taking over the city, a burnt out taillight would be the last thing the cops were worried about.
At least we weren’t tied up. That meant when the trunk opened we would come up fighting. But whatever they had drugged me with, combined with the exertion of the last few minutes, had zapped all of my energy.
“We need to make a plan,” I said, resting my head on Taj’s shoulder. “But I’m so sleepy.”
“It’s the drugs they gave us.” Taj ran his fingers down my arm and it took all my concentration not to drift off. The darkness, combined with the lethargy that swept over me, lulled me into complacency and apathy. All I wanted to do was close my eyes. That short burst of energy when we pulled out of the Star Center had wiped me out. I felt exhausted. And defeated. I still hadn’t found Rain. I’d failed.
“It’s going to be okay.”
“No. It’s not. If she’s dead, it’s my fault.”
“What are you talking about?”
He sounded baffled.
“If Rain’s dead, it’s my fault,” I said it more slowly this time. “Just like my mother.” I said the second part so quietly I didn’t think he’d heard me.
But he had.
The thudding of my heart seemed suddenly very loud.
“Nikki, as soon as all this is over, we need to talk about your mother.”
I didn’t answer.
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
Right now we needed to focus on getting out of here alive. We needed a plan.
Amir didn’t know we had untied ourselves, so the only thing we really had going for us was the element of surprise. In the darkness of the trunk, we decided that because Kozlak apparently had “plans” for me before I died, Amir would be less likely to kill me. But as soon as they found out there really wasn’t another copy of the tape, Taj would be dead. I wouldn’t be able to bluff about the copy much longer.
We decided that when the trunk opened, I needed to distract or delay Amir long enough for Taj to escape and get help from a neighbor or passerby. Our plan was pretty rudimentary and involved me tackling Amir long enough for Taj to run away.
The car slowed to a stop. Go time.
I jumped at the squawk of the trunk lid opening. I blinked in the dim light. Instead of Amir, a man with a Dudley Do-Right chin looked down on us. Rex Walker. Up close. Pockmarked skin the camera hid. Surprised to see him instead of Amir, I momentarily froze.
“You’re right. She is perfect,” he said to someone over his shoulder. “I don’t need him, though. Thought you were going to get rid of him.”
When Walker turned his head for a second, Taj came up swinging, clocking Walker enough to send him off balance. Meanwhile, I scrambled out of the trunk on cramped and weak legs and jumped on Walker, clawing and scratching. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Taj as a blurry figure disappearing into the darkness. A gun went off, echoing in the garage, and several people swore loudly. Walker tossed me off of him and I turned, heart leaping into my throat, in time to see Taj slipping through a hedge. I closed my eyes, hoping he hadn’t been hit.
Walker and Amir loped after Taj’s figure shouting and swearing. I started to follow when something cold pressed into the small of my back and Kozlak drawled, “I don’t think you want to do that.”
My eyes darted around frantically for an escape route. We were in a spotless three-car garage with polished black painted concrete floors. Besides Amir’s car it contained a big black Jeep with fog lights on its roll bar, the same car that had followed me down the beach. And through the open garage door I could see it in the driveway—another car I knew well. The big black one.
This was not the driveway Chad and I had pulled up to when we visited. But this must be Kozlak’s house. That was his Jeep. This garage must be on the lower level, by the room Danny and I’d hid in. A secret entrance.
“All this nonsense could’ve been avoided if you’d have agreed to star in our little film a few months ago,” Kozlak said, chomping on his cigar. He was dressed in a white suit with a white silk scarf looped around his neck like he’d just come from a formal dinner. “Damn good thing your Iranian buddy gave us back that tape. Not sure how you managed to get ahold of that.” He leaned over and trailed a chubby finger down my cheek. My palm connected with his grizzly cheek with a slap. My fingers tingled and vibrated from the impact. Kozlak immediately gripped my hand in his, his fingernails digging into my palm.
“Not very ladylike.” His eyes bored into mine for a few seconds. My heart was racing and I was panting. Then, just as abruptly, he shoved me away. My back smacked into the trunk and I winced. He held up the gun and casually shoved it into my mouth, so far that I gagged. A dirty, metallic taste filled my mouth. Sweat dripped from my temple.
“Don’t. Ever. Do. That. Again.” His eyes bore into mine.
Walker returned, panting. “Lost him, chief.”
Kozlak pulled the gun out of my mouth and shoved me toward Walker. “She gives you any trouble, tell her I’m going to shoot her little friend, Rain. That should keep her
in line.”
“Where is she?” I asked as I careened into Walker’s chest and jerked back, repulsed. Walker said something I couldn’t hear.
“Don’t worry,” Kozlak said to Walker. “You get Rain first. I keep my promises.”
“Don’t hurt her,” I said. My throat hurt from where the gun had scraped my tonsils.
“Nobody will touch my angel,” Walker said.
My face scrunched up. What the hell was he talking about?
Kozlak turned to me. “When your little Iranian buddy forked over the tape, he also told me where Rain was. Of course, as soon as I confronted him, old Rex here had no problem giving up the ghost, fessed up to finding Rain and keeping her at his penthouse. And I have to give him credit for finding her. He knew she’d end up back downtown near Union Station where I found her. I didn’t think she’d be so stupid. But Rex did. He knew. But he wants to help now. Don’t you? Otherwise, Rex, I’m afraid I can’t use you in my little side project films anymore.”
Walker fidgeted. Kozlak slapped him on the back.
“No worries. All is forgiven,” Kozlak said. “Rex is being a good boy so he gets his reward—making a little movie he can have as a keepsake.”
I was filled with fury. My jaw clenched and I balled my hands into fists. It took all my self-control not to plant my steel-toed boot in Kozlak’s crotch.
Walker and Kozlak were oblivious to my rage.
I sighed with relief when Amir emerged from the bushes. Alone. Taj must have escaped. For once, the Iranian man’s silver hair was mussy and his tie was off center.
“He headed for the beach,” Amir said.
“Go find him.” Kozlak tossed a set of keys.
Amir leaped into the Jeep but then leaned out to speak to Kozlak—white head close to the silver one. I couldn’t hear what they were saying over the sound of the Jeep’s engine.
Amir peeled out of the garage. A finger on my chin lifted my face to meet Kozlak’s dangerously glittering eyes. He said through gritted teeth, “Where’s the copy of the tape?”
I shrugged. His palm raised and came at me in slow motion. The sting of the slap seemed to echo in my mind as my cheek tingled and vibrated. I laughed incoherently. Right back where I started—getting slapped at Kozlak’s house.
Pull yourself together. I reminded myself that my goal was to stay alive until I found Rain. This time I wouldn’t run away. This time I would stand my ground and fight. There was another big difference this time. This time I wasn’t alone in the world. I had something, actually someone, worth fighting for beside myself.
While Walker held my arms behind me, Kozlak took out a knife and ran his finger along the blade. “Tell me where the tape is. I’m going to wait here while I send someone to retrieve it. If they can’t find it. You die. Right here. Right now.”
He pressed the blade against my neck. I swallowed hard. I felt a tiny prick.
“Amir has the only copy. I lied.” The pressure on my neck eased. He brought the knife to his face and licked a small drop of blood from the blade. He stared as if daring me to crack and confess something more.
I met his gaze without blinking. “I swear. You have to believe me. It was a bluff. I wouldn’t even know where or how to go to make a copy of it anyway. How would I know how to do that stuff?” It was the truth and Kozlak knew it.
Kozlak looked at me for a long moment and then laughed.
“Walker, take her to the set. I’ll meet you there. I need to clean up and change.” The director disappeared through a door in the garage, toward the back.
“Come on, sugar,” Walker said, and jutted his cartoonish chin toward the door where Kozlak had disappeared. Up close I could see the deadness of Walker’s eyes. Instead of reflecting the fluorescent lights in the garage, his eyes were dark pits that seemed to suck in all the light like black holes. His gravelly voice was sexy to ninety percent of the female population in the world, but I flinched at the sound and shrunk away from his extended hand. He was a pervert and a murderer.
When I jerked away from him, he said calmly, “Suit yourself, darling.”
I stood stock-still. “Where’s Rain?”
“She’s safe.” He gestured toward the door. “Ladies first.”
Walker turned to me and raised his hand. I braced myself, anticipating the sting of another slap, but instead, I felt the back of his hand caressing my cheek.
“I’ll take you to her, sugar. She’s in a…well, let’s just call it…a holding pen.”
“Holding pen for what?” I spat out.
“You’re both going to star in my new movie.”
“What?” I asked, my eyes darting around ready to run.
“The church has put the smack down on some of my…more controversial desires. See, I didn’t mean to kill that girl. That one in the tape you had. I was planning on letting go of her neck—eventually. But in my excitement, I got a little carried away. But then…oh my God. The rush. It is even better than sex, little princess. The power to take someone’s life. To watch their essence extinguished in their eyes. There is no other high like it. Now I know. Now I know why people kill. And then do it again.”
His eyes had grown glassy and it was almost as if he forgot I was there. Then he came back to me, gently placing his hand on my shoulder and bending down so I could feel his warm breath.
“But that was a mistake. An accident. It has to have been done on purpose. To achieve the power, you must sacrifice the child in a meaningful way. And the child must be pure.”
The brochure the masked men gave me said that some church members believed this was the way to unlimited power.
“My plan was to wait until the summer solstice. That seemed the most auspicious day, but then when the riots started, I realized it was a sign. It must be done on the third day of the riots. The number three is very important in our world, did you know that, my sweet? Well, the third day is today. We only have a few hours left.”
He looped his arm through mine, like he was escorting me to my seat at an awards show. I walked, dragging my feet, but just a little. I needed Walker to take me to Rain. The sooner I found Rain, the sooner we could get out of here.
We stepped through the door into a small hallway that contained an elevator and another door at the far end. Walker stopped in front of the elevator and punched the button. I didn’t know if we were going up or down.
The other door opened and Kozlak peeked his white mane in. Beyond the door I could see that it was the room near the closet the maid had hidden us in. Not far away was another door to the beach.
“We’ll get started as soon as the camera guy gets here,” Kozlak said gruffly to Walker around the cigar he was chomping on. Camera guy. Chad. He turned to me. “He’ll be happy to see you. You’ve been a loose end for much too long.”
“Why Rain?”
“I saw her one day here, at Dean’s house,” Walker said. “She looked so innocent and helpless. I knew she was the one.”
We were standing in the narrow hallway in front of the elevator doors. He had yet to push the button, caught up in talking about Rain. Darting a glance at the direction Kozlak had gone, I tried to keep Rex Walker talking.
“Kozlak said you knew she’d go back to Union Station, so why didn’t you just grab her that first time you saw her downtown?”
“That’s not how it works.” He ran his fingers through his hair and gave me an exasperated look as if I was supposed to know all of this. “For the ultimate power, she has to willingly sacrifice herself. She had to want to go with me. I courted her until she felt the same way as me.”
“She didn’t want to go with you.” Again, I glanced at the door. That was my escape path. The door to the beach. But first to get Rain.
“You know who I am?” he asked, squinting, and gave a small laugh. “Well, of course you do. So you know that I can pretty much have any woman I want, right?”
I refused to answer.
“Well, let me tell you, that gets old fast. When you
can sleep with the most dazzling women in the world you can’t help but start to get bored a little. They’ve seen and done it all. They all start to blend into one. But young women on the verge of adulthood? It’s different every time. It’s fresh.”
“It’s rape,” I spit out, glaring at him.
He shrugged. “I am, above all else, a gentleman. I don’t need to force them. I don’t need to even ask. They want my love.”
I glared, thinking of the girl tied up in the video.
“Then why do you need to tie them up?”
He swiveled his head toward me.
“It enhances our pleasure. The game we are playing. In essence, it is all acting, a role. They are the headlining act. For once in their life, they are the stars of the show. The girls I meet are the ones nobody loves. Nobody cares if they live or die until I come into their lives. I am doing them the greatest favor anyone has ever done. I give them more than they ever dreamed.” He paused. “I give them me—a fantasy, a dream come true. I dress them in designer clothes, put them in my penthouse bedrooms fit for princesses, feed them gourmet meals delivered from Spago.
“And the price? Not much. Just to satisfy my desires, which they long for as well. Most of them end up begging me. They get down on their hands and knees and beg me to let them stay. But I can’t keep all of them. I mean, my God, where would I put them? But Rain, now she is different. You see, sugar, unlike the other girls, Rain has never been with a man. I found her first. And she loves me. Really, truly loves me. Her love is just like her—pure and innocent and genuine. That’s why her sacrifice will bring me the ultimate power I seek.”
“But she didn’t go willingly,” I said. “You had to force her. That’s not love.”
“No,” Walker said, his eyebrows drawing together in the first sign of emotion I’d seen. “No, no, that’s not right at all. I didn’t force her. I’m afraid you are mistaken. She wanted to be with me.” He pressed the button, summoning the elevator.
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