All the games.
He cleared his voice and stood even taller. “I might not be mayor, but I’m not going anywhere. You can count on that. But right now, we’re needed out there on the water. Lulu’s missing and she needs us. Are you with me?”
Thirty-Two
The intruder paused and Lulu felt eyes on her. Probably checking to see if she was awake.
She groaned, as if she was just waking up. Footfalls approached her, and hands came behind her head to untie the gag. She thought about biting the hand but that conflicted with her “find out what’s going on” strategy. “Where…what…what happened?”
Good thing she had performance experience. She sounded just as weak and scared as a kidnapping victim ought to.
For some reason, she didn’t actually feel scared. She wasn’t sure why not. Maybe it was because she’d been through so much in the past couple of years. This didn’t even rate on her tragedy Richter scale—although of course that depended on Antonov’s ultimate plans for her.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” said a man’s raspy voice. “Though I wouldn’t mind it, so behave.”
“Who…what…where am I? Who are you?”
“You know who I am.”
She sighed. “Seb. It’s been too long. What on earth are you doing back in Alaska?”
“I had something to come back for. You’re going to make me some money.”
“I barely make enough money for myself. How am I going to do that?”
“You should work on your self-esteem.” The man’s voice had a touch of an accent, and she remembered Maya saying that he was a Romanian national. But borders seemed to mean nothing to him.
“Thanks for the tip, Kidnapper. As soon as you let me go, I’ll book a session with a therapist. You might want to do the same, because if you’re thinking ransom, you’ve gone off the deep end.”
“Louise Spencer-Bennington. Fifty-third in line for the British throne.”
“Are you planning to off fifty-two people? Because that’s a very complicated plan. Besides, my mother was fifty-third in line. I’m nothing.”
“I’m not going to off anyone. I’m not a killer.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Unless someone irritates me,” he added menacingly.
“Same, man. Same.”
He snorted out a laugh, which gave her a weird boost of confidence. Despite being drugged and kidnapped, she still had the ability to make a person laugh. “In case you didn’t know, both my parents are dead. My closest relatives are like, second cousins and so forth. My grandparents cut me off long ago. They won’t care what happens to me.”
“Maybe not. But they’ll care about their good name. They did a good job erasing all mention of your mother after she fucked that postman. Now your grandfather is being considered for a big post in the new government.”
“Is that right? I should really follow the news more.”
She knew that Richard Spencer-Bennington was a political mover and shaker, but that was where her interest ended.
“You should. He could be named Minister of the Interior. But if it comes out that they abandoned your poor sick mother and ignored you, there will be a scandal. I’m surprised you didn’t think of this yourself. Blackmail material is just as good as gold.”
Her stomach twisted at the idea of her mother’s life story being used to harm her grandparents. Mama had always insisted that she was in charge of all the decisions in her life. She’d chosen to break with her parents. She’d chosen to raise Lulu far outside the usual lifestyle of a Spencer-Bennington.
At the end, she’d reached out to her parents to let them know she was dying. A conversation had happened, but Lulu hadn’t been part of it. All her mother had said afterwards was that she was at peace now, and so were they.
Ironic that after all the work to keep Lulu out of the Spencer-Bennington orbit, the kidnapper was dragging her right into it.
“What can I say? I guess I don’t have your knack for crime.”
“I’m going to take your blindfold off now so I can take some pictures. And there’s this.”
With no other warning, he socked her on the side of her face, just below her cheekbone. The shocking pain slammed through her.
“It’s really just for show,” he said, indifferently. “But don’t forget that I can do this again whenever I want.”
She fought the impulse to put her hand to her cheek. Everything in her wanted to do so, but that would tip him off that her hands were free. It took all her willpower to keep her hands behind her back as if they were still tied together. Her cheekbone throbbed and she felt her eye swell up.
“The show must go on,” she managed.
He untied the blindfold and she blinked up at him. He wore a bandana over his face, which pissed her off because it made her think of Tristan. She hated him. For the terror he’d caused Raul, for blowing up Tristan’s truck, for punching her…and for stomping all over her mother’s memory with his nasty schemes.
She didn’t care much about her grandfather’s ministry position, or whether he’d have to come up with half a million dollars. But the idea that her mother’s life would be reduced to blackmail material bothered her. A lot.
“Look scared,” he ordered her.
She obliged him, putting on a terrified expression.
“That’s too much. It looks fake.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d gotten that feedback. Apparently she had one of those faces that were too expressive. “So you’re a director now?”
“Just do it again.”
This time she channeled the pain radiating from the bruise on her cheek. That satisfied him, and he put away his camera. She wondered why he wasn’t using a phone, then realized that it might be possible to trace the location of the photo that way. Maybe the old-school camera didn’t collect metadata like that.
He turned to go, and as much as she loathed him, she felt panic at the thought of being left alone again.
“Where’s the woman you’re working with? Shouldn’t someone be here keeping an eye on me?”
Antonov snorted. “She’s keeping warm at a hotel. My fault for choosing a spoiled rich bitch.”
“That explains the expensive pashmina.” Lulu twisted her face and winced. Antonov strode toward the door.
“Wait. Where are we? What if I have to go to the bathroom?”
“Do you?”
“Not yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Don’t tell me you didn’t come up with a plan for that.”
“I’ll be back in an hour and you can go outside. Can you wait an hour?”
“Yes.”
An hour. She could do a lot with an hour. She wondered where her phone was. Maybe they’d left it close by somewhere and she could send a text to someone. Maya Badger or Toni. If she could let someone know where she was, maybe they could find her before Antonov did too much damage.
Her kidnapper put the blindfold back in place, but he left off the gag.
“You know, maybe it makes more sense to work together,” she said. “Like you said, I have no real loyalty to the Spencer-Benningtons. I’m definitely not a spoiled rich bitch. Why don’t you let me go free and we’ll figure this out?”