Fuck. She’s insane. And I don’t even know how long I was out. How far from the cabin are we? “Paige, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Don’t act like you’re so fucking innocent,” she scoffs. Her boots stamp the rough wooden floor as she paces in front of me. “You still ask why.” It sounds like she’s talking to herself as much as me when she mumbles. “All this trouble and you still don’t have a fucking clue. Do you know how hard it is to kidnap a celebrity baby? How patient we had to be? How difficult it was to get those inbred idiots to calm the fuck down and listen to me?”
My body aches with the cold and I pull my knees up, tucking my hands between my legs. Even through the pain and discomfort, I feel the shock of her words.
“You. You took Caden? That doesn’t…I don’t understand. Why? How did you even know those people? I never met them.” None of this makes any sense. Maybe I’m still unconscious.
“For a teacher, you can be a fucking idiot, do you know that? Why? You still ask me why?” Laughing, she sits on a pile of wooden pallets. “You want a story before your last bedtime? Fine.
“You told me when you found your sister, her name and everything, but you didn’t want me to go with you to meet her. Well, surprise, bitch, I met her right after you did. Even met her mother since she was there when I visited. And when I let them know what a threat you were to her baby, that Caden was what you were after, they were only too happy to brush you off. Why do you think Deidre only used you for money when she needed it? She wasn’t going to let you get any information on her life or job that you could use against her.”
The same question beats in my head. “Why?” I utter. “Why turn them against me?”
Disgust fills her face. “You were always looking for family. Even went so far as to hunt down those worthless junkies when I was right there!” she roars. “You didn’t need them when you had me!”
“But…you were my family, my best friend.”
“Ooo, I was your best friend,” she mocks. “I was in love with you! All that time, I watched you date guy after guy and you know, I thought maybe you just needed time to grow up and get it out of your system. That you’d realize what was in front of you. Who was always there for you. But you didn’t see me.”
She leans closer and her face looks like a fairytale witch in the green light. Contorted by hate. “But you fucking see me now, don’t you?”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “Paige, I loved you as my friend. I’m not into women and you never said you were either.”
“You think I forgot, is that it? You think I don’t remember that night, after that stupid frat party where the guy was groping you? Are you going to try to act like nothing happened between us?”
It’s hard to think with the throb in my head and the aches settling into my bones as I shiver harder. “The kiss?” I finally gasp out. “Paige, we had a few drinks, you kissed me and—”
“No!” she shouts, pulling the trigger on the taser again.
My body jerks with the pain, and I feel myself trying to pass out. I don’t know how much more I can take.
“You kissed me back! Then you tried to act like it never happened, but it did!”
“It did,” I sob, afraid she’ll keep zapping me. “It did. I remember. I just…didn’t know it meant anything to you.” We laughed about it the next day. I remember us joking that it isn’t really a college experience if you don’t end up drunk kissing your best friend. I never imagined she felt anything.
“Well, it’s too fucking late now. I gave up on you loving me, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t need me, especially when you had no one else.”
She squats down beside me, pride in her voice as she continues, “Deidre’s mother, Beverly, called me a few days after Deidre died because she was trying to track down Caden and thought you had him. Hell, you didn’t even know she was dead yet, and I told her that. I thought that would be the end of it. Sister dead and nephew in foster care. Problem solved. But then I got that nanny agency job and Caden’s name was on the list. Like a damn gift from god. I saw the possibilities. The way to make sure you needed me.”
Getting to her feet, she paces with a delighted laugh. She’s completely lost her mind. “It seemed so easy. I could just hire you as the nanny, get the stupid old woman to take the baby, then let the cops know you were related so you’d be a suspect. Chances were you’d be cleared, but even if you didn’t go to prison, an accusation like that would kill your teaching career. Either way, you’d be in a shitload of trouble, in jail or unemployable. You’d need me to fall back on.”
Disbelief overrides everything I’m feeling. She planned this. All of this, from the very beginning.
“What about Caden? What were you going to do with him?”
“Either they’d get away and he’d end up with the stupid grandmother, or back with his father if they got caught. It didn’t matter. When I called Beverly and let her know who had Caden, she was happy to grab him back, especially after those pictures of you and him kept showing up.
“What really fucked things up was Axton being his father. Didn’t see that coming, and it made things harder, but it worked out anyway. Beverly sent the letters, and I let her know where Axton lived and the best way into the house. She knew another lowlife who didn’t mind taking out a security guard.”
Paige squats in front of me again. “I could’ve had him kill you too. Have you realized that yet?”
It’s like she’s waiting on me to thank her. “Why didn’t you?”
“I should have. I was weak. I knew by then that you were fucking around and that you’d replaced me. I hadn’t even heard from you in weeks, then you invite me over to rub it in my face.”
Confusion makes me blink up at her. “The day you came over to swim? I wasn’t even…Axton and I hadn’t done anything.”
“You know damn well I’m not talking about Axton!” she screams and kicks me in the ribs. Pain shoots through me, and I gasp for breath. “You replaced me with that stupid sister of his! And then when you went on tour! Pictures of you with her, smiling and laughing. Any time you talked to me, you mentioned her! Yeah, you were straight as an arrow until you found Dani.”
It won’t do me any good to deny it. She’s way past crazy and isn’t going to believe anything I say.
“I told myself it didn’t matter, to be patient, because after the tour, everything would be different. After you were found out.”
A maniacal laugh fills the small space and she throws her head back. “But they fucking took you back! You lied to them, got their damn baby kidnapped and they took you back! That was when I knew it was over. I should’ve let Beverly’s guy kill you, but no matter, this is more fun anyway.”
She grabs my hands and drags me to the center of the shed. Another cord is wrapped around the thick loops that bind my wrists, then tied to a large beam that looks like it’s about the only thing holding the place together.
“I did some research. In this cold, it won’t take you more than a few hours to freeze to death. Maybe less since you’re wet.”