“And you’re confused, dear lady. This is no negotiation. You walked into my building unarmed, which means you belong to me.”
Vonnie crossed her arms and held her head up high. “We have backup plans.”
The Grandmaster lowered his gun but lifted one of his eyebrows. “You mean the blonde woman hiding behind the side door?”
As if on cue, the door in question opened and someone pushed Katy into the room by pressing a gun into her back. “We have a car approaching from the north,” the man pushing Katy said.
I expected another frown or sneer, but the Grandmaster smiled. That one was slightly alarming. It was more of a hungry smile, as if he’d been told our driver was about to drop off his dinner. If this was the animal kingdom, he would definitely be in charge.
“Good. How about we show them a little of our hospitality?” the man I no longer found very attractive said. His eyes sparkled like he was looking forward to his hospitality and we all knew it wasn’t fresh towels and a pillow mint.
Vonnie included me into her negotiation technique, but we needed to hurry the entire operation along. Plus, the dead fish smell was still grossing me out. I tried to breathe through my mouth, but sometimes I forgot and then almost died. It reminded me of the boat where they held Cyrus and me.
“Look,” I said and then took a hard swallow. I waited until my stomach was under control before I spoke again. “Let Katy, Vonnie, and my mom go and then you can keep me,” I said, pointing toward Katy to make sure I clarified who he was letting go.
“No.” I had to give the man. It was a simple and effective answer although not the one I wanted.
I crossed my arms, mimicking Katy and Vonnie’s stances. It made me slightly more powerful. “I’m worth more.”
At that, the Grandmaster’s calm smile returned. “Oh, you’re cute.” He raised his gun and pointed it at Katy. I really hoped he had the safety on that thing. “This one is attached to Pierce Kensington. I can assure you she is worth more.”
I was losing all my bargaining chips and if the Grandmaster knew who Katy was, we really were outmatched. “But…” I said, letting the word sit since I didn’t know what came after it.
For the first time that evening, I was scared. Before I’d been so sure we’d walk in and I’d ransom myself in my mother’s place. I figured once we had my mom safe, Cyrus could bargain for me. Nothing changed except my mom’s safety, but now I realized I miscalculated.
The Grandmaster laughed, and it sound honestly joyous, like this conversation thrilled him. “Don’t worry, you’re important too. You’ll bring me Corbin or his twin,” he said, lowering his gun again. “It seemed Bernard can’t tell them apart.”
It was a curious thing to say, but I didn’t have more time to press him because we had important matters at hand. “What about my mom?”
His hand flew up, and I flinched, even though it wasn’t the one holding the gun. “Bring her in, Moose,” he said to the man who pushed Katy through the door and then stood in front of it.
He walked across the open warehouse to a door on the other wall. Really, it was a warehouse full of doors. There had to be at least two or three on every wall with no indication of where they led except for one at the far end, which had a bathroom sign attached to it. Not that anyone could’ve paid me to use the bathroom that reeked of fish death.
The seconds stretched on, and what was probably only fifteen felt like thirty. The door moved and he and my mother stepped out of it.
I ran in her direction. “Mom!”
She locked her arms around me and squeezed tightly. I never wanted to let her go, but now she’d walk out on her own. I stepped back and checked her for other injuries. I saw no black eyes, bruises, or dried blood on any of her clothing. She looked quite fine. Didn’t even have a limp or bandaged fingers.
“Did you have time to finish your ballgame?” the Grandmaster asked my mother.
And then the craziest thing in the entire world happened. Like super crazy. Crazier than Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez getting back together. My mother smiled at him. “I did. The Braves took it in the last inning.”
“You were watching baseball?” I asked, a little accusingly.
The Grandmaster laughed again, like he found it hilarious. “Yes, we stopped in at your mother’s house during the game and she was quite irritated she wasn’t able to finish. I had Moose find her a replay.”
“The screaming?” I asked.
My mother’s face turned a slight shade of pink. “You know how stressful those things are. The game was just getting started, and we already had two errors and were down a run. I can’t believe the team came back from that.”
I chose not to believe it. That denial thing was still going strong for me, so I lifted my mom’s arm and searched her for bruises. She had to have a bruise somewhere. Anywhere. I licked my finger and rubbed at her cheek, searching for makeup.
She patted my hand away. “I’m fine. Except from what I hear, you have some explaining to do, young lady. Kidnapping and hitchhiking with truckers? What about safety? Do you think you graduate college, get a job, and all those lessons I spent years putting into your head just fly out the window?”
A snort came from behind me, and I whipped around to see if it was Katy or Vonnie since it definitely had a feminine pitch to it, but both of them schooled their features into blandness before I determined.
“What’s your long game?” Katy asked, and I dropped my mother’s arm to pay attention.
