C H A P T E R3 0
Kidnapped Heir
Ella
The Present
“So why exactly am I being kidnapped?”
All four of us turned to glare at Josh, who was sitting in the backseat, sandwiched between Hera and Darla, twiddling his thumbs and appearing confused.
“You’re not being kidnapped,” I said testily from the passenger seat. Dacia was driving the getaway vehicle tonight, a black fully tinted jeep that was inconspicuous. “We’re justborrowingyou. For an indefinite amount of time.”
Once we’d finished dinner, Darla, Dacia, and I gunned it over to Hera’s place. She ran out with a small duffel bag, looking slightly worried—because we drafted this plan within the hour—and slightly excited—because we hadn’t been reunited in months. Nothing like detective work to bring the girl gang back together again.
We all made sure to dress up in black to fly under the radar.
After that, we picked up Josh. Well, ‘picked up’ was putting it nicely. I texted him to come outside, saying it was urgent. When he reached the gates, we basically shoved him into the car and drove off while he shrieked for help.
Now we headed over to the Mackowski household to breakin, spy-movie style.
“Okay, and why am I being ‘borrowed’?” He did air quotes on the last word.
Honesty was the best policy, right? “We need you to hack into someone’s laptop and help us gather some intel.”
Josh was a genius with computers. If there was one person who could help us solve this fake screenshots and Secrets of St. Victoria account mystery, it was him.
“Sure, but fair warning…” he drawled with a lopsided smile. “I’m kind of stoned.”
The girls groaned in unison.
Shit, I knew something seemed off about him. I assumed he woke up from a nice nap and that’s why his eyes were red. The last thing I expected was for him to be high. He wasn’t a smoker at all.
“Great,” Dacia said sarcastically, smacking the steering wheel with her palm. “This plan is going to tank.”
“So, Plan B?” Darla prompted.
Hera’s green eyes were wide with concern as she tied her dark hair up in a bun. “Um, do we even have a Plan B?”
No, we did not.
I turned around in my seat to inch Josh a frustrated look. “Since when do you smoke?”
“Since Layla is ignoring me over something stupid and I’m sad, okay?” he hissed. “And my dad produces grade-A Kush, so why shouldn’t I be allowed to drown my sorrows in drugs?”
“For legal reasons, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear anything.” Hera covered her ears.
“Me too.” Darla chuckled.
Dacia shot him a glance through the rearview mirror. “Trouble in paradise, Joshy?”
Josh grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. His big body looked comical stuffed between the smaller frames of Darlaand Hera, who were practically smothered against the windows because his muscular build took up all the space. “Layla thinks I don’t love her.”
We all gasped jokingly. Josh not loving Layla? Impossible. This boy was professing his undying love for her at every opportunity.
He nodded exaggeratedly, pointed at us. “See? See! Everybody knows I love her. So why doesn’t she believe me?”
Layla and Josh were the definition of black cat and golden retriever. She shied away from emotions while he practically dove head-first into them. But Layla had to know he loved her. It was so glaringly obvious unless…
