"She didn't!" Lauren interrupted earnestly, "He was just there, and-" Her explanation broke off at his cold expression.
"Insisting on taking you there was not a mistake," Thomas said, his voice dipping to polar levels, "it was not a coincidence that Martinsson was there. There is a reason I have told you to distance yourself. I don't know what Bella is up to, but her actions thus far are foolhardy. But I believe she will regain her self-control. No matter what you think, she loves her position as Queen Bee." He watched as his wife drooped with sadness. "No matter what has happened to her darling, she will not let go of her place on the social scale. For this reason - if nothing else - I believe she'll pull herself together." He could tell Lauren didn't believe him, but she forced a smile and stood.
"I dropped by the Beau Boulangerie to pick up some of those chocolate eclairs you love," she picked up his dinner plate, and Thomas took her other hand, pulling her to a halt.
"Let's bring those upstairs with us, shall we?" With a high-pitched noise, Lauren hurried to do as he'd suggested.
Her worries about her friend came to a head the next week at a charity planning meeting. Arabella was dressed superbly in an alarmingly expensive suit. She was at her majestic best, presiding over the meeting, but Lauren could tell something was wrong. Her friend was moving stiffly, favoring her right side. And when everyone had filed out of the cafe where they'd met, Arabella side-stepped a confused Clara to drag Lauren out the back door.
"Bella?" Lauren was half-trotting, trying to keep up with the older woman as they headed down the alley. "What are you doing, honey? We need to get back- Chuck will be looking for me and whoever that mountain of muscle is, who's following you around isn't going to be that happy, so-"
"Relax!" laughed Mrs. Ben Kingston, "You're wound so tightly! Doesn't it feel good just to be free of everything for a minute?" There was a manic glint in her eyes as she looked back at Lauren teasingly, "Just for a moment, let's give them the slip."
She'd grown up in a city even larger than this one, but Lauren suddenly felt the buildings closing in on them as Arabella hauled her down a side street, looking behind them to see if they'd been followed. The girl's pulse sped faster, and she could feel sweat breaking out on her forehead, under her arms. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. There were many people who didn't like their husbands. Lots of people. Any of those people could be... "Bella, I don't like this," Lauren managed, "it isn't safe, you know that. And we're going to get into a lot of trouble when-"
"Just for a minute!" The woman's voice pitched high, and she squeezed the girl's hand harder. "Just for a minute so we can talk without those apes hanging over us, listening to every word. Please, Lauren? Just for a minute?"
Shaking her head despairingly, she let Arabella draw her into a little bar. As her friend downed one drink and asked for another, Lauren watched her in concern. "How are you, really? You're moving kind of funny. Has he hurt you again?"
Arabella gave a little chuckle, gurgling a bit as it mixed with her recent swallow of vodka. "Again?" She put down the glass and took a deep breath. "This can't go on. I've tried to live withhim- with what The Corporation does - but it must stop. And we must make it happen." The light flashed off the huge diamond on her left hand as she took another gulp of her cocktail.
Lauren's mouth dropped open. "Honey, you can't talk like this. It's nuts to even be saying this out loud. Let's go-"
"You're not listening TO ME!" Arabella drew in a breath as heads turned to look at them. "We can stop this, but I need you. There are people, friends who can help us, but-"
"No no no," Lauren shook her head, pulling away, "is this about the Grey Man, about-"
"Shhh!" hissed the other woman, "He's meeting us here in a moment, it's the only way we can talk safely."
Leaning in close, Lauren whispered furiously, "I can't believe you dragged me into this- you must be nuts, Arabella! Do you think that man gives a shit about you? I'm leaving and I don't want to ever talk to you about-"
"Mrs. Williams. It's time to go." Chuck's voice was emotionless as he stepped behind her.
Staring at his blank brown eyes, Lauren thought, "Oh,fuck."
Back to wearing holes in her husband's expensive oriental rugs, Lauren numbly counted her footsteps. Fifteen steps to the fireplace... He would never believe she wasn't in on whatever mess the unhinged Mrs. Kingston was planning. She knew it looked terrible, sneaking off without Chuck and how he found them, how she was leaning over whispering like she was planning, plotting with her so-called former friend. Biting back a sob, the girl rubbed her hands over her bare arms. After everything he'd just done, Thomas thought he did it for her but it was for The Corporation, for him. But the controlled savagery of making her father kill her attacker? This would look like utter disloyalty. Would he even believe she didn't know anything about it? That Arabella was throwing her under the bus? What would even make that woman eventhinkshe'd go in on this suicidal plan? Lauren might be new to the terrifying world she lived in, but she was very clear after numerous business dinners and Corporation cocktail parties that there were worse monsters than the one she was married to. Far worse. What would Thomas be like when he came home? What would... stifling her moan, Lauren counted. Thirty-five steps back to the hallway...
"Is there anything you'd like to tell me before your punishment?"
Lauren whirled with a little embarrassing squeak. Thomas was standing in the entryway; she hadn't even heard him come in. Hands casually in his pockets, still looking as groomed and put-together as he had leaving the house that morning. "Thomas, I..."My mouth is so damn dry,she thought,I wish I had a gigantic glass of wine right now- no, a jug of wine-because it didn't seem like she could force the words out to explain to him that it was just a misunderstanding and that-
"Nothing, darling?" he bit the last word off as if it was distasteful.
"It wasn't my idea; I didn't plan it. Arabella just sort of dragged me out the back door of the restaurant and-"
In two long steps, her terrifying husband was looking down at her, his warm breath hitting her skin. "Dragged you. Did she drag you against your will, kicking and screaming? With no chance to alert Straker, who is there for your safety?" Thomas's voice rose into a sharp shout on the last word and Lauren tried to step away from him. One hand shot out and took her by the upper arm, long fingers wrapping around it as he turned towards the stairs, pulling her along.
Thomas had been on fire with fury since Straker had called to alert him that Lauren had slipped his scrutiny and was out somewhere, unattended, with that idiot Arabella. Who was concerned for no one's safety but her own. The looks of suspicion and amusement from Numbers One and Three, staring at him as Kingston also received a call to let him know his wife had slipped her chain. Fassell, that idiot had chuckled heartlessly. "Just got a call from my sweet girl. She's so very worried about her two friends just-" the man had the gall to put up his hands with two fingers, wiggling them mockingly, "-disappearing. Fortunately, I can always count on Clara to do as she's told."
His grip tightened slightly as he felt Lauren stumble on the stair behind him, and Thomas lifted her up effortlessly, pulling her along to the third floor and bypassing their bedroom as he opened the door to the room that held so many options for discipline. He'd called out several employees to start the search until Straker had called back within five minutes. Of course, the tracker on his wife's phone. And the one sewn into her messenger bag. So really, just three hundred seconds of what Thomas realized had been bone-searing terror ripping through him. Three hundred seconds of wondering who'd kidnapped his Lauren and what they were doing to her. Three hundred seconds as he'd raced from the top floor of the office and down to his car to picture her lifeless eyes, her broken and bleeding body. And the fifteen-minute drive home to realize just how terrified he'd been. How weak. And how angry he was now. But Thomas refused to leave the Jaguar for another twenty minutes until he was sure he had his temper under control, and his rage at the panic he'd felt at the thought of Lauren gone.
"This merits correction. You can't be surprised by this."
She let out a sob, he could hear her voice waver as Lauren attempted to plead with him. "Thomas, please just-" the words were cut off as he flipped up the leather-padded benchtop of the long ottoman and lifted her swiftly, putting her inside the barred enclosure.
"Bad girls do not receive the privilege of speaking. You will have to earn back your freedom, one step at a time." He saw the shock in her lavender eyes, her mouth open as he shut the top of the bench and locked it. Walking over to the armoire and pouring a drink from the bar there, Thomas counted down, waiting for her scream of outrage.Five... four... three... two... one...
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU INSANE? GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
