“Sweetheart, you’ll never be alone again,” he said, leaning over and giving her a kiss. “You’re stuck with me now.”
***Rose***
“If we’re going to the mountains, I’ll need some boots and a warmer coat. It’s winter, Malcolm,” Rose argued, trying not to get angry. “The police are watching my apartment, so it should be safe to stop there. I hate to buy new stuff when I already have perfectly good things at home.”
“It just feels risky, the police haven’t done a very good job of protecting you so far,” he said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Rose, that’s why we’re hiding out for a few days.”
“But I have you,” she said, grinning at him. “She’s not going to hurt me with you around.”
He let out a long sigh. “Fine, but make it quick,” he said, shaking his head. “I want to get out of town as soon as we can.”
“Five minutes,” she said, relaxing back in the seat. “I promise.”
When she opened the door of her apartment, she knew instantly that someone was there, and she froze, then the scent of Chet’s cologne wafted toward her. Looking over her shoulder at Malcolm, she whispered, “Chet’s here, I can smell his cologne.”
He waved her inside, shut the door behind them, then slipped into the hall closet, leaving it cracked open a couple of inches. Bracing herself for another encounter with Chet, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, switched it to record, and tucked it back into her pocket, then took a deep breath and walked into the living room. Chet was sitting in the chair right where she knew he would be, a magazine open in his lap, a drink on the table next to him.
“I see you made yourself comfortable,” she said, sitting down on the couch. “I was going to call you later.”
“Oh, really? I find that hard to believe since I haven’t heard from you in days. I’m getting really tired of having to chase youdown; these trips up here are getting old,” he said. “You’d better have some information for me, it’s been weeks, and I know for a fact you’ve been spending a lot of time with Malcolm; he must have told you something by now.”
“He wasn’t involved, he swore to me he wasn’t, and neither are his friends,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to those two men, but Malcolm isn’t responsible.”
“He’s lying, I know he is, you’re just not trying hard enough,” Chet said, leaning forward in his chair. “Have you slept with him yet?”
“What?” she asked, then shook her head. “That’s none of your business.”
“So, you haven’t,” Chet said, shaking his head. “I knew you couldn’t handle this. You have to sleep with him, idiot, that will loosen up his tongue.”
“I’m not going to sleep with him just to get him to talk,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s going too far, I won’t do it.”
“That’s a shame. I was hoping that you’d be more cooperative, but that’s okay, I guess you don’t care about your sister as much as I thought you did,” he said, then sighed. “I would hate to see her get hurt because you’re being uptight about sex. It would really be a shame.”
“That’s not going to work anymore. Go ahead and kick Chloe out; I’ll just find her and let her move in with me,” she said, deciding to call his bluff. “I’m a grown woman now, your threats aren’t going to work. I will never let Chloe live on the streets again.”
“Oh dear, you haven’t heard, have you?” Chet asked, clearly enjoying himself. “The plans have changed. I’ve decided that since you can’t give me what I need, I’ll find another way to get the power necessary to take over the cl…corporation. It has come to my attention that a few of my business partners had a little party planned recently. Sadly, their entertainment fell through,and they had to cancel the event. I’ve been approached to help them find a replacement, and it occurred to me that Chloe would be perfect.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, feeling sick to her stomach. “She’s still just a child.”
“You clearly haven’t seen your sister lately,” Chet sneered. “If she wasn’t my stepdaughter…well, let’s just say I might just join in the fun.”
“You’re disgusting. Mom will never let you get away with this,” she said, jumping to her feet. “I’m going to call her right now, tell her everything.”
“She won’t believe you,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “She thinks you’re spending some time in a mental institution.”
She could only stare at him, too shocked to speak. “Oh, and your sister, well, she’s been having a hard time lately too,” he said, shaking his head sadly. “She’s been acting out at school, stealing, sleeping around, skipping class. They’re about to expel her and send her home. It won’t surprise me one little bit if she suddenly decides to run away and we never see or hear from her again. Of course, your mom will be devastated, but she’ll get over it, after all, she has little Ben and her loving husband to console her.”
“You’ll never get away with this. I’m going to stop you,” she spat at him. “Now get out of my house before I call the police and have you arrested for trespassing.”
“You seem to forget that I’m on the lease,” Chet said, getting slowly to his feet. “But I’ll go. You’ve got twenty-four hours, Rose, get me the information I want or your sister is going to pay, and pay big.”
She managed to stay on her feet until she heard the front door slam, then sank to the carpet a feeling of desolation settling over her, the defiance drained right out of her. A second later, Malcolm was there lifting her to her feet. “Oh, no you don’t,” hesaid, turning her to face him and tipping her chin up so that she was looking into his eyes. “That was amazing, you stood up to him, you challenged him. I’m so proud of you, and best of all, you got him to reveal his plan, and you recorded the whole thing. We’ve got him right where we want him, on the run, don’t give up now.”
Looking into his eyes, she felt her confidence returning. She wasn’t facing Chet alone anymore; she had a whole army behind her. “You’re right, I just let him get to me for a second,” she said, then took a deep breath. “We have to go get Chloe, we have to get to her before he does.”
“Yep, looks like it’s time for another change of plans,” Malcolm said, pulling out his phone. “I sure seem to be doing that a lot since I met you, but desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “What are you going to do?”
