Lacey isn’t here. What did they do with her? Oh god, I hope she’s okay. Lee can’t bear the loss of his only family. The words I heard as I was regaining consciousness float back to me. Trinity asking for permission to go, the other woman refusing. Trinity drugged us but she isn’t the one behind everything.
Arlow and Calli would’ve shown up at Lacey’s by now and seen that we’re missing. They’ll call Lee, and surely, they’ll all be looking for us, but how will they find us? Fear and adrenaline grip me, and I try to control my breathing. I have to stay calm and think clearly if I’m going to get myself out of this.
It’s hard to remain calm when the minutes feel like hours. I can hear Trinity and the other woman’s voices outside. Screaming for help isn’t going to do anything. I keep trying to move my wrists and ankles, pulling against the ropes, but it only causes pain and doesn’t give an inch.
Is this how things are going to end, after everything I’ve gone through this year? I want to think that they don’t intend to kill me. After all, they could’ve just done it in Lacey’s apartment. I don’t think the Matheson’s are behind it either. They know their secret will get out if I go missing. This has to be another attempt to get Lee to murder Joshua. But that’s hard to believe. If they could do this, why didn’t they just kill Joshua in the first place?
I lean my head back, tears rolling down my face. Thebeams above are splintered ribs against the sky, framing a spray of stars. Night insects hum steadily beyond the walls, and nearby, something scurries around, tiny claws scrabbling against old wood. An hour passes and then another.
Footsteps come from the darkness, thudding across the dirt floor, and the woman behind my kidnapping steps from the shadows. The room tilts and my stomach drops like I’ve missed a step. Moonlight illuminates her face clearly, showing no mercy for what it’s revealing. The high cheekbones and full lips, the shape of her jaw, I’ve seen this woman before. Not in person, but in the wedding photo tucked into Lee’s guest room closet.
“You’re dead.” The words fall out on a gasp. My thoughts fracture as I stare at her, my blood roaring in my ears. This can’t be happening. She isn’t a memory or a ghost. Lee’s long dead wife is standing only feet away from me in a ruined barn. “You’re dead,” I repeat as if saying it aloud might still make it true.
Her mouth curls up in a wicked grin. “Aw, disappointed?”
Heat climbs my neck in a slow furious burn. My mind flips through thoughts of Lee. The devastation on his face every time he talked about her, the way he described the car full of blood, how he killed the man responsible, all the years he’s spent hollowed out and punishing himself. And she’s standing here smiling.
My hands curl against the arms of the chair, and all my fear turns to something jagged and electric. “You let himthink you were dead.” He built his whole life around that loss, around the guilt. “Why?”
She frowns at me, walking off into the shadows to retrieve something as she replies, “That’s none of your fucking concern. You have bigger problems to worry about.” She carries a gas can, and I hear the liquid sloshing when she sets it down nearby. A shiver runs over me at the sight, and she laughs. “Are you cold? Don’t worry. You won’t be for long.” She flicks a lighter, the flame casting shadows across her face as she watches my reaction. “You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed...”
My housefire wasn’t an accident. This bitch tried to kill me. “You set my house on fire.”
She lets the flame go out and her voice is almost chipper. “No, Trinity did, but she fucked it up, didn’t she? I mean, it should’ve been simple. You were even dumb enough to leave a key hidden near your door. All she had to do was go in and start a fire.” She sighs. “But, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
She approaches the gas can again and terror floods through me. Keep her talking. That’s what they do in the movies, right? Stall until…until what? Lee can’t track me down when my phone is at Lacey’s. Still, words spill out, “Why not kill Joshua Haney yourself then? Instead of using Lee?”
“Lee told you everything, didn’t he? That bastard kept me in the dark for years, would never talk about his work.” She puts the word work in air quotes. “But he’s spilling everything to some small town slut.”
She shakes her head, then pauses to consider something. “I shouldn’t be offended. He did keep me out of things for my own safety which is more than he did for you.” The laugh she lets out contains little sanity. “I mean, you wouldn’t even have been a part of this if Trinity hadn’t texted me that you were fucking him in a shed.”
Anger overtakes my common sense. “You tried to burn me alive because you were jealous?”
She sneers. “I’m not jealous of you. He doesn’t love you. I could kill you in front of him and he’d take me back in a second.”
She’s lying. There was no reason to kill me back then, before she had even started trying to get Lee to do her bidding. I fucked her husband and she wanted me to pay. Simple as that. “Then why take me to force his hand if you think he doesn’t care? You think he’ll do it. You think he’ll kill Joshua to get me back.”
Cruel laughter pours out of her again. “Well, let’s hope so, but if he does, his only reward will be a video of you on fire and screaming.”
A gunshot echoes outside making both of us jump.
Hope surges through me.Lee. He’s found me.
It isn’t Lee who walks out of the darkness moments later. As Isla pulls her gun, two men enter and both point their weapons at her. “Put it the fuck down, Lisa.”
Isla’s eyes bulge at the man’s command, and she does as she’s told. “Xavier! I didn’t know it was you.” Her entire demeanor shifts in half a second, the sneering cockiness replaced by cringing fear.
He steps into the light where I can see him, and he isn’t a big guy. Average height and thin, with tattoos that cover his arms and crawl up his neck. The man he has with him, who hangs back, is much larger. “I found my escaped whore outside. She won’t be running again. Funny thing. Before I shot her, she told me you promised to set her free in return for working for you, even cut her tracking chip out. You’ve been helping her hide.”
“I-I was…” She falters for words as he snatches the gun from her hands.
“You were what?” he goads.
“She wasn’t any good! I got you a new girl, see. I was just breaking her in, making sure she’d listen.”
He tilts his head to look at me, clearly not buying it. “She’s too old. You know that.”
I’m not sure who this guy is or what exactly is going on but I know she’s afraid of him, and that’s enough. The enemy of my enemy and all that. “She isn’t Lisa, she’s Isla,” I say, spitting out the words as fast as I can. “She took me to blackmail her husband, Lee, into killing a man named Joshua Haney.”
