“Shit.” She grabbed the phone, took a deep breath, and answered, “Hello.” She was surprised at how normal she had made her voice sound.
“I have another job for you.”
“Where thehellis my mother?”
At that moment, the door opened quietly, and Jayce tiptoed back in. She wondered if he had gone any further than just outside the door. He was probably listening the whole time. As much as that irked her, she was actually glad he hadn’t deserted her. His quiet strength was exactly what she needed. She had to stop pushing him away. He didn’t seem like he was going to leave anyway. That in itself was oddly comforting.
The asshole on the other end of the line said, “Again with the demands? You should know by now that cooperation is the only way to get what you want.”
“But you’re not holding up your end of the bargain. You’re not giving me what I want at all. I want my mother back.”
Jayce moved toward her but didn’t come within touching distance, and she was grateful for that. She needed to concentrate on what the dickhead was saying. She could fall into Jayce’s arms later.
Donkey Pizzle said, “Why would I give up my leverage? Don’t bother answering that. That was a retro…reorertical…”
“Rhetorical question?” Kristine supplied.
“Yeah. You have to do one more job before I return her, and I’ll let you see her as your reward for doing this job.”
Kristine gazed up at Jayce. He nodded and stepped behind the couch, shrinking down so he couldn’t be seen.
“Fine. Let me see her.”
“Hang up, and I’ll call you on Skype,” he said.
Kristine disconnected the call and waited. She thought Jayce would say something, but perhaps he didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to say to him either.
The Skype sound came through, and she tapped the video button. A moment later she saw her mother sitting at a dining table with a fluted glass of orange juice in her hand—or perhaps it was a mimosa. She looked clean and well-dressed, but the clothes were not her own.Did they buy her a whole new wardrobe?
“Mom? Are you all right?”
Her mother nodded. “I’m fine, honey.”
“Are you being treated well?”
Amy glanced off to the left of the screen. She may have been checking someone’s reaction or direction. An anxious male voice was babbling something about a ship being boarded.
“I’m okay, honey. Just please do what they say, and I’ll be allowed to come home very soon.”
The Skype call disconnected. That’s all she was going to see of her mother, but it reassured her that she wasn’t tied up.
Jayce rose up behind the couch. “Did she look all right?”
Kristine huffed. “She looked better than all right. She was well-dressed and sipping a mimosa. It looked like she was even wearing makeup.”
“Did you recognize the surroundings?”
At that moment, the phone rang again. Kristine answered immediately.
“Hello,” said a computerized voice. “We’re taking a survey—”
“Agh!” she screamed and poked theend callbutton. Then she gave in to a fit of giggles. She peeked at Jayce, figuring he must think she was insane. He just smiled. In a way, it was handy that he had supernatural hearing and she didn’t have to explain everything she heard on the other end of the line.
When the phone rang again, she prayed it wasn’t a telemarketer, a charity, a survey, or any other kind of intrusion. Didn’t people know her mother’s life hung in the fucking balance?
“Hello.”
“Who did you talk to just then?”
