Keep it together.

Be distraught.

“Please let me go. I’m not important to him. Can’t you see I’ve suffered enough?”

“I’m sorry, darling, but I have to be sure he’s not trying to pull the wool over my eyes.” He didn’t put the bag back over my head and when he started the car and drove off, he pulled out his gun and rested it on his thigh closest to the door. I eyed it and wondered at my chances of getting to it and not killing us both in the process.

He drove us nearly an hour out of town and into the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t familiar with the area, but I did recognize the terror pooling in my stomach. He made a sudden right when the blood flow from my veins to my head ceased. After only a short distance, he finally stopped.

“This is the end of the line, girly.” He reached for his gun, and I searched my brain for a way out.

“Wait!” I held out my hands to ward him off.

“No stalling,” he grinned and pointed the gun at my head.

“He has money!” The hammer clicked.

“You’re lying.”

“You know who his father is. Their family has money.”

“Mitch was broke. He couldn’t pay for the hit on his brother so…”

“But their family isn’t. Keiran and his brother inherited a large fortune when they turned twenty-one. His brother keeps a safe and I know the code.”

“How much are we talking about?”

“A hundred grand.” I let the lie roll off my tongue and hoped he believed me.

He whistled and chortled, “That’s a lot of cash. Do you think I’m stupid?”

Not only are you stupid but you’re greedy, too. “N—no of course not. It’s true, and if it’s not, you can kill me on the spot.” He didn’t reply and the silence unnerved me, but when he pulled the gun away, I released the breath I’d been holding.

“If you’re lying, I intend to do just that.”

* * *

He didn’t drive straight to Six Forks, cutting my victory celebration at not dying sooner than later short. It wasn’t until we arrived at a small, white two-story house that I realized why.

A little boy with dark hair was angrily yanking on the chain of his bike with a scowl as Greg pulled me from the car. I watched him curiously. Something about him seemed familiar. He didn’t look up, but I knew he was aware of us because he stopped yanking on the chain. He kept his head low but his breathing deepened with short angry breaths.

Greg ignored him completely, pulling me to the front door and knocking. I looked around for neighbors or anyone who could help.

“Don’t try anything or I will shoot you on the spot.”

The door opened and an older man with a rough looking mustache and bald head answered. He searched my face with disinterest before turning drunken eyes to my kidnapper.

“This her?” he slurred. He was definitely drunk.

“Yeah.” He shoved me inside without warning causing me to stumble to the floor. “She says there’s money and a shit ton of it.”

“How much?”

“Hundred grand. What do you think?”

“She’s lying.” My heart felt as if it were thrown into overdrive at his answer. I could feel them both watching me. “Laurie says he paid her fifty just to lie in court. I think we can get more.”

He must have been Robert, Laurie’s husband.

“Shit. You might be right.” I didn’t have time to process the new information. I felt a boot on my ribs that he used to shove me off my knees and gain my attention. He looked down at me with clenched teeth when I looked up. “I want everything that’s in that safe.”

“It’s not as if I can stop you,” I retorted.

“She’s got a mouth on her. Reminds me of Laurie before I beat it out of her.” My fists clenched at the hidden threat, but it wasn’t only me upset by it. Greg’s nostrils flared at the mention of Laurie and the abuse she had suffered. I almost snorted. It wasn’t as if he was a crusader against women’s abuse.

“Uncle Greg?” The soft, familiar voice of the little girl standing at the bottom of the staircase brought us all out of the moment.

Cassie.

She looked terrified as she faced her father who drunkenly scowled down at her. “I thought I told you to stay in the room.”

“I heard voices.”

“That’s because grown-ups are talking, now get,” he ordered too viciously to be speaking to a ten-year-old.

She turned to go, but then her gaze landed on me, sealing her fate. Recognition brought hope, moving her forward while I wished her away.