The Prisoner by B.A. Paris

Author:B.A. Paris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

PAST

Ned came to my room. I kept my eyes closed, my body still.

“You need to get up,” he said. “We’ve been invited to lunch.”

I didn’t reply and he moved nearer to my bed. My skin crawled.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“I can’t,” I muttered. “I can’t eat lunch.”

“Too bad, I need you there. It’s a potential business contact and he wants to meet my new wife. Besides, you haven’t eaten in days.”

I lapsed back into silence. He had brought me food, I’d heard him place trays on the table next to my bed. But I hadn’t touched any of it. I couldn’t.

I sensed him bending toward me and my body flinched in response.

“You want this to be over, don’t you? It would be a shame if it had to drag on for more than a month.”

I heard his threat, and something withered inside me.

“Be ready in thirty minutes. And bring a swimsuit.”

I heard him leave, the click as he locked the door. I fought down the ever-present nausea and tried to push the memories of Lina from my mind. They were always there; her feet scrabbling on the ground, her head twisting and turning as she tried to break free, her eyes as she looked back at me when I was crouched down beside her. She had been alive at that point, I should have sprung up, attacked Ned again. But Ned had been quicker than me.

I pushed the bedcovers off, suddenly desperate to be under a scalding shower. My head spun and I gripped the chest of drawers, closed my eyes a moment. I didn’t want to go to this lunch, I wanted to hide, block everything out. I couldn’t even begin to think of Justine. I was so scared for her. Ned’s words to the man on the other end of the phone, the man he had addressed as Amos—We need to be more thorough this time—played on a loop in my mind. Lina had said that Justine had disappeared—and now that I knew what Ned was capable of, I was filled with dread that she hadn’t been paid off, she had been killed. I felt so helpless, so powerless. Without a phone, unable to get out of the house, this room even, I couldn’t do anything.

A sob pushed up from inside me. I needed to warn Carolyn that she might be in danger. I took a breath. Maybe, at this lunch, there would be other people there. I would play along for now, then find a phone, find a moment to escape.

I showered, dressed, squashed the red bikini that I’d bought in Las Vegas into my bag.

I heard Ned opening the door and as always when he was near, my body started its terrible shaking. I fought it down, walked down the twenty-four marble steps, aware of him close behind me. We arrived at the front door; Ned opened it, and when I saw the car waiting, I instinctively stepped backward. But he reached out, gripped my wrist tightly, and walked me through the door and down the three steps to the car.

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