Authors: Kristen James
It looked like it was still night because the room was dark.
Once she got up she realized the curtains were blocking the daylight.
The clock read 3:30.
3:30?
In the afternoon?
She went into the bathroom, about blinding herself with the
light. When she left the bathroom, she turned off the light and pulled back the
curtains enough to see the hotel’s surroundings. She could see part of the
parking lot and the street it opened onto. Cars drove by. Life continued, not
caring about her.
The door opened and Alexander took one look at her before
yanking the curtains shut again.
“It’s so dark in here.” At first, she couldn’t see a thing.
Then her eyes adjusted.
“Good, that way no one will see you.” He flicked on the lamp
beside the bed. “I brought lunch.” He reached into a large paper bag and
removed several boxes of Chinese takeout. Her traitorous stomach growled. It
seemed like she’d just eaten, but that had been the evening before. It was well
past lunchtime; she’d slept the day away.
“Are they still looking for me?”
“You’d better believe it.” Leaving the boxes open and the
hotel’s plates sitting next to them, he walked to the window and peeked out
where she had stood. Dressed in slacks and a black polo shirt, he looked like
he was on lunch break from the office. It was the way he scanned the parking
lot outside that made her think he had experience hiding out and sneaking
around.
She wanted to know if Nick was looking for her, if he cared
enough to look for her. Even if Nick found her, however, she couldn’t be sure
if he would take her back to Keith or not.
Alexander glanced back at her. “Sit down, you need to eat.”
She was about to argue when she decided she needed to hide
from his roving eyes. He’d been relaxed yesterday, but now he seemed agitated.
She watched him, thinking he might have learned something he didn’t like today.
He glanced at her and his face softened.
“Do you feel better today?”
He was staring at her so she nodded instead of answering.
She did feel better; she wasn’t dead tired and starving anymore. Cora knew she
should thank him, but decided to leave it at her sorry attempt the night
before.
He sat down across from her and they ate in silence. He had
distracted her before she was able to ask where he had been all day. Something
told her it wouldn’t work to simply ask. He was brooding. She was full and
picking at her food before he finished his.
“You’ve always been so mean and angry. I can’t figure out
why you’re helping me.” Then again, what if he wasn’t helping her anymore?
Things could have completely changed since yesterday.
“You can’t deny that you need my help.” He spoke without
emotion. Still, he didn’t say he wasn’t going to help. She wished she could
read the thoughts behind his dark, cold eyes.
Yes, she needed his help, but she was still interested in
the why’s of all this. She was naturally curious about people and, in this
case, what made them tick. Understanding Alexander was critical to her safety
and to finding her father. She looked at him and said, “Why are you so bitter,
and so mad at Nick?”
He reached for a smile. “I see why you chose journalism.”
“So?”
He kept his face guarded and said, “Let’s just say I’ve had
to try a lot harder than some people to get what I want.”
“Harder than Nick?”
With a snicker he said, “He only knows what’s been given to
him.”
Given to him? He lost his mother and had to leave his family
behind to attend law school. Nick didn’t seem arrogant or flashy. She almost
voiced her opinions, but decided it wouldn’t help the situation.
She fidgeted with everything on the table while wondering
how she let herself end up in a dark hotel with Alexander. Oh yeah, she ran
away from Nick and jumped in a river.
“You and I,” he said, “We know what it’s like to fight for
what we want.”
“We do?” That wasn’t what she meant to say. He couldn’t
guess what she knew or how she felt.
Or could he? Maybe her father confided in him, or Alexander
pieced together their story. He could have snooped into their finances too.
Alexander might have been checking into
her,
but there wasn’t any way
for other people to know that becoming a reporter was about fighting something,
overcoming something.
The touch of Alexander’s hand jerked her attention away from
her thoughts. He had leaned over the table, somehow without her noticing, to
lay his hand on hers.
“You do realize you can’t trust Nick anymore.”
Nick’s name threw images across her mind. She opened her
mouth to protest but quickly realized she wasn’t sure what to argue. Did she
ever trust Nick? Just thinking his name hurt. It was like that deep, out of
proportion pain that you feel after a breakup, but she couldn’t – wouldn’t! –
discuss Nick with Alexander.
He was waiting, watching her, and fighting a smirk. Cora
wasn’t sure how or why, but she felt like Nick hurt her. Or leaving him hurt
her? Alexander could see it too, and she could finally read his expression and
see past his crusty shell.
He was the second place guy realizing he had a chance. How
had she missed it before?
“Why do you think I had feelings for him?” She saw surprise
cross his face for a second, before his expression turned to pleasure.
He leaned back and appraised her through silted eyes, and
she guessed he was redesigning his game plan. He bent down to retrieve
something out of his bag. A cigar.
A victory cigar? Are you freaking kidding me?
It was like she thought that hard enough for him to hear
because he didn’t light the smelly thing. Instead he rolled it around,
thinking.
They were both sitting here thinking and not helping Jerry.
“Tell me the truth,” she said, stopping before saying his
name. “How did my father really get into this mess?”
He sighed. “Knowing everything won’t make it any better,
Cora.”
“Can’t I decide that?” She countered, almost shaking because
she was so close to the truth.
“Well, it’s a misunderstanding, but that’s beside the
point.” He was drawing it out, torturing her, and loving every minute of it.
“What was?”
“Keith Holloway is going to kill your father.”
She stared at him as the Chinese food rolled around in her
stomach. “And we’re just sitting here, not doing anything, after you said—”
“Shh!” He put the cigar in his mouth, then took it out and
examined it. “We have to get into Keith’s house and rescue him.”
She gripped the table, leaning forward. “That’s how you’re
going to help me?” She wanted to shove the table into him. She really thought
about doing it.
He gave her a pointed look. “It’s the only way.”
Didn’t he say
we
? “But how? And how am I going to
help?”
He dropped the cigar on the table and laced his fingers
behind his head. If this made him nervous at all, it didn’t show. In fact, it
looked like he was enjoying it. “You’re our way in.”
Her stomach felt so bad that she had to rub a hand over it.
She’d come this far, and now she needed to walk the walk and actually help her
dad. She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out. That usually
calmed her nerves. Not this time. Especially not when Alexander stood and moved
into the chair next to her.
He caught her face in his hands just as she opened her eyes.
“Alex—”
“Shhh, Cora. Now do you want my help to get your father out
of Keith’s house? Or do you want to go to the police by yourself and see if
they believe your story? See if they can even get a warrant to search Keith’s
house? See if they have half a chance of doing anything before Jerry gets a
bullet to the brain and a remote burial?”
She tried to shake her head but couldn’t. He held her still.
She couldn’t go anywhere to get away from his unwavering, calculating stare.
“Cora, what do you want to do?” His gaze left her eyes and
dropped to her mouth.
Her lungs hurt because she couldn’t breathe. When he met her
eyes again, she starting gasping.
“Do you want my help?”
She nodded. He studied her face for a minute more before
letting go and standing up. “Good. Let’s talk about a plan.”
At eight forty five in the morning, Cora left the car and
walked the block to the Holloway property. The cool morning air reminded her,
for a second, of waking up in the mountain with Nick.
She pulled in a deep breath and refocused, but her mind was
doing summersaults back and forth. Alexander wanted to kiss her last night. She
was sure of it. She was extremely relieved he didn’t, and yet she knew a man
like Alexander wouldn’t lose his nerve. He was planning something. Maybe he
thought she’d like him if he helped her and her dad. It might get ugly after
this, when he realized she wasn’t interested at all. She was using him, and she
felt dirty about it.
She needed to focus on her dad and on the present. Alexander
had laid out a plan, and she played it through in her head as she walked closer
and closer to the property. Even if everything didn’t go just as they planned,
he promised to jump in and get her out of there, with her father.
At the front gate, she pressed the button and waited till a
man’s voice asked, “Where’s your car? What are you doing out there?”
“I’m looking for my father.”
“Your
–
oh.” The man realized who she was. “Wait
there.”
I’m coming, dad.
She stood for several minutes, picturing the frenzy inside
as the guard told Keith. She wished she had just one other change of clothes to
wear. She’d kept Alexander’s white T-shirt and put her running shorts back on.
Her hair was brushed but hadn’t had the luxury of any hair products since the
start of this ordeal. It wasn’t that she cared what she looked like, it was
that she felt a bit defenseless and vulnerable in such plain clothes, and
without makeup. She ran her fingers through her hair one last time. She didn’t
want Alexander, who was watching from a distance, to see her nervousness.
Two men came to the gate for her and looked up and down the
street. Cora recognized Terrance, but not the other man. They let her inside
the gate, frisked her and took her to the house without speaking. One walked in
front and one behind her. Alexander told her she wouldn’t be able to get a gun
in with her, and she had no experience with one anyway.
What had she been
thinking?
They passed by the rose garden she had used for cover on her
first visit. A Japanese maple and a flowerbed lay to her left; a fountain sat
on the other side of the path. How ironic that a man so ugly inside and out
would keep his estate so beautiful. It probably impressed his guests. The
two-story house spread out to an impractical size and large windows reflected
the yard. It looked impressive and, right now, intimidating.
They walked right in. Was she really doing this? She
hesitated for a tiny second in the door jam, causing the guy behind her to
nudge her inside.
Keith stood and waited in the hallway, looking long and
lean. He squinted, even without cigarette smoke swirling around him.
As practiced, she pretended to be calm and said, “I want to
see my father.”
She stared him down.
I am a grown woman and you’re an
aging chain smoker. A selfish, heartless, sorry excuse of a man.
Thinking
of Nick’s mom, she found herself wishing his smoking caught up with him
someday.
Keith stared right back. A clock farther down the hallway
ticked.
They could just kill her. Why wouldn’t they? She couldn’t
remember Alexander’s plan now or why it would work.
He nodded to Terrance, turned and walked down the hall and
into a room. Terrance grabbed her arm and ushered her roughly down the hallway,
down some stairs, and into the basement, shutting the door behind her. The room
went dark.
She hoped with all her heart Nick was there. Even if he lied
to her this whole time, he wouldn’t let them kill her.
Someone wheezed. She knew that sound. It was her father. She
groped along the wall, found the light switch, and flipped it. It worked. Air
rushed into her lungs and she realized she’d been holding her breath.
Jerry sat in a chair, bent over, his hands bound behind him.
What had she done? Why did she leave him here?
“Dad?” She knelt down and looked into his face.
Oh, my
god!
“Dad! How badly are you hurt?”
His face was black and blue, his lips cracked and bloody and
his breathing sounded like something was serious wrong.
The bastards
tortured him
. She would get Keith Holloway for this. Somehow, someway,
someday, no matter how long it took.
“Cora?” He smiled a strange, sad smile. “Not bad. I’m just a
little sore.”
“Are you seriously hurt?” she asked again. She’d be in
trouble if he couldn’t walk.
“Sweetie, I’ll be okay. I know where the money went, but I
haven’t told Keith. It’ll only make me look guilty.”
“Shh, shh, not here.” She decided they could discuss the
details once they were a safe distance from the Holloway property. “Dad,” she
whispered as quietly as she could just in case they were listening in. She
wasn’t sure how high-tech Keith was, or if he would even worry about what they
said to each other. Still, Alexander said he could listen in somehow. “I need
to know if you can walk out of here with me.”
His eyes popped open. “How?”
“We’re going to get you out of here and prove you didn’t
steal anything. Can you walk?”
He searched her face, looking concerned but maybe hopeful
too. “With help, I can manage. Wait. Who’s helping you? Did the FBI
–
”
The door opened and Keith walked in by himself, leaving the
door open behind him. That would make it easier to get out of the basement, but
she didn’t know who was in the house above.