Authors: Sophie McKenzie
My blood ran cold. I knew, though I hadn’t seen it happen, that Cooper had thrown Rick and Julianne into the rocky sea, hundreds of metres below.
I also knew there was no way anyone could survive such a fall.
A moment later Cooper was back, flexing his fingers, the tote bag containing the two million pounds at his side.
‘What are you going to do with me?’ I asked, panic rising. My words came out all muffled and indistinct because of the gag, but I persisted, desperate for answers. ‘Where are
the others? Where are Jam and Madison and Shelby?’
Cooper said nothing. He wasn’t even out of breath. He picked me up and put me over his shoulder as if I were an empty sack.
‘Where are we going?’ I shouted, bucking against him.
‘Stop that!’ He gripped me tighter so I could hardly breathe.
I writhed against him, trying to look around. The cliff top was as deserted as it had been earlier. Rick’s car was parked just behind the van.
‘Where are Jam and my sisters?’ I yelled, my words still indistinct. ‘What have you done with them?’
Cooper strode over to the car, deposited me on the ground and opened the boot. In the distance, a rumble of thunder sounded.
‘In you go,’ he said.
‘No!’ I scrabbled at the rough grass, trying to claw myself away from him. ‘HELP!’ I was yelling at the top of my lungs, but my voice could barely be heard from behind
the gag over my mouth.
I hurled my body across the grass. But it was hopeless. With a sigh, Cooper took a cloth from his pocket. He picked me up again. I bucked once more, trying to loosen his grip, but he was too
strong. A moment later the cloth was over my nose. A sickly sweet smell filled my nostrils. I tried not to breathe, but it was impossible.
As Cooper laid me inside the boot, my head spun. And then the world went black.
‘Lauren? Lauren, are you OK?’ It was Madison’s voice. ‘Her eyelids are moving, Jam. I think she’s waking up.’
I struggled to open my eyes, but the effort was too much.
‘Lauren?’ As Jam spoke, I felt a hand on my forehead, stroking the hair off my face.
I tried to speak – at least my mouth was no longer gagged – but all that came out was a splutter of air.
‘It’s OK,’ Jam said. ‘You’re OK. We’re all here. Me, Madison and Shelby.’
‘And we called Mommy too,’ Madison added. ‘That big man let me speak to her . . . he made me make her promise not to go to the police. He said we’d be home by morning.
Then he took all our phones away.’
I struggled to speak again, to point out there was no way we could trust anything Cooper Trent promised. This time I managed something that sounded like a cross between a whimper and a moan.
‘D’you think she’s hurt, Jam?’ Madison said anxiously. I felt her small fingers reach for my hand.
‘No.’ Jam’s voice sounded closer than before. ‘No, I think she’s probably trying to tell us that what Cooper says and what he means are two different
things.’
I smiled to myself. Jam had always understood me better than anyone. With a horrible jolt, I remembered how he’d been kidnapped earlier because I’d been so selfish and obstinate.
‘Oh, Jam,’ I said, managing a soft whisper.
‘Yeah?’ His voice was right by my ear.
‘I’m so sorry you got taken. It was all my fault.’ Tears pricked at my eyes. I’d been worried before that Jam was only with me because he felt he should be. But now it
struck me that no-one could blame him if he
did
dump me. Not only was I difficult – as he had often pointed out – but I was also a magnet for life-threatening danger.
I opened my eyes. Jam’s face was right next to mine, his hazel eyes soft and smiling.
‘Don’t sweat it, Lazerbrain,’ he said. ‘Feeling sorry for yourself was never your best look.’
‘At least I have a best look.’ I attempted to speak properly as I smiled, but my throat was too dry and it came out as a croak. I was lying on hard, cold ground, though someone had
slipped something soft under my head. My head ached a little and I was very thirsty, but otherwise I didn’t feel too bad.
I squeezed Madison’s hand.
‘Lauren?’ Madison’s face loomed over mine, her brown eyes huge and full of concern. I got a whiff of her sweet, strawberry breath.
‘Hey, sweetheart,’ I rasped. It was unbelievably good to see her. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes.’ She hugged me.
I looked round. Jam was on my other side. He sat back on his heels. ‘Headache?’
I winced. ‘Yeah.’
‘We’re the same,’ Jam said. ‘Cooper drugged all of us in the car before we drove off.’
I nodded. That made sense. Jam, Madison and Shelby must have already been in the back seat of the car when Cooper bundled me into the boot. I’d been too busy trying to fight him off to
have noticed.
I struggled onto my elbows and looked round. We were in a large basement room: bare, white walls, a grubby, threadbare carpet on the floor and no natural light whatsoever. There was no furniture
other than a couple of plastic chairs stacked in one corner. A bare electric bulb hung from the ceiling. Jam and Madison were sitting on either side of me. Jam’s jumper was the soft material
I’d felt under my head.
I twisted round. Shelby was hunched in the far corner of the room. She stared at me with miserable, angry eyes.
‘Where are we?’ I said, rubbing the back of my head. I still felt groggy, but my head was clearing.
‘No idea,’ Jam said. ‘We all came round in this room, same as you.’
‘At least we’re not tied up any more,’ Madison said, cuddling up next to me.
I put my arm round her. It was true. The plastic strips round my wrists and ankles were gone.
‘I’m thirsty,’ I said.
‘Me too,’ Madison said.
‘Have you tried calling for help?’
Jam made a face. ‘Yeah. The three of us yelled our heads off for about five minutes. Nothing happened.’
‘Except we got thirstier,’ Madison said ruefully.
A lock turned in the door.
I scrambled to my feet, pushing Madison behind me. Jam stood up too. Together, we faced the door as it opened.
Cooper Trent stood, huge and menacing, in the doorway. I hadn’t realised how muscular he was until right now. His biceps bulged under his T-shirt. His hair was wet and slicked back from
his face, as if he’d just stepped out of the shower, and the handle of a knife protruded from his jeans pocket.
‘Good, you’re all awake.’ He smiled. ‘You were only out for about twenty minutes, so the headaches shouldn’t last long.’
I glanced at Jam. I knew he was considering the same thing that I was – could we get past Cooper and make a run for it?
But another glance and I realised how hopeless our position was. Cooper was armed, and far, far bigger even than Jam. On top of that, I’d seen on the cliff top how fast the man could move,
despite his bulk. I’d also seen how lethal his attacks were – and how ruthless.
‘You killed Rick and the people he was working with,’ I blurted out.
I could feel Jam and Madison stiffen beside me. Of course, they hadn’t seen the cliff top struggle.
Cooper raised an eyebrow. ‘Those amateur losers?’ He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘They got what they deserved. That’s what happens to small fish who try to swim in a big
pond.’
‘You being, like, a bigger fish, I suppose?’ I said.
Cooper grinned. ‘There’s always a bigger fish, Lauren.’
‘Why are we here?’ Jam asked.
‘Yeah, you’ve got the two million. What do you want with us?’ I added.
Shelby walked over and stood on Jam’s other side. ‘Where are we anyway?’ she said, trying to look fierce by putting her hands on her hips and jutting out her chin. ‘Who
the hell
are
you?’
Cooper Trent’s smile broadened. ‘So many questions,’ he said. ‘Well, just for your information, I used to work in kidnap and ransom. That part of what Rick told you was
true. And I’m ex-army. Special forces. Though I haven’t had what you’d call a conventional job for quite a while. Right now you’re in the basement of my rented
house.’
‘What are you going to do with us?’ I asked.
‘You said it was OK to tell our mom we’d be home by morning,’ Madison said.
I put my arm round her and squeezed her shoulder.
‘If all goes according to plan then you
will
be home by morning,’ Cooper said. He turned to me. ‘It depends on you, Lauren, whether the rest of them turn up there dead
or alive.’
Madison gasped.
My guts clenched. ‘What d’you mean it depends on me?’
‘I mean,’ Cooper said, ‘that there’s something I want you to do tonight, Lauren. And everybody else’s lives depend on whether you succeed or fail.’
A New Plan
Silence fell in the basement room.
I stared up at Cooper Trent’s rugged, relaxed face. He was smiling at our confusion. Apart from the knife handle poking out of his jeans pocket, he looked more like someone’s
slightly wild uncle than a man who had just murdered three people and announced that everyone’s lives depended on me carrying out his orders tonight.
‘What do you want me to do?’ I touched the wooden oval round my neck. Normally this made me feel calmer, but not now.
Nothing was going to calm me down right now.
Cooper leaned against the wall behind him and folded his arms. ‘When Rick first told me –
boasted
to me – about how he was fooling your mother by pretending to kidnap
your sister—’
‘I
was
kidnapped,’ Madison protested, peering out from behind me. Her voice was defiant, but I could feel her fists against my back as she gripped my jumper.
Cooper shrugged. ‘Anyway, when Rick and I spoke, he was full of himself for pulling off the whole stunt, making Lauren think the kidnapper was Sonia Holtwood.’
I glared at him, not wanting to admit how easily I had been fooled.
‘Rick said he had your mother wound round his little finger . . .’ Cooper went on. ‘He told me how he’d manipulated the situation so that he was about to get two million
pounds. Then he explained about the cock-up with the first exchange and how his stupid girlfriend – that Julianne – had tried, and failed, to raise the stakes by sending you after
nonexistent valuables. And I saw that for all his big talk he had no idea what he was doing.’
‘So you thought you’d muscle in and take the money for yourself,’ Jam said in a disgusted voice.
‘At first that was all I planned,’ Cooper admitted. ‘But then I found something . . .’
He drew a piece of folded paper out of his pocket.
‘Recognise this?’ he asked Jam.
I looked at Jam. His eyes widened with shock. He put his hands in his own pockets. But it was obvious his jeans were empty.
With a terrible jolt, I realised that what Cooper held in his hand was Sam’s letter to Shelby. I glanced round at her. She was frowning, clearly confused.
My throat tightened. That letter was a bomb. I didn’t much like Shelby, but I wouldn’t want my worst enemy finding out the truth about her parents like this.
‘Don’t,’ Jam said. ‘Please.’
‘What is that?’ Shelby asked.
Madison shuffled even closer to me. At least the other letter, explaining that she, like me, had been fathered by an anonymous sperm donor, was still safely back at the holiday home.
‘Ah, you don’t know about this, Shelby,’ Cooper said softly. He paused for a second.
‘
I
know what’s in that letter,’ I said quickly. ‘And you said this was all about something
I
have to do, so you don’t need to read it to
everyone.’
‘Don’t you think Shelby has a right to know what this letter says, Lauren?’ Cooper raised his eyebrows.
I said nothing.
There was nothing I could say.
And then Cooper Trent read the letter out loud.
I stared at the floor, my face burning. I couldn’t look at Jam, I couldn’t look at Shelby.
As Cooper read, the atmosphere in the room grew tense.
‘So you see,’ Cooper said, handing the letter to Shelby, ‘your
real
father is Simeon Duchovny.’
I glanced round at Shelby. She was staring open-mouthed at the letter. I caught Jam’s eye. He looked as desperate as I felt.
And yet it was my fault that Shelby was finding out this way that her mother had had an affair and Sam wasn’t her birth dad. Jam had wanted to tell her immediately.
I should have listened to him.
Shelby was reading the letter again.
I had read and reread mine. It still hadn’t sunk in that Sam wasn’t my birth father, but at least I knew Annie and Sam had
chosen
together to use an anonymous sperm donor . .
. that I hadn’t been conceived out of mistrust and betrayal.
Shelby looked up at Jam. ‘I can’t believe you’ve been carrying this around,’ she said.
‘I’m sorry.’ Jam stared at the ground.
Shelby shook her head. ‘You’re the most disgusting person I’ve ever met.’
‘That’s not fair.’ I stormed over, forgetting that Cooper Trent was still in the room. ‘Jam
wanted
to show you. I asked him to wait. I wanted—’
‘Then
you’re
the most disgusting person I’ve ever met,’ Shelby spat. ‘But I guess I already knew that.’
We glared at each other. My heart was pounding in my chest. How
dare
Shelby talk to me like that?
‘You stupid—’ I started.
‘Stop it, Lauren,’ Jam said firmly. ‘Shelby’s just upset.’
I turned away, my cheeks burning. Cooper Trent was watching me, an expression of interested amusement on his face.
Shelby retreated to the far corner of the room. I took a deep breath.
‘I don’t get this,’ I said. ‘What’s Shelby’s birth dad – this Simeon Duchovny guy – got to do with me and why we’re here?’
Cooper Trent straightened up, assuming a more businesslike air.
‘Don’t you guys know who Simeon Duchovny is?’ he said.
‘Never heard of him,’ Jam said.
I glanced at Shelby again. She was now looking intently at Cooper. Her face was pale and her expression still bewildered.
‘Simeon Duchovny is one of the richest men in England,’ Cooper said. ‘He made a fortune in the late nineties with some dot.com business, then went into merchant banking.
He’s got a fine art collection worth millions. Man,
he
is worth millions.’