She turned to him and smiled. “I forgot what it feels like, that’s all.”
His expression fell into something that might resemble pity. He reached up to loosen his tie and she stepped into the cool grass. This was a dream. She tried to imagine Eric wasn’t watching her. She tried to remember sand between her toes, Brad’s hand in hers as they walked up the beach. She could smell salt in the air. One day she would be there again.
She opened her eyes. There was a white vinyl fence surrounding the entire yard. It had to be at least seven feet tall with no breaks in the slats or any way to climb over.
Except the trees.
They were mostly maple, aspen, and spruce, the maples the largest. The one by the balcony caught her attention, sprawling its thick, curved branches near the railing and over the fence like a bridge into the neighbor’s yard. That tree seemed to call to her every time she looked at it.
Walking to a rectangular patio table made of the same teak wood as her parents’ patio furniture, she sat down in a comfortable chair facing the house.
“Stay there,” Eric warned her gently. “I can see you from the window, and Evie should be home soon from the store.”
He left the doors open and headed into the kitchen, removed his suit jacket and tie, and rolled up his sleeves before pulling on the white apron Evelyn usually wore when she cooked.
She closed her eyes and thought of Brad again. She thought of him more now than she had ever thought of him when she was home. There was no homework here to fuss over, no camera, no Internet. At least she had books. She had read all the Mercedes Lackey novels in the den. Now she was working on a stack of classics because Jesse loved them so much. She wanted to know what it was about them that kept him so fascinated. Still, she kept re-reading fantasy in between the classics. She smiled at the thought of Jesse. The sun felt good on her cheeks. She could feel his closeness to her at the pool table when he had showed her how to balance the cue stick between her knuckles, his body with hers on her bed as he held her.
No matter how many times he got close to her, he seemed to be holding back.
THEY ATE outside as the sun began to set. Eric cooked her steak perfectly—not too dry, not too pink. When dinner was finished, Evelyn brought out a cheesecake. Naomi didn’t like cheesecake, but forced three bites down anyway.
“You look nice tonight,” Steve said to her from across the table. “Has Evelyn given you everything you need?”
Sure, she had everything she needed ... except for freedom. Duh. She set her fork down next to the unfinished piece of cheesecake and placed her hands in her lap. At least he had acknowledged that she looked nice. Jesse hadn’t. He was eating his dessert. He hadn’t paid her any attention all evening. It was unlike him not to even look at her.
Remembering that Steve had spoken to her, she gave him a soft smile. He was always nice to her. At the moment his laugh-lines looked like a thousand tiny smiles. He was handsome and kind, and she could see why Evelyn loved him.
“Yes, she has, thank you,” she lied.
Eric cleared his throat. “We have a gift for you.” He lifted the beer next to his plate and took a sip before turning to Jesse. “Did you get it ready?”
Still working on his cheesecake, Jesse glanced up at Naomi and smiled. Her heart tightened. “Yeah, I did, but it’s inside. I’ll go get it.” He stood and went into the house just as Eric’s phone rang. He answered with a quick, “
Buongiorno
,” then continued to speak in Italian.
Italian? She didn’t know he spoke another language. It made sense, but still it surprised her.
“Is it the house?” Steve asked.
Evelyn nodded and kept her eyes on Eric as he walked farther into the yard, his voice fading. She leaned into the back of her chair and pressed a finger to her bottom lip. She seemed nervous, and that made Naomi shift in her seat.
“Sounds like the tenants still want to bid us out, but Eric will take care of it before we move. He knows the ins and outs.”
Before they moved? Where? Down the road? To another state? Naomi shifted even more. She didn’t know what to do. Should she ask? A part of her was comfortable with these people, but the normal part of her knew they were criminals. They could turn violent in the blink of an eye. Eric had made that clear a few hours ago. This was probably a good time to keep her mouth shut.
Jesse came back and put a small, wrapped box in front of her. The paper was silver with a pink ribbon tied around it. She wondered if he had wrapped it himself. That made her smile.
“You can open it when Eric gets off the phone,” he said. “He wanted to see your reaction, and so do I.” He walked to the other end of the table and sat back down. Evelyn had her head in her hands. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
She sighed. “The house.”
“They’re not giving in, huh?”
“No.” She picked up her fork and poked at the crumbs on her plate.
“You have plenty of time.” Jesse took a bite of cheesecake and looked hopefully at Steve. “Unless you’ve decided to forget the agreement? Eric said—”
Steve glared at him. “Get that out of your head. You’re not getting off that easy. You’ll do what we tell you to do.” He stopped and glanced at Naomi. She looked away.
That was interesting. He would do what they told him to do? That only confirmed her suspicions about Jesse as the odd one out. Everything seemed fishy when she considered why he was living in the same house as everyone else, as if he was a prisoner too.
Eric approached the table. He put down the phone and took a long drink from his beer. “We’ll know by next week,” he said, sinking back into his chair. He smiled at Naomi. “Go ahead and open it.”
She touched the pink ribbon on her present. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had wrapped a present for her. Brad always took her somewhere to buy her things or gave her flowers. She snatched the box and started to untie the ribbon. It was the metallic kind, shiny and slick. She was giddy with excitement. Everyone was watching her, and that made it more special. She couldn’t imagine what they might give her.
Then Eric’s phone rang again and she stopped to see him glaring at the screen. His face fell and he looked up at Evelyn, his lips forming words that never came out. He had turned pale. Slowly, he pushed a button on the phone and answered. No Italian this time. He stood and headed into the house.
Evelyn gripped the edge of the table.
“What’s going on?” Steve asked her. “It can’t be your—”
She scrambled out of her chair to follow Eric, and Steve jumped up to follow her. Jesse dropped his fork onto his plate and turned to Naomi. “Don’t follow them inside yet,” he said with an edge to his voice. “I’m pretty sure it has to do with their father.”
“Eric’s dad?”
“Yes.” He looked down at his plate. “I probably shouldn’t tell you, but he’s in prison for murder. He’s been there for the past eighteen years.”
Murder.
She didn’t like the sound of that.
Dropping her present into her lap, she stared at the ribbon. It was so beautiful—she didn’t even care what was inside. She tried to ignore Evelyn’s cries drifting through the open French doors.
“Who did he murder?” she asked, finally looking up.
“Their mother and ten-year-old sister.”
A chill ran through her. Evelyn’s mother was murdered? Her sister too? She had no idea how to process such a thing. Nobody she had ever known had been murdered. It sounded so unreal, even after being kidnapped. What if her mother or father or Brad died all of a sudden? She would never know unless Eric told her. The thought made her stomach plummet straight to the ground.
“Eric doesn’t like to talk about it, so I’m warning you not to say anything. I don’t know what the hell is going on right now, but it’s bad.”
She nodded. The air turned cold as the sun sank lower in the sky and Evelyn’s cries kept drifting from the house. Jesse sipped his beer, leaning back in his chair. It was unlike him to look so vacant. There was obviously more to the story, but she wasn’t going to ask. She was suddenly tired, and thoughts of sleep wrapped around her. She needed to be alone.
She stood. “Can I go back to my room?”
He set his beer on the table. “Sure, if you want.” He stood and she followed him into the living room where the others were sitting.
“Evie, calm down.” Eric looked up at Naomi. His eyes were red and wet as Evelyn let out a short wail. She was collapsed against him, sobbing on his shoulder. Jesse paused to ask Steve what had happened.
“It was a heart attack,” he answered. “He died this afternoon.”
Jesse stared at Evelyn, his expression sad, but relieved at the same time. “I’ll take Naomi upstairs,” he said, and nudged her to follow him. She squeezed the present in her hands and thought of the scar on Evelyn’s cheek. She didn’t have to stretch her imagination to figure out where it had come from.
XII
“DO YOU NEED ANYTHING?” JESSE ASKED AS he opened her door and leaned against the frame.
Naomi looked down at the pink ribbon on her gift. It was half untied. Everything felt unfinished right now. “I don’t think so.”
“Are you okay? You’re pale.”
Tears were starting beneath the surface, but she pushed them back with an angry shove. There was no way she was going to bawl like a baby again. She had to get a grip. She could be strong and unfeeling like her mother. The woman hadn’t even cried at her father’s funeral. “I’m confused,” she said boldly. “Wouldn’t you be confused?”
He studied her face. “You have a point.” He motioned her into the room. “I need to talk to you.”
He wanted to be in her room again? A part of her was relieved because she didn’t want to be alone. All she would do was cry, and she had done enough of that to last a lifetime. Her heart pounded as she stepped into the bedroom with him right behind. He closed the door and moved close to her. The room was dark, but the window let in enough light for her to see his face. He was familiar now. She knew where his freckles started and ended, the exact color of his eyes, the way he styled his hair, kind of messy but nice.
He gave her a worried look. “You need to know something. Eric and the others are planning to move, and they’re going to take you with them.”
She had no idea if that was good or bad. It sounded complicated. “Okay,” she said, hesitant as she tried to figure out her emotions. Moving might give her a chance to escape. That was what she was supposed to do. Escape. Brad would want to see her again. She wanted to be with him again. She was starting to forget how it felt when he held her. Then again, that all sounded like one huge excuse. When she didn’t say anything, Jesse folded his arms.
“I won’t be going with you, but it might be a long time before they leave—before I won’t be with you anymore.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you ‘with’ me?”
He inched closer and laughed under his breath. “I don’t know. I’ve seen you almost every day for the past three months, but I’ve tried to keep things simple. Eric told me to be careful with you.”
So that was why he had kept his distance. Seriously? He had come so close to stepping over a boundary she couldn’t define, especially when he had held her on her bed until she fell asleep. Even then he seemed to hold back, and she was starting to want more.
“What does he mean by careful?” she asked quietly, looking into his eyes as he wrapped his hands around her shoulders and guided her closer to him. Her body tensed. He had never touched her with such intensity. His eyes were burning right through her, making her breathe faster.
“I’ve been trying to avoid this since we first took you,” he stuttered, and squeezed her shoulders so hard it almost hurt. “I keep remembering why I’m here. We took you because of things I’ve done in the past. I’m the reason all of this has happened to you.”
That couldn’t be true. Eric was the leader, not Jesse. Everything felt distant. Would her plan still work? It didn’t seem as simple. Jesse wouldn’t promise to protect her—he would hurt her if she made the wrong move. He had helped kidnap her, for crying out loud. She wanted to pinch her arm to wake herself up, but now his hands were moving down her shoulders and around her back. His touch was electric, turning her on in places she had completely forgotten about.
“I can’t wait anymore,” he whispered and kissed her hard on the mouth.
She dropped her present to the floor and kissed him back, tasting alcohol on his breath. Beyond that, his mouth was sweet like Brad’s—but he kissed way better than Brad. He knew how to make her melt against him. His tongue softly caressed hers, sending tingles all the way to her toes as the room started to spin. He nudged her toward the bed and she stumbled backward. He kept a hold of her so tightly she felt his heart beating. It seemed the only thing keeping her steady. They stopped by the bed.
Jesse pulled back and gazed into her eyes. “Like I said, I’ve been trying to avoid this, but I can’t anymore. You know I want you.” His hands fumbled with the buttons on her shirt. Her heart pounded. Brad used to lie with her on the bed and kiss her so tenderly it felt like velvet on her lips. He wasn’t usually that gentle. Would Jesse be gentle?
He slipped another button loose, his fingers grazing her skin. He finished the last button and pushed the shirt from her shoulders and arms. It dropped onto the mattress, and fear shot through her heart at her almost-nakedness. Would he be like Brad? He was older, maybe even stronger. A thief. A kidnapper. How could she possibly trust him?