Page 59 of Caged

“There’s no harm in telling them, now, eh, Franks?”

“No, sir. They won’t be telling anyone,” Franks, the goon, answered. His voice sounded a lot like a hammer driving a nail into my coffin.

Roman told us Wendy wanted them to hang out with her friends more, and introduce him to her father. He didn’t want to, and they got into a fight at dinner. Which explained why Wendy didn’t look happy in the video footage. When they got back to Robert’s place, Wendy made the mistake of challenging his manhood during the argument.

We listened without expression. Without questions. It was better to let Roman tell us everything. If we found a way to escape, we could relay the information.

“When Robert slapped Wendy, she fell and slammed her head on the corner of the table.” He shook his head back and forth, sounding genuinely remorseful. “She never woke up.”

Robert killed her. She was dead before her father knew she was missing.He’ll be devastated.

“If it makes you feel any better, her death was instant,” he said.

“It doesn’t,” Jaden barked. When Franks reached out to punch him, Jaden moved.

“He’s a quick study,” Franks said with a laugh before throwing another punch.

Roman’s confidence that we’d never have the opportunity to tell anyone what happened was alarming.

His full, detailed confession hammered home his intent to kill us.

And there’s no way for SSI to track us.They’d have to get creative, but it’d take longer and I had a feeling time wasn’t on our side.

However, they knew everything right up until the point when we were drugged. We’d checked in when we sat down to eat. How long ago was that? Had we missed a check in yet?

They’d spare no expense and tear the world apart looking for us.I pray they find us in time.

“You have no idea how excited I was when I reviewed the tape to see who Adam invited to the game. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was two PIs from Sheppard & Sons.” His smile sent shivers up my spine. “You two saved me a lot of leg work by walking into my humble establishment. Now, I’ll have the opportunity to exact my revenge, sooner rather than later.”

My eyes locked on Jaden’s. This was all my fault; the instant I knew Richard Roman was involved I should’ve changed tactics.

We had to hope Roman didn’t intend on killing us right away.

Or maybe it’ll be better if he does.

Chapter 24

Jay

“What’d we do to you?” I asked. I wanted to gauge his emotional reaction. If Roman was calm, he’d probably take things slow. We’d be in for a world of hurt, but it’d give SSI time to find us. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if he was emotional.

He tsked. “They say the youngest is always the dumbest.”

I glared at him, ignoring Maxwell’s silent plea to keep my mouth shut.

“Perhaps he wasn’t there,” Franks said with a laugh.

I was there, not in the house but in my sniper’s nest, and I’d added a few tallies to my kill sheet. Keeping a tally was a sniper thing; all the special operation team snipers did it. Not that I took pleasure in killing people, but some people deserved it. Like the idiots Roman hired to kidnap my sister-in-law and Blake.

Roman looked at Maxwell before looking back at me. “Oh, he was there when SSI killed twenty-three of my men and robbed me of the hundreds of thousands Davenport owes me.”

Owes? He still plans to collect?Not for the first time in my life, I found myself wishing telepathy was real. We needed to tell the team what happened to Wendy, and that Roman still wanted to collect Davenport’s debt.

“Blake’s an innocent,” Maxwell said.

“She is,” he agreed. “But paying her father’s debts, and the accruing interest, is the least she can do after all the trouble you caused me.”

Roman’s phone pinged, distracting him for a moment while he replied to a text.

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