Page 61 of Lethal Deceit

Shaking my head, I slide the phone back into my pocket as Luke looks at me. “Problem?”

“Just my sister being a freak, and I should be okay. Good to know you’re close by if I need a break.”

He hikes his chin. “We should head inside.”

When I hesitate, thinking of what’s waiting on the other side of the door, no longer cuffed to the chair, Luke offers reassurance. “Relax. She won’t be wearing the dress. I wouldn’t be surprised if Adena has ripped it to shreds.”

“Tough, is she?”

“From what I hear, yeah.”

With my mind on the other woman inside, I head back in and try to gauge the feel of the room. Samantha isn’t attached to the chair, and thankfully, Luke was right, she’s wearing the unflattering outfit that doesn’t make my thoughts plummet into the gutter. Adena is seated at the table, eating a pastry and drinking coffee, while Samantha is curled into the chair, looking at the guest brochure with the highlights in the area.

“Jake’s picking me up in twenty. He wants a shower and to eat, then he’ll take me back to the airport,” Adena says to Samantha.

Samantha doesn’t bat an eye, just turns a page. “Have a pleasant flight.”

“Think about what I said.”

Samantha smiles benignly. “Of course.”

What is going on? Why is Samantha being so polite? It’s like someone flicked a switch and she’s in Little Miss Sunshine mode.

Adena exchanges a look with Luke, who gives her the slightest shrug as if to tell her not to worry about it. That he’s not bothered doesn’t make me any less concerned. He hasn’t just spent the last twenty hours with her.

As I’m reconsidering whether I should stay here alone with her, my phone chirps again, and I pull it out, checking in case it’s my CO.

Brooke again. Probably with another mocking message.

Except it’s not. It’s a text, and as I scan the message, all the blood drains from my face.

We have your sister. Call the police and she dies. Take too long to reply, she dies. Will send further instructions. Be ready.

Praying this is a prank, I scroll back up to the image sent a few minutes ago, and my stomach hits the carpet. What I mistook for her making fun of me by holding up today’s newspaper is proof someone really does have her. Given the terror etched on her face, and the swollen lip I missed, it’s obvious she put up a fight.

A curse slips out of me, but that’s the least of my worries.

“What? Your CO playing hardball?” Luke says.

I’m too shaken to speak, so I hand him my phone. When he reads the message, he issues an oath of his own, though with more discretion.

“What’s wrong?” Adena asks.

I reach for my phone, but it chirps in Luke’s hand, and he reads it without my permission. When he does, his face sets hard and his eyes lock onto Samantha, crumpling the relaxed manner she was projecting.

“They want cash, and they want an exchange.”

Samantha goes rigid as I try to slow my breathing in the hopes it will calm me down.

“For Mick?” Adena asks.

Before Luke replies, my rapid heartbeat synchronizes with my rapid prayers.

Please, God, let that be what they want. Don’t let them hurt my sister because of something stupid I did!

But somehow it’s so much worse. “They want Samantha,” Luke says.

Samantha

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