Page 83 of Push & Pull
“Point taken. Here.” Petra shirked out of her sweater and wrapped it around Simone’s shoulders. While it was warmer and more comfortable than the thin jacket Simone had been wearing when she was kidnapped, it smelled like Petra – and the last thing Simone needed right now was that murky feeling clouding her judgment.
“What are you doing here?” The middle-aged man in charge of this situation walked back out of the office. Petra got up to face him. “I told you to make yourself scarce. You should be halfway to Cincinnati by now.”
“Guess I got the wires crossed. Either that or I was worried about the sloppy work I had seen all over the news, Uncle Michail.”
Uncle?Petra might as well have hired a skywriter to spell“I’M WITH VIOLENT STUPID”in the air.The more this goes on, the more likely I am to throw up into my duct tape.
“Why are you saying my name like that?” Michail came close enough to Petra to touch her, but Simone noticed that neither of them was willing to bridge the gap. “You better not have been followed here.”
“Trust me. The sun may be coming up outside, but nobody saw me. The whole world is dead from here to Evans Manor.”
Petra’s uncle crossed his arms and knitted his brows in consternation. “I’ve been keeping up with the news as well. You know quite a bit for someone who shouldn’t know much at all.”
“Please. I’ve been traveling with this woman for a week. No one here knows her as well as I do. You think I didn’t get her to spill all of her life details? It’s what Ido.Remember? You’re the one who taught me everything,Dad.”
That caught Michail off guard, but he said nothing. Only his henchmen looked in their direction with intrigue on their otherwise dull faces.
“Dad?” the large man named Samson said. “How about that?”
“You don’t see the resemblance?” Petra asked. “Makes everything he taught me extra juicy when you put it in the context of him being my dad instead of my creepy uncle.” Her hand landed on Simone’s shoulder before Michail himself could say anything. “I’m a liability no matter what. Might as well be here so you can keep an eye on me.”
Although Michail didn’t tell her to leave, he made his ire known by instructing Samson to keep a close eye on both women. “We don’t know her allegiance,” Simone overheard him saying. “She’s been sleeping with the mark.”
“She sleeps with all of the marks,” the big man said, much more loudly than his boss. “What does it matter if this one’s a woman?”
Petra didn’t miss a beat commenting on that. “Notallof them. Jeez.”
Simone didn’t know what to make of any of this. Only now did her mind clear enough for her to realize the seriousness of the situation.I’ve been kidnapped. I’m being ransomed to Astrid, of all people. I don’t know how much they’re asking for, but it’s probably too much for even Astrid to get a hold of in a short time. They’re threatening to hurt me if she doesn’t get the money. Now Petra’s here, and they’re calling me a mark, and she’s not denying it. This man is her uncle. Or her father. I don’t know anymore.
The most logical conclusion was also the most uncomfortable one.Everything with Petra was a setup.Simone wouldn’t be surprised if her phone was left behind instead of simply forgotten.
“Things won’t be pretty if the Evans don’t comply with our demands,” Michail said to Petra. “I don’t want you to get in the way if we have to escalate the situation.”
Simone couldn’t hold back the flinching wave in her body. This time, Petra was more reserved with her response. “I doubt it will come to that. From the sounds of things on the outside, her stepmother is staying up all night trying to come up with the money.”
I’ll believe that when I see it.Nevertheless, Simone prayed it was true. Ten million wasn’tnothingto the Evans’ coffers, but it wasn’t impossible to procure, either. Especially if Astrid emptied her personal accounts and went to the president of the family company for help.
“We’ll deal with that as it comes. You two.” Michail pointed to the two other men in the large garage. “Keep an eye on them. That includes Petra. Trust her like she’s your rowdy sister always getting you into trouble.”
“Don’t you guys do that, anyway?”
As soon as Michail disappeared into the other room, the man named Samson approached Petra and Simone. “We’ll leave her hands untied if she behaves herself, but the ankles stay tied up. Got it? We can’t have her running off.”
Petra’s chin dipped toward the gun strapped to Samson’s hip. “Sure. I’m sure she’s stupid enough to try that, anyway.” She looked to Simone. “You’re not gonna run, right?”
For someone who hadn’t said much of anything those past few hours, Simone could do nothing more than shake her head and sigh against the duct tape on her mouth. Her strength was depleted to the point she couldn’t scooch away from Petra, who might as well have been made of uranium.In that case, I’m dead anyway.
“You guys ain’t gonna hurt her, right?”
Samson lowered his arms, his hand suspiciously close to his gun. “We do what Michail tells us to do. I ain’t lifting a finger unless I have to, though.” His eyes bored into Simone’s skull. “As long as her family pays off or they make some other kind of deal, the worst we’re doing is babysitting, dropping off, and getting the hell out. Remember, it’s your ass on the line, too.”
“Yeah, yeah. I should be halfway to Cincinnati by now.”
Simone dozed off again, her body hunched over her lap until Petra moved out of the way and helped the captive lie down. “I’msosorry about this,” Petra whispered when the men wandered away to argue about what to eat for lunch later that day. “I had no idea. Really. I’m… I’m gonna get you out of this, okay? I promise.”
Simone said nothing. The most she gave Petra was a fluttering of the sleepy eyelashes.
“I’ve talked to your stepmother already. She knows I’ve come after you. I don’t doubt someone followed me here, too, no matter how hard I tried to shake anyone who might be.” Petra’s head whipped over her shoulder. “I have an idea. I’ll enact it in about half an hour when the sun has fully come up. You havegotto play along, okay? Follow my lead.”
