Page 74 of Crushed
Like I needed to accept the fact that I couldn’t chain Scarlett down. Neither of them deserved that.
My phone buzzed; one of the staff members sent a message:Scarlett is here to see you, sir.
My chest tightened, but I didn’t get my hopes up. I kissed Rose’s forehead and let myself out. I walked slowly to the sitting room.
The light from the windows shined down around Scarlett in a halo of sunshine. She fidgeted with her hands as she turned to me, a look of anxiety on her face.
“I need your help,” she said. I waited, standing there, looking at her. “Lizzy, my guardian, for lack of a better word, is in trouble.” She stepped forward and grabbed my hands. “Issac Berman abducted her. I need your help to save her.”
Somewhere deep within, the urge to question her surfaced. Could this be a ruse, another way for her to trick me into my own death?
But the drive to help her drowned out that doubt. I had to trust myself that I knew what I was doing. Most of all, I had to trust Scarlett.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
Relief flickered through her eyes, her shoulders relaxing. “I need to pretend to give you to Issac, as a sort of peace offering. Tied up as my hostage. With the idea that he’ll get the chance to kill you himself. But don’t worry,” she rubbed my shoulder, “I won’t let him. And once I’ve distracted him, I’ll free you and rescue Lizzy.”
“I can’t go there and kill him myself?”
She shook her head. “It’s too risky for Lizzy. And don’t take this the wrong way. I know you’re smart,” she said, stroking my arm, “but I’m kind of trained in this stuff. At least, in theory, I am.”
Though I had enough knowledge in the art of deception, I didn’t doubt that she was better suited for this situation than I was. But could I trust her to protect me? Trust that she was telling me the whole truth?
I knew I could. “When do we leave?”
We headed to her car, where she put me in the backseat, binding my wrists in handcuffs behind my back. She stabbed me with a syringe and pushed me until I was lying down on the seat. What was she drugging me with?
Then I remembered the fake pill I had given her. It seemed fitting, in a way.
“This will make you groggy,” she said. “It’s a super low dose though. Act disoriented and pissed off when we get there. Leave the rest up to me.”
Soon, cloudiness took over my mind, as if I had taken cough medicine. How many people had she drugged? It was amusing to think of the courageous acts she could have committed before we met, how many people she had taken down, how much I still didn’t know about her. Hell, it was brave of her to go after me, a high profile criminal billionaire, and even braver now, to save her guardian.
The car jerked around until finally, it came to a stop.
“We’re here,” she said.
She slid into the back seat and hastily put a hood over my head, throwing away all pretenses of a relationship. Using her strength, she shoved me out of the car, kicking me as I stood. That part surprised me, but in a good way.
And to see that she was unafraid of holding back? That was impressive too.
She pushed me forward. We walked up what I assumed was the driveway, my vision still shrouded.
A door creaked open. “Right out in the open?” Issac asked. “Is that him?”
“You want to let us inside before your neighbors see?” Scarlett asked.
Issac shuffled out of the way and Scarlett pushed me inside, then kicked the back of my legs, and in one fell swoop, drove me to my knees. If we hadn’t been in such a precarious situation, I might have been turned on, wanting now, more than ever, to make her surrender to me. She yanked the hood off of my head and I blinked, trying to focus.
Issac filled my view, glaring down at me.
“I figured it might be more satisfying if you finished the job yourself,” Scarlett said.
A grin flitted across Issac’s mouth. “What an intriguing proposition.” He gestured towards the backyard. “Your precious leader is enjoying the sunshine, child.”
Scarlett pulled at my shirt and muttered, “On your feet, asshole.” I kept my head down. Once this was over, given the opportunity, I would punish her for that. The kicks, the degradation. And the punishment would be glorious.
But that was the drugs in my system talking. There were other things to focus on now.
