“A half-million dollars’ worth of emeralds. If you want to give me cash, I’ll take it.” He was sarcastic, sneering. “You shouldn’t have double-crossed me.”
“A half million? That’s all you got?” She couldn’t hide her surprise. The Carhills were worth over a billion. Ham was their only son. Why ask for only half a million? Unless the emeralds hadn’t come from the Carhills. “Who gave you the emeralds? Was it your take—”
“Shut up.”
But from his split-second’s hesitation, Mia realized that Tatro didn’t really know.
“You’re a Washington insider,” he went on. “You play games for a living. Don’t think you can fuck with my head.”
“I’m just trying to understand what’s going on.” She was so tired, and her head was spinning—but trying to put the pieces of her ordeal together kept her from focusing on her pain and fear. “How did you know about me? How did you find me in New York?”
He kicked her in the ribs, and she cried out, almost vomiting with the agony. He moved in closer to her. “You don’t need to understand anything. Just tell me where my emeralds are. You don’t want me to turn you over to my friend. He knows how to run an interrogation.”
Mia was gulping in air, on the verge of hyperventilating, but she forced herself to stop, get control of herself. Think. She tried to lick her lips, but her tongue was parched. “I need water. Please.”
“That’s better.” He seemed to enjoy having her plead with him. “Sit up.”
He didn’t help her as she struggled to a sitting position, fighting pain, nausea, fear. Her shoulders ached constantly from how far he’d yanked them back to cuff her wrists, and she could feel the bounds cutting into her ankles. The blindfold was disorienting but not painful. She didn’t know if it was night or day.
“Two sips. I don’t want to clean you up after you pee in your pants.”
He was sadistic, she realized. He enjoyed watching her suffer. She took the two sips, not caring if the water was drugged—she’d almost prefer unconsciousness to this misery and fear.
“That’s a girl.”
He replaced her gag, and in another few seconds, she heard a door creak.
Alone in the dark, she curled up into a fetal position. She had to get free. If she didn’t, he’d kill her. It didn’t matter if she could or couldn’t lead him to the emeralds. She was dead.
Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art Thou amongst women…
Comforted, she was able to relax her muscles, and to think.
Wendy dropped behind a huge granite boulder that was half in the lake, half out, and sat in damp, rotting pine needles. She could taste their acid mustiness. The boulder was in the woods along the clearing where Juliet had pitched her tent, still on her land. Wendy’s jog through the woods down to the lake had sounded thunderous to her—every crunch of leaves and twigs, every gulp of air, seemed magnified, threatening to alert anyone within miles to her whereabouts.
Which would have been okay, but she really wanted to be alone.
Her heart was racing, thumping hard in her chest, but just from exertion, she thought, not fear—not like Friday with Bobby Tatro. She’d accomplished her first goal of getting out of the house and away from her dad and her aunt and everyone. She couldn’t believe her dad had come at the crack of dawn and slept on the couch. She was up early and halfway down the stairs when she saw him, and she tiptoed right back up to her room. His overprotectiveness was going to drive her crazy.
Matt was right. She needed to scatter Teddy’s ashes and let him rest in peace. It would help with her sense of restlessness and failure, her guilt over Juan. No matter who he was, no one deserved to be murdered.
She’d crawled up into the attic and out the window while her aunt and her dad and that army guy were out in the driveway. Wendy didn’t like Ethan Brooker being in Vermont. She’d seen him arrive last night. She’d finally warmed up after going out after the turkeys. She didn’t recognize him at first—she’d met him only briefly in New York. But after he left, she checked with her uncle Paul, and he told her who he was, said not to worry and sent her back inside before she froze.
She didn’t want to think about how nuts they’d all be if they found her gone. She planned to be back before that happened. She’d decided it was her responsibility to find a place to scatter Teddy’s ashes. He was her dog, and she’d wanted his burial to be just between the two of them. So far, she’d made it to the lake without being seen.