“Nick, if Noah decided to cover this up, she had her reasons,” Jenna said. “I’ve been her friend for a month, and I had no idea her father was in jail, let alone that he was an abuser.”
“If he lays a hand on her…” I said, hearing my own voice crack. I couldn’t just sit there doing nothing. I wanted to beat my head against the wall, anything, just to get my life to go back to where it had been earlier that week. I’d been happy for the first time in years, and all of it was thanks to that incredible girl who for some reason had chosen me… Just imagining Ronnie touching her turned my stomach. I knew Ronnie was in on this. I’d bet my life on it.
Just then, the phone started to ring. Everyone was running around like crazy. I went to Dad’s office, where everyone fell silent while he picked up the phone when the police motioned for him to do so. The speaker was on, so every word of the conversation was audible.
“Leister,” he answered.
“Mr. Leister…it’s an honor speaking with you,” said a voice I’d never heard before. It was deep, cheerful, as if all this were amusing. “The man who took my wife and daughter to the other end of the continent so I couldn’t find them. You’re an intelligent man, yes siree. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have your business empire and my wife would have never spared a thought for you.”
I looked to the left and saw Raffaella covering her mouth with her hand, repressing her tears, and shaking her head.
“Where’s Noah?” my father asked in a tense voice.
“We’ll get to that. But honestly, the location of my daughter isn’t your concern, Mr. Leister. All you need to worry about is how much money you can come up with to get back a person who honestly isn’t even part of your family.”
My father looked over at me.
“I’ll pay whatever it takes, you bastard, but don’t you dare lay a finger on her.” That was exactly what I would have said, and I felt grateful to him.
“A million dollars in used bills in two backpacks, to be handed over by you in person at midday,” Noah’s father said. “If you screw this up, I’ll leave the consequences to your imagination. And come alone, Mr. Leister—that’s an order.”
“I want to talk to her,” my father said tensely. “I need to know she’s all right.”
“Of course, Mr. Leister.”
I heard her a second later.
“Nicholas…” That was all she said. She sounded horrible. I couldn’t help taking a step forward when I heard her on the other line.
But right then, it went dead.
45
Noah
I woke up dizzy and with a terrible headache. All I could see when I looked around was a soft red light. In the room where they were keeping me was nothing but the bed I was lying on and a simple chair in the corner. The smell was awful, like rat piss. Music coming from outside, as in a dance club, made it impossible to hear anything but my accelerated breathing and the rapid pounding of my heart.
When I realized what had happened, I started panicking. A familiar whistling sound rang in my ears, and I’d swear I could hear the blood pumping through my body. There was a bitter taste in my mouth, and I was desperate for a glass of cold water. Whatever they’d drugged me with was still affecting me. I sat up and heard the clinking of chains: one of my hands was cuffed to the wall. I tried to get out, but in vain. Struggling to calm down, I thought of how I might escape. I’d never found my phone, so I couldn’t communicate with anyone. What scared me the most was the knowledge that my father was behind all this.
This couldn’t be happening. My father was in jail, and even if he’d gotten out, it was ridiculous to imagine the first thing he’d do is come looking for my mother and me and kidnap me. But that was what he’d done. I jerked and jerked against the chain, making a racket, hating the tears that clouded my eyes. How had I been so stupid? Why didn’t I take those threats seriously? Why hadn’t I told Nicholas?
Nick.
He must have been going crazy just then and blaming himself for everything. I’d have given anything to go back in time to stay by his side instead of leaving that house alone.
When people were in extreme situations, we always thought about the things we wished we’d said to the people we love or how stupid we’d been for worrying about idiotic little things now that we knew how dangerous life could actually be. I’d been kidnapped. That was something to really be worried about.
I heard someone open the door, and Ronnie appeared, causing me to shiver from head to toe.
“Good. You’re awake,” he said, closing the door behind him. The scant light was still bright enough to see his dark eyes, his lips, his shaved scalp. I could even see the new tattoo under his right eye: a horrifying snake. He walked over slowly and sat beside me on the bed. I pulled away from him as much as I could in the tiny space available to me.
“I gotta tell you, it sure turns me on seeing you chained up in this bed and completely at my mercy,” he said, eyeing me up lustily. I cursed the hour when I’d decided to put on that tight dress, but now all I could do was try to control my breathing and my fear. “I don’t know if you know this, but you got a bangin’ body.” He rested a hand on my bare ankle. I tried to push it away, but he pressed me into the mattress.
He could do anything he wanted to me.
“You know what? When I decided to race against you, it never crossed my mind you might be the daughter of a NASCAR driver. I was pissed when you beat me. If I remember right, you told me I was a dumbass and I should learn how to drive.”
His hand climbed up my leg.
“Don’t touch me,” I ordered him, unable to get away. I wished this was all just a nightmare and I would wake up in Nick’s arms.
“Well, this dumbass is about to get his revenge for that night, bae,” he said. By now, his hand was on my thigh. I shifted aside, but he got on top of me, and I struggled under his hips. Tears were running down my cheeks. “I’ll bet your little boyfriend won’t even take one look at you once I’m done. I’m gonna tear that thing up so bad he won’t want it back.”
“Help!” I shouted desperately, trying to get him off me. He laughed, holding me down with one hand while he took off his belt with another.
“Can’t no one hear you, stupid. No one who cares, anyway,” he said, leaning down and running his tongue over my breasts.
I turned my head away in desperation.
“Don’t touch me!” I shrieked.
He grabbed me around the neck and pushed me down into the mattress with one hand, and with the other, he pulled up my dress.
“No!” I shrieked, nearly tearing my vocal cords. “Let me go!”
The hand around my neck squeezed tighter, and I could hardly breathe.
“I’m gonna put it in you every which way, and you’re gonna stay nice and quiet,” he hissed, bringing his face close to mine. When he did so, his grip softened just enough for me to scream:
“Get me out of here!”
Then the door opened. The flickering red light from outside filled the room, and what I saw then scared me even more than my would-be rapist: my father was there, looking terrifying.
“That’s enough. Scram,” said that voice that had petrified me as a little girl, the voice that had threatened my mother thousands of times and that still pursued me in my dreams—the only voice I’d heard that night I was beaten nearly to death, the voice that haunted me as I had escaped through the window…
Ronnie cursed, and before getting up, he slapped me across the face. It was so quick I didn’t see it coming, and it stung.
“Nah, now it’s enough,” he said, getting in my father’s face and then walking out.
My father didn’t say a word, just stood there in the doorway watching. Only after a moment did I dare look up. He’d changed… His hair used to be blond like mine. Now it was white and cut very short. His arms were twice as big as before and covered in tattoos. Whatever he’d been doing those past few years had changed his appearance entirely. He was now even scarier than Ronnie.