“Why hasn’t he contacted us, then?” Zach wondered. “Offered us some kind of trade.”
“Because Norah won’t tell him how to get in contact with you,” Gerry said simply. “She would rather give her life than see anything happen to any of us.”
“He’s right,” Harley agreed. “Get that information sent over and tell your friend to get us some backup. If they don’t get back to us soon, then I’m going in myself with or without help.”
“Ill go with you,” Gerry said.
“Me too,” Marissa agreed.
“They’ll get back to us,” Zach assured him.
“It’s sent,” Marissa said as she stood. “Let’s start preparing for war.”
20
“Cold yet?” Clayton asked arrogantly as he came into the basement the next morning.
Norah bit back a shiver, not willing to show him she was. She knew her lips must be blue, and her skin felt like ice. She was pretty sure the bastard had turned on the air conditioner as well, although the chilly Seattle air hadn’t needed any help.
“Nope,” she said, grinding her teeth together.
He pulled a chair in front of her and held his steaming cup of coffee up to her nose.“Nothing like the first sip of a hot cup of coffee on a chilly morning.” He laughed and took a drink.
Norah closed her eyes. Carl had been dumping buckets of cold water on her every few hours, and she felt as if she was so cold that she would snap if anyone touched her. That was proven to be false when Clayton’s hand cracked against her cheek. It stung, and the pain caused tears to form in her eyes.
“Why not just save us all the trouble and help us contact your boyfriend? We could let you go in exchange for the bracelet and we could all just be on our merry way.”
“I won’t let you hurt anyone.”
Clayton laughed. “Do you not realize how much you’ve helped me already? Seeing as how you gave them the bracelet and stole the reader from my desk, I’m guessing you realized I had been transmitting information through you for over a year now. Do you know what type of information you were handing over for me?” he wondered, and leaned closer to her.
“I didn’t know you were using me,” she countered, and he laughed again.
“Doesn’t make you innocent, Norah. In fact, you are as guilty as I am.”
“No I’m not.”
“I was sending my associates names. Names of people who were late on their payments or who had bailed on paying at all. You know what they did to them?”
Norah closed her eyes and willed her ears to not hear what he was saying. She knew what they had done. Had seen the pictures in the file Harley had on Clayton.
“They killed them. Wiped them from the face of the earth and then went after their families when they couldn’t pay,” he clicked his tongue and shook his head, “well, you get the drift. You are the reason those people are dead, Norah. You gave their names over to those who carried out my dirty work.”
“I didn’t know!” she screamed at him as tears ran down her icy cheeks.
“Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.” He stood and threw his hot coffee on her.
She screamed when the heat seared her cold skin.
“I have other ways of getting what I want,” Clayton growled.
“I won’t give in, Clayton. Reagan didn’t, and neither will I.” She wasn’t sure why she mentioned her friend; perhaps she wanted to see Clayton’s face at the mention of his victim. She wasn’t sure what she could expect, but the slow smile that crept over his face had definitely not been it.
“So you found her, did you?” He knelt menacingly before her. “She thought she was tough too. But as she found out, I always get what I want.”
“And what was that? She hadn’t known anything!”
“There was no way to be sure, now, was there? She showed up to check on her ‘friend.’ And, well, when have you known me to miss an opportunity?”
“You still didn’t find the bracelet, and it was right in front of you,” she taunted.
“Regrettably, the pain caused your pathetic friend to die before we got any other information out of her.”
“Pain?” Hadn’t Harley told her it didn’t look like Reagan had suffered?
“Oh yes.” Clayton smiled at her. “She felt a hell of a lot of pain before she died.”
Tears filled Norah’s eyes. “You are a monster.”
“Some see it that way. Others, the ones who matter, see me for what I am.”
“And what’s that?”
“A visionary.”
She scoffed at him.
“You don’t believe me?”
“No.”
“Norah, I am going to reshape this country, maybe even the world eventually.” He stood and looked past her at the wall as if he was seeing his goals taking place in his head. “This country will fall, and I will rebuild it the way it should be.”
“It is already the way it should be.”
Clayton shook his head sadly. “No, people have too much free will. They are destroying our country, and it needs to stop.”
“So you want control.”
“I want to save our country from destruction.”
“You are insane.” She would have called Clayton many things before, but never would crazy have topped the list. However, looking at him now, she saw just how insane he truly had become. Her only question now was how had she not seen it before?
Anger flashed over his face, and he knelt again. “I am not crazy. You will see that my way is the only way.” He stood and brushed his hands on his pants. “You could have ruled with me.”
“You couldn’t ever have controlled me.”
“But I did; for nearly two years I controlled your every move.” He smiled at her. “We both know you aren’t worth anything alone. Maybe you’ll still come around.”
“We both know you don’t give a shit about me.”
“And you are wrong yet again, Norah. As I said before, you were merely a way to put my name in the press at first. Billionaire philanthropist marries poor orphan girl. The title was poetic, but after having you around for a while I grew accustomed to you.”
“Which is why you screwed that redhead?”
“What red—” He laughed. “Oh, still broken up about that? If it makes you feel any better, I can make it up to you just as soon as you help us. I promise I’m a better fuck than that cop ever will be.”
“You’re pathetic.” It was her turn to laugh. “You aren’t half the man Harley is. He will take you down,” she growled at Clayton as he turned away.
Clayton stopped and turned around, a huge smile spread across his face. “You had better hope he doesn’t, because if I go down, I’m bringing you with me.”
He left the room, and Norah took a deep breath. They had been so close to being free, within feet of being able to wrap her arms around Harley and feel the safety of his surrounding her. She knew that if given the chance, she would give her life to protect him, but still she wasn’t ready to die.
She summoned her strength. No more feeling sorry for herself. She wanted kids, a family of her own to love and watch grow. It all seemed so far away now. Her teeth began chattering as the coffee turned cold and seeped into her skin. Norah held her head up as high as she could and waited for the cavalry to arrive. It was about fucking time they did.
* * *