“No. We’re over.”
Pain thrummed behind Fiona’s eyes so fiercely, they refused to open. The person’s voice was doing nothing to help her. Each word pinged her skull harder, like a perfectly placed blow.
A pause, then, “And I told you that we were temporary.”
She bit back a groan, needing the noise to stop.
She tried to lift her hand, wanting to massage her temple, but something stopped her. It almost felt like…rope? She tried again, this time tugging harder, but was met by the same resistance.
Small flickers of awareness came to her. The hard surface under her. The crick in her neck, like her head had been at an odd angle for a long time. And tightness around her ankles. With each realization, her pulse beat faster, and her breath shortened.
Finally, she pieced it together…she was tied to a chair. The realization was both terrifying and infuriating.
Slowly, she forced her eyes open. Everything was a blur. No distinct shapes, just outlines and fuzzy movement. She blinked. Once. Twice. On the third, the shape in front of her began to come into focus. The lines turned into a pacing body…and that body was familiar.
Her lips parted, a gasp inflating her chest.
Freddie?
“I know, Stacey. But I’m going away and I’m not coming back. Deal with it.”
Fiona’s breath caught again. “Stacey?” The word felt dry and scratchy in her throat.
Freddie hung up and stopped his pacing to turn and look at her. His gaze whipped to the stairs and back, like he was…afraid? That she’d call for help? God, was there someone up there?
“You’re awake,” he said quietly.
Really? That was all he had to say?
Her brows scrunched as she tried to tug back her last memory. She’d been at work for the author reading. Rick had asked her to get some plates, and Jenny had gone with her to the office. Then…the key. Jenny had pulled out a key for a door, which had revealed a basement. She’d been walking down the stairs, then nothing. She couldn’t remember a single thing.
Was she still in the basement?
“How did I get here?” It was an effort to make her voice work.
He swallowed and took a small step forward. “I’ll tell you, but I need you to listen before you say anything. Okay?”
Her stomach rolled. She wasn’t agreeing to anything. With an aggressive tug, she pulled at the bindings on her wrists, suddenly finding a small scrap of energy. “Tell me what’s going on, Freddie! Now. And how do Jenny and Stacey fall into this?”
“Stacey doesn’t. After you left me, she and I had a thing, but I ended it for you.”
She balked. “You and Stacey got together?”
“Yeah. And I’m sorry about the messages she’s been sending you. She got it in her head you’d want me again and it was her job to somehow stop that from happening. When I found out, I told her to stop.”
Fiona opened and closed her mouth. Stacey had been sleeping with Freddie? And was responsible for those awful texts?
“But she’s not the reason I’m here, tied to this chair?” Fiona gasped.
“No. She knows nothing about this. Jenny came to me last week with…an offer.”
“Jenny? As in my friend Jenny? Jenny who works at the library?” Disbelief coated every word from her mouth. Because it was a lie, right? It had to be.
“Jenny isn’t Jenny.” He ran a hand through his hair, and there was a visible tremble in his fingers. “Her name’s Olivia. And she’s your twin.”
Fiona’s breaths stalled entirely, an icy layer of shock coating her skin. “That’s not possible.”
“It is.”
His eyes shifted to something in the corner. She followed his gaze to a small pile of material. A wig…the outfit Jenny had been wearing at work…even her glasses.
She shook her head more vigorously, ignoring the jolts of pain it brought to her head. “I don’t believe it.” She couldn’t. She knew Jenny. They saw each other almost every day.
“I thought you’d say that. So, I filmed her today. She didn’t even see my phone sitting on a shelf, but I wanted it in case you thought this was all my doing.”
He took out his cell and fiddled with it. She stared at it like it was a bomb about to detonate. When he crouched in front of her and placed the screen before her eyes, she almost didn’t want to watch, but at the same time, she couldn’t tear her gaze away.
The video showed the dim basement. Freddie stood beneath the stairs. There was the sound of a door opening, then footsteps. Jenny stepped into frame first, and Fiona followed. The second her feet hit the floor, Freddie raced forward and stuck something in her neck. A syringe.
She gasped as she watched herself drop, Freddie catching her before she hit the floor and laying her down gently.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way.”
Her gaze flicked to him, anger like a living, breathing beast inside her. Like hell it had to be this way!
Her gaze returned to the screen, and she watched as Jenny removed her wig, revealing hair exactly like her own beneath it. She removed her glasses, then a pair of contacts, and grabbed a makeup wipe to scrub away a mole on her cheek and a scar beside her right eye.
Every move made by the woman had her looking less like Jenny and more like…Fiona.
No. No, no, no! This had to be a bad dream. A nightmare that felt so real, she couldn’t wake up.
She did her makeup perfectly. When Jenny began taking off her clothes, and Freddie’s hands went to Fiona’s unconscious body, she wrenched her gaze away from the screen to look down at herself, seeing a plain black T-shirt and jeans. Oh God. She wasn’t wearing the shirt and slacks she’d put on this morning.
Her gaze flew back to the screen to see Freddie had undressed her and was now redressing her in the clothes she currently wore. A disgusting, overwhelming feeling of being violated ran through her body.
Jenny was donning Fiona’s clothes when Fiona noticed the birthmark on her side that looked exactly like hers. Oh, God.
Freddie took the phone away and pushed it back into his pocket. “She came to my room at the lodge. Took off her disguise and showed me who she was.” He swallowed. “She told me she was going to kill you…but that I could save you.”
“Save me?” Her gaze flicked around the basement. “Is this you saving me, Freddie?”
Please, God, let him say no. Let him say he’ll take me to the police. Or better yet, to Callum.
“I’ve rented a place. Paid in cash. We’re going to live there for a bit. Together. Just you and me.”
Nausea crawled up her throat. “That’s not saving me, Freddie. That’s kidnapping.”
He swallowed, guilt flickering in his eyes before he blinked it away. “It might take time for you to adjust. I screwed up, I know I did. But we were good together, and we can be good again. And this way, Olivia won’t kill you.”
“So, a woman comes to you, tells you she’s going to kill me and assume my life, and instead of going to the police or, hell, going to me or even Callum and telling us, you agreed with her fucked-up plan and decided you’re going to kidnap me and force me to live with you?”
His eyes narrowed, his voice hardening. “Like I said, it will take you some time to adjust.”
“This is crazy. You see how this is crazy, don’t you, Freddie?”
“What I see is the woman I love! The woman I’m a fucking shadow of a man without. The woman I need to win back. When the opportunity arose, I took it. Jesus, Fiona, I saved you! That woman was going to kill you.”
She could have laughed at his earnestness. “If you really believe that, you’re lying to yourself.” She tried to calm her voice. “Let me go, and I won’t tell anyone what you did. I’ll pin it all on her.”
It was a lie. She’d scream to anyone who listened about what this man had done, but her desperation made it sound true enough.
“No.” The word came quickly, with no leeway.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
Her gaze went to the stairs. Were there still people in the library? Was Callum, Liam, or Tyler still up there somewhere?
She opened her mouth and screamed—a long, loud wail.
But Freddie didn’t even flinch at the sound. He just shook his head. “They’re gone. Which means we’ll be gone soon, too.” He glanced at his watch. “Five more minutes.”
She tried to swallow her panic, her mind scrambling to come up with something to get her out of this. “Freddie, look at me.”
He’d started that pacing again. It was his nervous pacing. She’d seen it many times before. But he did as she requested and stopped to look at her. She forced her features to soften. “You know this won’t work. You can’t abduct someone and expect them to love you. Things will never be like they were between us ever again.”
And why did he even want that? They weren’t good for each other. He’d been having sex with her sister. Maybe even her cousin at the same time, for all she knew.
Betrayal pressed on her chest. If the situation was different, she’d allow that betrayal to choke her. But it wasn’t different. She was here, bound. She didn’t have the luxury of feeling sorry for herself. She had to focus on getting out.
Freddie moved forward, once again crouching in front of her, hands on her knees. “I know. Things will be even better this time. I didn’t appreciate you before. I got engaged to Amanda because she told me she was pregnant. Then I tried to fill the void with Stacey once you left. But neither of them were you. I won’t hurt you again. We’ll disconnect from our families. From Cradle Mountain. It will just be you and me, living on a big property I purchased for us in Utah.” He cupped her cheek. “It will be an adjustment for you, but I’ll look after you.”
It took everything in her to not pull away from his touch. To not flinch or dry heave. He was taking her from her life, and he expected her to be…what? Excited? Grateful?
God, he was crazy. Just as crazy as Olivia.
Words tried to crawl up her throat. Words about Callum finding them. Saving her and murdering this man. But what would that achieve? It would cause him to restrain her even tighter. Possibly knock her out again so he could get her to the car.
She swallowed the words she wanted to say and whispered words that sounded sick to her own ears. “I have missed you.” Her voice trembled with the force of the lie, the strength it took to release it into the air.
Hope danced in his eyes—but only for a moment, then it was replaced by suspicion. “You’ve missed me? You were just calling me crazy.”
She wet her dry lips, using the fleeting moment to scrounge more lies. “Because you drugged me and tied me up, Freddie. My head, wrists, and ankles hurt. But…yes, I missed you. You cheated on me, so I had to try to learn how to live life without you. But if you can promise that you won’t cheat again…”
“I won’t. I swear on my life.”
Ha. Like she’d believe anything this lying sack of shit said. “Good. Because I don’t want to be cheated on again. I need to be able to trust you.”
That’s it. Make him work for it.
That hope returned to his light brown eyes. “You’ll be the center of my world, Fiona.” He nodded and stood. “Good. See? This is good. We can start a new life together.” When he looked at her again, his gaze lowered to the rope around her ankles.
“I can walk, Freddie. I won’t run.” She was impressed by how the lie came out with such ease.
He ran a hand through his hair, the tremble in his movements becoming more violent. “I need to keep your wrists bound, but I’ll untie your ankles. Getting out of here will be easier if I don’t have to carry you.”
Her stomach dropped, but she was careful to keep her features clear in case his tenuous trust snapped and he decided to knock her out instead. With unbound feet, she could run. With nothing over her mouth, she could scream. There was hope.
Her heart thumped when Freddie lifted a small knife from a table against the far wall. He used the sharp blade to cut through the rope on her ankles.
“Once it’s safe for her to do so, Olivia will return here and clean everything up,” he muttered, almost to himself, like he was reminding himself of the details of the plan. When her legs were free, Freddie pulled her to her feet. Her head swam and her knees almost buckled.
Concern skittered over his face. “Are you okay?”
No, asshole, you drugged me. Oh, how she wished she could say exactly that.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “I’m a little dizzy. I think I just need to lie down.”
“You can sleep in the car. We’ll only be driving about forty-five minutes tonight, just far enough to be safe. Then we’ll do the rest of the drive tomorrow.”
He lowered the knife to the table beside her, then looked around the room. When he stepped away from her to lift a backpack, she quietly shuffled in front of the knife and grabbed it, attempting to hide it between her hands. It was small, so it wasn’t hard. Thankfully, he didn’t look for the weapon again, just grabbed her elbow and tugged her up the stairs.
Every step was an effort and had her head throbbing more. God, what had he given her?
When they stepped into the office, Freddie released her arm to close and lock the basement door. The second he turned his back, she used the knife to saw at the rope on her wrist. It was slow, but the blade was sharp. Twice, she nicked her skin, feeling a slice of pain.
“How long were you waiting in there before we came down?” she asked, keeping her front toward him, trying to distract him in case he noticed the movement of her hands behind her back.
He moved to Rick’s desk to deposit the key. “Olivia let me in an hour before the library opened, and we went through everything.”
Her chest tightened at the use of Jenny’s real name. He’d used it in the basement, but with every passing minute, the reality of the situation sank just a little deeper.
Jenny was Fiona’s twin sister. She’d been “friends” with her twin for months and hadn’t even known it.
She hadn’t fully cut through the rope before Freddie once again grabbed her arm and tugged her forward. The movement jolted her and caused another slip of the blade. She cringed but was careful to hide her pain as they exited the office and crossed the library to the back door. Everything was dark, and every so often, her head swam again, and she blinked her vision back to clarity.
He stopped and unlocked the back door, pulling it open. They shuffled through, then he tugged it closed and locked it. At every stop, she used the knife to slice at the rope. She was so close. She could feel the rope hanging on by a thread.
Instead of pulling her to the parking lot, he tugged her toward a side street. When he finally stopped beside a dark Ford, she vigorously used the knife to slice a few more times. The car door opened, and she gave her hands a violent tug.
The rope came apart just as Freddie turned.
In a desperate move, she swung her hand forward and dug the knife into his side.
At the sight of the blood, her belly coiled, but she ignored it, turning and running down the street of closed businesses. She made it half a block before thick arms wrapped around her and tugged her off her feet.
“No!”
She opened her mouth and screamed, putting as much volume behind it as possible.
Freddie’s curse was a rumble against her back, then something cracked against her skull.
