Page 117 of Silver Linings

James laughed. “Christ. I almost forgot you were here. The Captain is going to have fun with you.”

“What does that mean?” Bile surged in Lily’s throat as she held her throbbing cheek.

“He should be here any minute, Lily. Thought I’d be the only one having fun tonight? Can’t leave dear old dad out of it. What do you think he’s doing half the time on those boat charters? He loves to give it rough. Is that what you like, firecracker?”

Sloane didn’t answer, but Lily saw the way her body shook. This whole thing was Lily’s fault, and now her sweet friend was in danger because of her.

“Gunner will never let you get away with this.”

“You know, I thought going up against an entire team of Navy SEALs was going to be challenging, but they never even suspected me, did they, Lily? How pathetic. As soon as I found out where you were, I tried to leave him out of it. Fucking paid my idiot friend from college a shit ton of money to grab you from the park. He botched that up good, didn’t he? And then he got fucking arrested at the bar. I had to resort to setting up appointments with the feisty bitch here to meet your friends. Oh, and that pretty little thing behind the desk. I really enjoyed messing with her. I hadn’t even come up with a real plan about how to take you, just waiting for an opportunity to present itself. So imagine my delight when I’m just watching the building and I see you walk into my shrink’s office with our baby this morning. It was as if the universe was handing you to me like a Christmas present.”

“Did you…were those people who shot Gunner a part of all this too?” she asked.

“My fucking cousins. Can’t even count on family to get things done. Always have to do everything myself,” he mumbled.

Two sharp knocks came from upstairs. Lily prayed it was someone there to rescue them, but from the grin on James’s face, she knew they weren’t that lucky.

“Upstairs. Now.” He walked to the back of Sloane and Lily, shoving them towards the stairs. Her legs shook violently as she climbed each step until she reached the top.

“Over there.” James pointed to an old mattress on the ground and both women moved towards it. “Don’t even think of moving.”

The door opened and James’s father Paul walked in. His eyes lit up when he saw Lily.

“Very good, James. I didn’t think you’d be able to do it.”

“I told you I would.”

“Yes, son. You did. And I’m proud of you.”

“Does mom have the baby?” James asked.

Paul’s eyes danced darkly over Lily’s whole body. “Not yet. The sheriff is giving her the runaround. But don’t worry. Judge Lonjik is working with our lawyer to get her temporary custody. She’ll be home in Connecticut in no time, son.”

“My family won’t be complete without her, dad. That fucker cannot keep my daughter while my wife and I are in Connecticut.”

“You won’t even have the baby when you are back home, James. Don’t you remember what we discussed? Everything that went into faking your death, all this bullshit here that we’ve done, it’s been so your mother can get custody of the baby.”

Lily gasped. “No one is taking my baby from me.”

“You don’t get a say in it, I’m afraid. Corrine’s one stipulation when she found out about my extramarital…recreations…was that I make sure she could raise the baby. A divorce would ruin me, and so I made sure she’d get what she wanted. Now, enough talking about Corrine.” Paul licked his lips and turned towards Sloane. “Is this the bitch that was giving you so much trouble, James?”

“Yes, sir. I think she’d like you to teach her a lesson.”

Paul leaned into Sloane’s face and pinched her chin between his fingers. “Oh, I bet she would.”

“Fuck you.” Sloane spit in his face. Lily would never have believed it if she hadn’t seen it for herself. And damn, she was so proud of her for being so tough.

The next second, though, Lily cringed as Paul brought his hand down across Sloane’s face.

“Oh yes,” he said. “It’s going to be fun breaking you.”

Thirty-Eight

“Please don’t do this. Please don’t hurt her. You can have me. I’ll go with you, but please, just let Sloane go.”

Lily begged for her friend as Paul dragged Sloane to the mattress and pinned her down. She looked on in horror as he ripped her underwear off and began undoing his buckle, letting his pants fall down to his knees, all the while keeping her pinned under his weight.

Sloane had gone still, and Lily didn’t understand why suddenly she wasn’t fighting back. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She took the sharp wire still hidden in her hand and lunged at Paul.

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