Page 79 of Cornered

“Yeah. I noticed. And I told you to let it go. I wanted her gone, but she’s a good chef. She’s so good that despite your efforts to make a royal mess out of everything, the entire weekend was an unmitigated success.” The first man was icily calm. “Which is why I told you to wait. We needed to leave her alone for a while and let things cool off. But instead of waiting, you kidnapped her.”

“There’s no proof of that. None. She was a willing participant.”

At those words, Cassie almost lost the battle with her roiling stomach.

“So help me, if you touched her—”

“I didn’t.” The second man sounded a little desperate now and his words came faster. “I picked her up from the spot, drove her here, and put her on the couch. I haven’t laid a hand on her.”

Cassie wanted to cry from relief, but the possible horror had jolted her into full consciousness. She sat slowly, careful not to make any sound that would attract her captors.

The second man was still talking. “But Ididn’tkidnap her. Don’t you see? That’s the beauty of the plan. She got in that van of her own free will and asked the driver to give her a ride.”

“Because you suggested it.”

“Well, yeah, but she did it.”

“Sure she did. But there’s only one reason she would agree to such a ridiculous request. What did you give her?”

A pause. “GHB. In her lemonade.”

“Idiot.” This time the word was low. “You could have killed her.”

“But I didn’t. And GHB is perfect for this. She won’t remember anything. She won’t be able to testify about anything. She’s in there asleep. All we have to do is dump her somewhere. The whole town is looking for her. She’ll be found.”

Cassie took her time but got on her feet and looked at her surroundings. The room she was in looked like a bedroom that someone had converted into a small den. There was a recliner, a TV, bookshelves, and enough drug paraphernalia to get half of Gossamer Falls high.

“Yeah. And what happens when she’s found?” The first guy again. Cassie struggled with the voice. She knew that voice. Why couldn’t she remember? “You’rethe one she’s going to remember. And when she does, you’ll be arrested. Or have you forgotten about what happened the last time you were in the same space as Cassie Quinn? Huh? Oh, that’s right. An innocent man was killed and then the man who killed him later killed himself because he couldn’t live with himself when he found out what he did while he was high on drugs. Drugs thatyou sold him.”

The words fell like tiny little grenades all around her heart.

The second man started talking, and Cassie had to concentrate to hear him. When he finally stopped cursing, he said, “I have a good thing going here. And so do you. So I suggest you help me figure out how to handle this, because if they take me down, you can be sure I’ll take you with me.”

In the silence that stretched between the two men, Cassie fought to process what she’d heard. The second man had been in Atlanta. He was the one who’d been selling the drugs? How had he wound up in Gossamer Falls?

And now he was back in the drug business. And he believed that Cassie would recognize him. Cassie sat back on the sofa and tried to breathe.

“Fine. How much longer do you think she’ll sleep?”

“Who knows? I didn’t think I’d dosed her that much, but she’s a lightweight.”

“She’s probably never done anything stronger than a Tylenol. The Quinns don’t do drugs.”

There was venom in his voice when he said “the Quinns,” and it was in that moment that she recognized the voice.

This was bad.

This was very, very bad.Oh Father, help me. Please.Cassie knew that prayers weren’t always answered in the way she wanted. She’d prayed her heart out for twelve solid hours that night in Atlanta. No one could have prayed with more desperation or faith than she had.

And while she’d survived, she’d lost friends, and for a while, she’d lost part of herself. But she knew that prayer mattered. She knew that it was a declaration, albeit a silent one, of trust in her heavenly Father.

Her mind flashed to Donovan.Help him, please.He would be a disaster by now. Her parents and family. Cal, Mo, Meredith. Bronwyn. They would all be devastated. She had no doubt that they were turning Gossamer Falls upside down and inside out to find her. And she knew they would succeed.

But if she didn’t stay alive for the next few minutes, they might find her body after it was too late.

She had way too much living to do. She wanted to kiss Donovan Bledsoe and tell him that she loved him. She wanted to build on what Chef Louis had done, but also make Hideaway her own.

And she wanted to be sure Steven Pierce and his mysterious accomplice went to jail.

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