Page 44 of Under Fyre

“No. This is…something else.”

“What do you mean, something else? What’s going on, Gideon?”

Fyre drops a blond wig onto the bed. “Ever worn one of these?”

I’m too horrified to reply.

“Put your hair in a bun.” He tosses some hairbands next to the wig. “Make it tight.”

I stare at the collection of hair things. “And if I don’t want to?”

Fyre ambles around the bed. If he’d been moving any faster, I’d have bolted like a skittish deer.

But he’d have caught me, slaughtered me, and mounted me just like the other dead animals in this cabin.

“I apologize if I ever gave you the assumption that you have a choice, Charlotte.” He catches hold of my shoulder and stares down at my cheerleading outfit. When his eyes move back to mine, there’s a hint of amusement in them.

“Let me be clear. You don’t.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Fyre

Ihad my reasons for bringing Charlotte to this small, remote cabin. It’s a good substitute for Peter’s lake house and this room makes a suitable Toy Box.

That’s where he kept Charlotte. A small room, custom built into the foundation of his house. No one would even know it was there—he never altered the house’s blueprints. It took the police hours to find the hidden entrance.

That police report wasn’t part of the documentation sent to my office. But I’ve spent years making the kind of connections that meant reports like hers were at the tip of my fingers.

I wasn’t shocked with what they found in that room.

They were.

Some of those police officers most likely received psychiatric counseling. The case is still open—Peter covered his tracks so well when he ran that I couldn’t find him either.

Thank God he was as obsessed with Charlotte as I was, else I might never have tracked him down.

Else I’d never havesacrificedhim for her.

Peter was worth a lot more to me alive than dead. Vermin like him. They hunt in packs. He could have led me to their nest. But proving myself to Charlotte, gaining her trust, that was more important.

From the way she’s looking at me now though, it seems everything I’ve done for her was in vain.

She doesn’t trust me, despite what she says.

Perhaps she’s incapable. I can understand that.

But I’m doing this for both of us, whether she can sense that or not. I’d give the reasons she’s so desperately searching for, but I don’t know if she’s ready yet.

When I take out the digital camera I’d bought a few hours ago, her eyes sparkle with the premonition of tears.

I made her tie the wig into two pigtails. They dangle down the side of her neck, the tips nestling between her breasts. She padded her bra with two folded socks, now perfectly filling out the bustier of the cheerleading outfit

I didn’t exactly have a massive range of options, and this outfit was the closest to the photo I’d uploaded to Milly’s account.

She put on nude makeup for me, a little eyeliner to make her big eyes pop even more.

Milly would want to make herself look older than she is, but Charlotte is already several years older than Brent92’s underage cheerleader. Lucky for us, Charlotte is petite enough to pull off the look, especially when I turn down the lighting.

---