Page 53 of Psyop Kings

Romy

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

I wake with a pounding headache and cotton mouth. Light pours in from a window, blinding me when I attempt to open my eyes. The buzzing sound continues. I can almost feel it vibrating.

Sudden awareness chases away my hangover.

It’s a phone.

I sit up, squinting against the harsh light to locate it. It seems to be buried under the sheets somewhere. Finally, my hand touches the cool, rectangular device.

Snatching it up, I realize it’smyphone. The next thing that occurs to me is that over a month has passed since the date of my kidnapping.

Over a freaking month.

Oh my God.

I’d been confused about how many days had passed, but I didn’t realize it had been so many—that I’d missed Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday. It’s now December, for crying out loud. I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this.

I wait for my brain to catch up. I’m in Caius’s bed, but he’s not here. My jeans are gone, but the rest of my clothes remain. When he drugged me last night, at least he didn’t rape me.

Since I appear to be alone, I slip out of the bed with my phone and tiptoe into the closet. Once the door is shut, I find a place in the corner to sit. I have a missed call from…Caius.

What?

Since when do I have him programmed into my phone?

A text comes through.

Caius: Don’t sleep all day. I’ll be back to pick you up before dinner. Put some effort into it. Wear the red dress I like.

His arrogance is my undoing. I hate that man. I hate everything he’s putting me through.

Rather than respond to him, I try to call Dad, then Bastian, and finally Eve. No one answers.

I shoot Bastian a text.

Me: Call me ASAP.

My family must be so worried. It’s been so long with no contact with them. I’m aching to tell Bastian I’ve been kidnapped and being held by the Crownes, but intuition tells me not to. Something is strange about all this. Why would they just hand over my phone?

Carefully, I inspect each icon on my phone. One of my social media apps looks different as though an update was done. I never update the thing, so it means someone else has been on here.

Of course they have.

They put Caius’s number into the phone. There’s no telling what else they did.

To be sure, I scroll through my contacts and find both Gareth and Theo on the list. I’m curious to see if I’ve corresponded with them before, but first things first. I need to know where the hell I’m at.

When I pull up the weather app, it shows the temperature for Bella Coola. Twenty-nine degrees.

I’ve never heard of this place before.

A quick Google search tells me I’m in a small town between the Bella Coola River and the Noohalk Mountain.

In British Columbia.

Freaking Canada!

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