Page 33 of Gideon

I opened the bundle to see a short red dress, so short I would be lucky if it covered my bottom. If he was going for Little clothes, he’d failed miserably. This looked more like…well, not a Little. And for a moment, I was just so tired. Maybe I should have been scared, but all I had in my head were the Tinkerbell sneakers and the yellow shorts. And it wasn’t that I guessed they cost a lot of money, it was that they had been chosen with care to suit my personality. Sure, it was what Gideon liked as well, but I knew deep down he would never force me to wear something I hated. Or something that demeaned my choice. I knew lots of ladies that would rock the hell out of this dress, and I celebrated their right to choose with every fiber in me. It just wasn’tmychoice.

“No,” I said and threw the dress back at him. It obviously wasn’t a good idea because the backhand I got sent me to the floor. It may or may not have been a good thing when my head connected with the wall.

I was going to be sick. And not just because my head was splitting, but because when I opened my eyes and glanced down, I was wearing the red dress and I didn’t need to pee anymore. The room was lit and hearing the chuckle, I realized why. He was still here. I tried to focus on thinkingof a way to get out, rather than thinking about the red dress and what that might mean. I felt dirty and smelly, but I didn’t feel sore, and I knew Kirkman wouldn’t have been careful with me, so I thought for the moment I was safe.

“You should have come quietly,” Kirkman continued. “I’ve got a lot of cash. I could have set you up as a princess. Now my old man’s pissed at me. So that’s your fault as well.”

But that made no sense. “You’re going to get into a lot of trouble for kidnapping.”

He smirked and crossed the floor, reaching out and taking hold of my jaw in a punishing grip. “Who’s gonna tell them?” He let me go with a disgusted noise. “And don’t think your Daddy’s going to save you. They’ve got enough they need to hide. They won’t want the cops nosing around either.”

My pulse pounded. Too fast. Way too fast. It was a good thing I was on the small cot. What did he mean?

“I mean that they’re not some white knights. They do as much shady shit as anyone else.” I barely registered that I must have asked that out loud because my attention was on his hands, and what they were doing. He bit his nails and right there and then I knew I’d never bite mine again. Anything that reminded me of that weasel had to go. His chubby fingers were so ugly. So different from Daddy’s. His were big and strong and I remembered all the times he’d touched me. I watched as Kirkman slid his belt out of the loops on his jeans.

“What day is it?”

He hesitated, scowling. “Saturday. But why the fuck does that matter?”

I lay back. “Because I still have six days.” Daddy wouldn’t break a promise, which meant he was coming for me nomatter what Kirkman said. We still had nearly a week of our two, and that was important. And suddenly I wasn’t as frightened anymore.

Gideon

I hadn’t slept for thirty-six hours. Thirty-six hours of imagining what that fucker was putting Abby through. Thirty-six hours of getting nowhere, even when we found out Jeremy Blakeny—the fucker we’d rescued that Little Clare from, was involved business wise with both of them.

The second message had stated that if they so much as smelled a cop, Abby would be disposed of. Chris and the Denver team had arrived for back up. I was pacing, waiting on a call from Eric, when Dion sighed. “I think we need to speak to Clare.”

Max shot up from his chair so fast it nearly tipped over. “The fuck?”

But I knew what Dion meant immediately. Price had skipped town and we’d followed him to a private airstrip where he boarded his plane, and we knew Abby wasn’t with him. Kirkman Junior hadn’t been seen at all, and our guts were telling us they wouldn’t make any attempt to move her while she was being looked for. Blakeny had also gone to ground, and we were all convinced she was still somewhere close. There was a chance Clare may have even been kept somewhere else besides Blakeny’s home. She’d dated the monster before he imprisoned her. It was worth a question.

The only contact we had was her brother, who wasn’t happy letting us anywhere near her, but he relented after asking Clare herself and explaining there was another Little missing.

Three hours later, we drove through huge electric gates and took in the men walking around with dogs and carrying Glocks. I knew Karl Newman was rich. He’d taken over a failing publishing empire from his father and turned it around. His little sister Clare had met Blakeny at a charity gala and fallen for his smooth benefactor act.

Max and I were searched then shown into a sunroom. Karl stood and shook our hands, but Clare stayed curled up in the chair in the corner. Max gazed at her, and I spoke, trying to cover his silence. “Thank you for seeing us. Did your brother explain what we wanted to ask?”

Clare didn’t even glance my way. “I remember you,” she said quietly, and Max nodded, sitting on a chair across from her.

“You look better,” he murmured.

She dragged her gaze away from his and met mine. “He has another girl?” I took in the bruised shadows under her eyes and the prominent cheek bones. She still didn’t look like she was eating or sleeping. Her brother was doing his best, but she needed a Daddy. A proper one this time. “It’s one of his business associates, but we think he might be helping to keep her hidden, and we’ve run out of ideas.”

“You said this man owns apartments?” she asked.

I nodded. “We’ve checked out what we can, but she’s just vanished.”

“Why are the cops out of the question?” Karl asked.

I hesitated. “Blakeny and the other man know we were involved with getting Clare out.”

“How?” Karl said, frowning.

“They have a picture of me,” Max admitted. “We’d disabled the cameras but there must have been one out of the main loop no one knew about.”

“Because I was frightened, you took off your mask,” she whispered, understanding immediately.

“This isn’t your fault,” Max said. “We were just hoping you might know of somewhere out of the way he might take her.”

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