Page 2 of Capture
“Naked. Changing. At my most vulnerable, doing things that a girl only does when alone?” I challenged him to see how he’d react.
“Whatever beats your drum,” he answered indifferently, shrugging those impressive shoulders that had greatly supported me in a time of weakness, but I won’t tell him that.
“So, you admit you did it then. Great. I’m glad we’re on the same page. So you have no right to accuse me of doing something that you did yourself,” I fumed as Ronan’s nostrils flared, and a tight smirk appeared on his beautiful face, only for him to turn away from me as soon as I noticed his smile.
Gunner had lost his patience and yelled, “For the last fucking time, Riley, were you asked by cops to plant that camera?”
“Yes,” I answered, then immediately regretted it.
Ronan’s hand rested on Gunner’s shoulder to calm him down, then he stepped before him to take the lead. “Who are they? What interest do they have in us?”
I swallowed over the lump in my throat as the blood seemed to drain from my hot, burning cheek, turning me cold. I hugged my body and glanced at the black plastic trash bag holding everything I owned, except, “Where’s my laptop?”
“I have it,” Gunner answered. “And answer the fucking question.”
“I want my laptop,” I argued. “It has all my assignments, and one is due next week…” I studied their faces, wondering if they’d ever let me go, and my dreams dissipated before my eyes.
“I’m checking it,” Gunner told me. “For evidence.”
“There’s only assignments on there,” my voice broke under the strain. “Please don’t delete my assignments.”
“I won’t touch your assignments,” he promised me. “I have no interest in your assignments. I’ll be looking at your emails and any files that might reveal who you really are and who you work for.”
“Who I am?” The couple next door fell quiet. Their erotic high plunged into nothingness, the moroseness that claims the mind after the physical stimulation. “I am Riley, Riley Laws.”
My reply only made Gunner even more pent up and annoyed because he doesn’t believe me. “You keep avoiding answering the question,” his voice was sullen. “So, I’m going to assume the answer is yes. That you’re working for the Larsson police and they asked you to plant that camera in Mikky’s office.”
“Mikky?” A shiver ran down my spine. I hadn’t heard that name uttered in three years, and memories flicked about in my mind of phone calls and meetings where my father fondly referred to Mikael as Mikky. These memories triggered something in me, and I had to compose myself to keep my emotions in check.
“Mikael, your boss,” Ronan clarified.
A dull ache formed behind my eyes, and my stomach was both empty and crying out for food, but also nauseous as if I might vomit if food were provided. “I’m feeling unwell,” I patted my forehead with the back of my hand. “I need some food and hydration.”
“Sure,” Ronan exhaled, tapping Gunner on the shoulder to retreat. “We’ll come back later.”
“Wait. What?” Gunner protested. “Don’t you see what she’s doing? She’s creating a diversion, stretching it out, giving the police time to figure out what happened to her.”
“I see exactly what she’s doing,” Ronan snarled at him, “but she needs to eat, so I’m going to the kitchen to grab a plate, okay?”Ronan stood back in the hallway. “Let’s go,” he ordered Gunner, who reluctantly broke his glare and pulled away from me.
As the distance between us lengthened, I exhaled, realizing I’d been holding my breath. Then, as the door was shut and locked behind them, I crumbled onto the bed. I was coming to the end of my tether with the way the police were pressuring me, and I doubted I could keep up the charade for much longer.
I hunted through my bag for a warm sweater as footsteps pounded the wooden floorboards, coming nearer as my breath hitched again. I expected my door to fling open again, but I heard voices that seemed right outside my door.
When it became apparent that neither voice was any of the Kaisers, I started banging on the door and screamed for help. The voices fell quiet, and I couldn’t tell where they went, but I continued to bang my fist against the wood, grasping the doorknob, and shaking hard, hoping the wood would break.
My feet stumbled backward at the sound of heavy, angry footsteps coming closer, and I retreated to the bed, pretending that I hadn’t moved in the first place. The door unlocked and flew open, and I was greeted with Ronan’s face, fuming, nostrils flaring. I always wondered if Ronan had a switch to activate his temper, given that he was so levelheaded and calm, with a smooth expression on his face that rarely creased into irritation or sadness.
He shut the door behind him and stormed up to me, so our faces were only an inch apart. Heat was peeling off him, and his eyes were empty and soulless. Yet his stare penetrated my skull as the muscles in his jaw pulsated. This was a different side to Ronan, a cruelty I had only ever seen in the forest pool when he seduced me.
“Don’t fucken mess with me,” he snarled in a low voice that was more frightening than being yelled at. “Do that again, and I will punish you. Do. You. Understand?”
My mouth was suddenly desert dry, and my heart pounded violently against my ribcage. I parted my lips to speak, but my words were trapped in my throat, so I nodded instead.
He pulled his penetrating gaze away and stormed to the door. “There is always someone watching you, Riley,” he hissed at me before slamming the door, then locking it.
As I listened to his footsteps grow distant, I scanned the surfaces, searching for a hidden camera. Since I knew exactly what they looked like, I dropped to my knees to look for them under the bed.
I couldn’t find anything, but as the minutes rolled by, his warning words,"There is always someone watching you,Riley," kept circling in my mind, keeping me broken and forcing me to be obedient.
