Page 8 of Claimed
Chapter Three
Eve wanted to make a phone call, but Jasper wouldn’t allow it. He said no calls until we made it to the estate. I could tell she didn’t insist on contacting whomever she wanted to speak to because she liked the sound of going to an “estate.” The place sounded rich,plus Randolph Christmas had groomed his son to be a protector, and that was exactly how being around Jasper made one feel: protected.
She sat in the front seat, and I in the back. Jasper was on the phone with his personal assistant, Stephanie. He was giving her a to-do list. The items included making room for one more person on the helicopter that was to take us to an undisclosed location,contacting someone named Dr. Kapoor to arrange a DNA test ASAP, preparing a room for Eve, and rescheduling all of his videoconference meetings for Monday the following week. Jasper was then put through to his security, and while he was being briefed, I had to ask Eve a pressing question.
I shifted to the edge of my seat, wedging my body between the two front seats. “Eve, why such a severereaction to the photo of Randolph Christmas?”
“Holly, are you wearing your seat belt?” Jasper asked.
I could feel the anxiety beaming from him. No, I wasn’t. I blew a sharp breath through my nose as I sat back and buckled up.
“So, Eve, how acquainted are you with Randolph Christmas?” I sounded irritated because I was.
“I don’t know that man as Randolph Christmas,” shesaid in a quiet voice.
“What do you know him as?”
“Arthur,” she said.
Jasper and I caught each other’s gazes in the rearview mirror.
“Arthur Valentine?” Jasper asked.
She shook her head emphatically. “No. Just Arthur.”
It sounded strange that Randolph would go around calling himself Arthur. Perhaps it was his way of pinning his sins on his enemy if heever got caught slipping in and out of a house where salacious acts were surely taking place.
But suddenly, another question came to mind. “When you came out of your house, you already had a bag packed. Where were you going?”
Even though she was silent, I could feel her thinking. I figured she hadn’t expected me to ask that question, even though it was the obvious one to ask. I gaveher a few extra moments to come up with an answer. Since it was taking longer than I was comfortable with, I expected her to lie.
Finally, she turned to face Jasper and stopped gnawing on her bottom lip. “My name is Katie. But I prefer Kat.”
Jasper flinched as he stole another glance at her and then me. “Yes, I’m still here,” he said to whomever he was speaking to through his earpods.
“I was told to leave my house if someone ever came looking for Eve.”
“Leave your house and go where?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I was waiting for someone to call me.”
“What’s the name of that someone?”
Again, she bit her lower lip.
Anxiety raced through my body as I stretched my seat belt as far as I could to lodge myself deeper between the two front seats.“Have you been in hiding?”
“Fuck!” Jasper shouted. “Sit back, babe. I have to make sure we’re not being followed.”
Eve’s—Katie’s—eyes expanded. I suspected she was surprised to hear Jasper refer to me asbabe. She shook her head frantically. “No, he’s not following us. First of all, he doesn’t have a car.”
“Who’she?” I asked, taking advantage of her heightened emotions, whichwould make her less apt to lie.
“Zach,” she replied.
I held on to my seat as Jasper took a sharp right turn down a more residential road.
“Who’s Zach?” I struggled to say as the top of my body went one way and my lower half the other.
