Stanton Bliss(48)

My phone rings and I jump. The name Lambo lights up the screen and I flick it to silent. Nicholas turns and looks at me, shaking his head.

Fuck. I run my hands through my hair.

The phone rings out but then rings again straight away.

A text beeps through.

ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE!

Oh my God. He’s going to kill me.

It rings again and I close my eyes as I answer. “Hello,” I whisper.

“Where the f*ck are you?” he shouts.

“I need answers.”

“Where are you?” he screams.

“I’m at the prison. I’m visiting the boy who kept me alive.”

“What?” He yells so loud, I have to hold the phone away from my ear.

“Get in the f*cking car and get your ass back here right now. How dare you do this?”

My eyes tear up. It’s been a long time since Joshua has been so angry with me. I forgot how scary he is.

“Don’t you even think about going in,” he growls. “I mean it! So help me God, Natasha.”

I swallow my fear. “I love you.” I hang up and turn my phone off. I will deal with him later.

The large door bolts open and Nicholas turns to me. “You ready?”

We walk down a long corridor and into a room. It reminds me of the room I used to see Jes in when we first met.

Nicholas takes a seat next to me and the young boy is led in. His eyes meet mine and he drops his head in shame before he sits down.

I sit and stare at him as he looks at the floor. Is he f*cking kidding? He put me though Hell and doesn’t even have the guts to look me in the eye.

Nicholas’ phone rings and he switches it straight off. Shit, that was Joshua.

I sit still as my time locked in that room is replayed in my head. He doesn’t look up and he doesn’t acknowledge me.

What a f*cking coward.

Fury starts to rise and I take a deep breath to calm myself down. Nicholas and I talked about me getting upset could endanger my baby. I need to stay calm and get my answers, then leave.

“Why?” I ask.

He looks down.

“I asked you a f*cking question. Answer it.”

“Why do you think?”

I glare at him. He’s different to what he was in the house. Prison hasn’t been kind to him. He’s harder, colder.

“She offered me money, more than I could refuse.”

“How long was it planned?”

He shrugs.

“Think!” I snap.

“Couple of months.”

“Who drugged me?”

He sits back and rolls his eyes. “If you came here for an apology, I’m sorry.”He sneers.

I sit forward as fury rips through me. “I didn’t come to you for an apology, you conceited little prick. I came to find out how you got me off the boat.”

His eyes hold mine.

“And the sooner you tell me the sooner I will leave. Who drugged me?”

“A waitress.”

“Who was the waitress?”

“One of Amelie’s friends. You nearly didn’t drink it.”

I frown as a cold shiver runs down my spine. There were people watching and waiting for me to drink f*cking poison at that wedding.

I swallow my anger. “When I got back to the boat… what happened?”

He doesn’t answer me.

“Answer the question.” Nicholas growls.

“There were two scuba divers already under the boat when you arrived.”

I frown.

“Carl and another man.”

“Go on.”

“As soon as the boat you arrived on drove off, they climbed aboard.”

“Straight away?”

“They needed the sound of the engine to drown out them climbing into the boat.”

Oh God. I put my head into my hands as fear runs through me.

“They were only on there for ten minutes when you were unconscious.”

I stare at him through tears.

“He was only supposed to nick your vein, but the knife was too sharp.

A tear falls onto my cheek as I run my thumb over my deep scar. I can almost feel it cutting me again.

“There was too much blood. They had bandages to wrap it before they put you in the water.”

I frown as I imagine men in scuba diving gear smearing my blood all over the deck and wrapping my arm in a bandage.

“You were off the boat within fifteen minutes of them climbing on it.”

I frown. “I thought this happened in the still of the night?” God, the guards would have all been chatting only two hundred metres away.

He shakes his head. “It had to be done straight away or they would have been heard.”

“They swam you back to shore and gave you oxygen from their tanks.”

A wave of emotion starts to flood my senses as if memories are coming back to me.

“That’s where I came into it.”

I raise an eyebrow in question.

“I was in the back of a horse float by the water in the forest. They loaded you into the back of it and I looked after you while they drove us to the house.”

“You stitched me in the back of a horse float?” I ask. Oh my God, I can’t believe this shit.

“Yes. I couldn’t stop the bleeding. I had to.”