Vice(34)

“And now she’s dead?” I can’t believe it. Can’t seem to make sense of it. It can’t be the case. “My friend spoke with her on the phone a little over three months ago. She can’t be dead.”

“She can.” Natalia reaches across the counter and takes hold of my hand. “She is.”

“Then how? How did Jamie speak to her?”

“My father records all of his guests when they first arrive here, as proof of life. Sometimes, if he finds out the girl or the guy is from a wealthy family, he will make a ransom request and send them back home. When Laura arrived, he found out your father was some big lawyer or something. He was going to ask for a ransom, but then…I don’t know. He decided to keep her. He didn’t want to let her go after all, so he kept her. It happens all the time. He doesn’t like to let go of his prizes.”

I feel like I’m about to throw up. So…the voice Jamie heard on the phone was Laura’s? And she was asking for his help? But the plea was recorded years ago? Can it be true? It makes sense that Fernando would make recordings of his kidnap victims as proof of life. And Julio never said he’d actually seen Laura, just that he’d been shown her picture as part of a portfolio of women he could pick from in exchange for his own woman, Alaska.

“When? When did she die?” I ask. My voice is hard. I barely recognize it.

“Three years ago.” Natalia looks like she’s about to burst into tears.

“How?”

“Cade—”

I get to my feet. “Fucking tell me. Right now.”

“Overdose. Some of the other girls here drink and do drugs, to cope with…” She trails off, clearly uncomfortable with voicing the realities of her father’s actions. “Laura didn’t, though. She always wanted to have a clear head. She was always looking for ways to escape. And then her friend Sylvia got caught running from the house one night, and my father…”

“He punished her?”

Natalia nods. “He fed her to the wolves.”

“And my sister couldn’t take it anymore?”

Natalia looks down at the two mugs of piping hot tea in front of us. Her eyes are shining brightly, filled with tears. “I loved Laura. She looked out for me. She helped me once, when one of my father’s men thought they would try to take me. She stabbed him in the neck with a letter opener. I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t found us.”

I sit in silence, staring at the grain in the marble counter, doing my best to tune out the loud, high-pitched screaming that’s filling my head. I can’t hear anything around it, though. I can’t seem to think in a straight line. Everything is jumbled and confused. I feel like I’m barely holding onto my sanity.

“Cade? That is your name, isn’t it?”

My head snaps up, and I find Natalia standing in front of me; I didn’t even notice her slip around the counter.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“I hate my father. I am nothing like him. If I could have left, I would have a long time ago. But I am a lot like Laura and those other girls upstairs, Cade. I’m watched over twenty-four hours a day. There’s no way out for me. Nowhere to run to.”

“You’re not.”

She gives me a puzzled look. “I’m not what?”

“You’re not like my sister and those other girls upstairs. Your father’s never made you spread your legs for a man while other people watch on. You’ve never been beaten and abused, and forced to do things repeatedly against your will.”

Her expression turns dark. I see the flicker of pain in her eye, the twitch of the muscle in her jaw, and I know before she even opens her mouth that I’ve spoken out of turn. Her words come out as a whisper. “Hasn’t he?”

I jerk back. “He wouldn’t let any of those f*ckers near you. He’s so f*cking protective of you.”

“Oh, he is. And you’re right. He doesn’t let any of them near me.”

“Fuck. You’re not serious. You’re telling me—”

She spins around, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Enough. This isn’t about me. It was about Laura. Now, it’s about you leaving here before my father realizes who you are and has you killed.”

I am rocked, numb to the core. I don’t know what to say to her. It’s obvious that she doesn’t want me to say anything at all, but… god. His own daughter? How can that sit right even in his warped, f*cked-up mind?

Natalia’s shoulders are shaking, hitching up and down; she’s crying. I want to get up and go to her, comfort her in some way, but who the f*ck am I to be doing such a thing? I have no right. I don’t have the first f*cking clue how to make her feel better. I don’t have the first f*cking clue how to help her, either.

Natalia’s soft crying fills the cavernous kitchen, and for the first time in a long time I feel truly dead inside. My hope, the one thing that’s been fuelling me for so long, is now gone. Extinguished in a heartbeat. The suspicious part of me would be doubting what Natalia’s saying is true, that she’s lying to protect her father in some way, but that can’t be the case. If it were, she would never have told me Laura was here in the first place. She would have kept her mouth shut and let Fernando kill me whenever the f*ck he felt like it. But no, she tried to warn me, and she knows things about Laura. She described her to me. She told me things about her only someone close to her would know.