The Penalty Box (Vancouver Wolves Hockey #3)(92)

“He’ll believe it.”

“It’s not too late, Andrew. If you let me go, I won’t tell anyone. We can pretend this never happened.”

He reached past me and opened the door. “Get in.”

“No!”

He raised his gun. “I don’t like to be disobeyed. I won’t kill you, but I don’t mind hurting you.”

With reluctance, I stepped into the dark room. He shoved me hard and then the door slammed shut.

I pounded on the door. “Andrew? Andrew!”

I heard a moaning from the back of the room. Fear crawled over my skin. “Who’s there?”

I felt along the wall until I felt a light switch. Flicking it on, I stood in complete horror. Against the back of the room was a cot. On the cot lay a naked woman. Around her ankle was an iron shackle. My mind couldn’t compute what I was seeing.

I crept towards the woman and bent down beside her. “Are you okay?”

She lifted dazed eyes at me. “Run.”

“Who are you? Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“He took me. He’s kept me here. He calls me his girlfriend. You need to escape and go for help.”

“What’s your name?”

“Jody Cameron.”

“You’re the nurse who went missing! How long have you been here?”

She was so weak, she could barely speak. “Forever. Get help. We need to leave.”

I searched the entire room. There was no handle on the door, no hinges. The room was encased in cement with only a toilet and a sink in the corner. I could not open the door or escape.

I screamed long and hard. But Andrew was gone, and I was alone in my prison with an unconscious woman.





Chapter 30





MICA





“Petrov,” the guard called.

I stood up and walked to the cell, watching with interest as the guard opened the door.

“Where are we going?”

He ushered me out of the cell, flanking just behind me on my left side. We walked to a bright room, and he led me up to a counter.

I looked over my shoulder at him. “What’s going on?”

“You’re free to go.”

I signed the paperwork they put in front of me, indicating that they had returned all my possessions. I checked my cell phone, but it was dead.

“Is that it?”

“That’s it, sir.” They pointed to a doorway. I walked unaccompanied to the door. I looked over my shoulder, not quite believing my luck. I pushed through the door. Two men in suits were waiting for me.

“Who are you?”

They didn’t give me their names. “We’re Mark Ashford’s legal counsel. He’s waiting for you outside.”

Together the three of us walked out into the cool evening air. A sleek, black town car waited at the bottom of the steps. One of them opened the door. I got in and the door shut behind me.

Beside me, Mark Ashford waited.

I didn’t have time for his shit. I needed to get home to Charlie.

“Can I use your phone?”

He ignored me and motioned for the driver to drive.

“How are you doing?” He looked me over.

“Fine.”

He nodded. “I like your wife.”

“Charlie? Have you talked to her?”

He looked out the window. “She came to my office yesterday.”

I flexed my hands in frustration. “Do you know where she is?”

He looked over at me. “They say that behind every great man is an even greater woman. You are one of the lucky ones. That woman stood behind you on this. We had a long chat about your marriage.”

I froze. “What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that I understand how your relationship started. I knew what you and Krista had cooked up before you even got married.”

“You have my attention.”

He smiled, still looking out the window. “From the start, I knew the ruse you were trying to pull. I applauded it, to be honest. That’s why I called you the morning of your wedding, to encourage you to go through with it.”

Too much had happened in the past 24 hours to be talking about this. If Mark wanted to cut me from the team, I’d deal with the fallout later. “Where is Charlie?”

“She’s at home, waiting for you.”

A huge part of me relaxed, hearing that. “Are you sure?”

“I talked to Krista. She sent her home this afternoon.”

“I still don’t understand what the fuck happened. They weren’t telling me anything. They questioned me about Sabrina’s disappearance. I had nothing to do with that. They wouldn’t let me talk to my lawyer.”

“Sabrina is fine. She is no longer missing.”

My whole body reacted to that. “She’s alive?”

He glanced at me. “Someone escorted her into the police station. No one knows who, but she walked right up to the counter and told the officer she wasn’t missing.”

“Are you shitting me?”

“She gave a written statement that everything she wrote in her journal about you was false. She claimed it was never meant to be read by anyone. She said it was merely her fantasy.”