The long pause that follows tells me all I need to know.
“It was you who sent me the information about Richard Coleman.”
“How did you meet my daughter?” he snaps instead of confirming that fact.
I grin, despite the circumstances. “It was actually she who found me.”
“What are you talking about?” he asks angrily, as though I’m teasing him with some game.
“Back at the Santa María de Atlántica Convento?”
That earns me another pause before he speaks again. “That still doesn’t answer my question. Do you have my daughter or not?”
“No,” I say, suddenly impatient with this conversation when there are plans to be acted upon. “I think we both know where Leira is. Trust me, when this is all over, we can have a nice chat. In the meantime, I’m going to handle it.”
He coughs out a sharp laugh. “When this is all over, you will be lucky if you still have your cojones attached. And in the meantime, I already have people working to get her back from Richard.”
“I think my plan will be more effective.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’m going to walk right through Richard Coleman’s front door, get Leira back, and then kill him.”
Chapter Fifty-Two Leira
I come-to to the sound of muffled shouting. My eyes open fully when I see the source through my squinted gaze.
“Lucinda!” I exclaim, sitting up.
The act has my head pounding again and I close my eyes, taking a moment for it to ease away. It isn’t just my head that hurts. My body aches in a way that makes me think maybe Richard got a few more kicks in while I was knocked out.
Bastard.
I take a breath and focus. Lucinda is thankfully still alive, and I plan on keeping it that way. Somehow.
In the meantime, she’s still tied up, but I’m unbound for some reason. I slide across the floor, hissing at the pain that screams from my midsection, back, and various parts of my legs.
“Thank god!” She gasps when I untie the gag from her mouth. There’s an indented mark rounding out from either side of her lips, slightly darker than her toffee-colored skin, a few shades lighter than mine. It must have been in there good and tight. No wonder she couldn’t work it free herself.
Some rush of emotion overcomes me, and I hug my sister, thinking about what this must have been like for her all this time. The things that sadist must have put her through. Lucinda is most definitely the prettiest of the Montoya sisters, at least in my opinion. There’s something sultry in the tilt of her eyes and the way she cocks a smile.
“Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” she says in a raspy voice. “But I’d feel better with these bindings off.”
“Of course,” I say, hurriedly removing them.
She flexes her hands and rotates her feet as though trying to get the blood flowing again.
“What’s it been like here for you?” I ask in a hesitant voice. If it was really bad, she probably doesn’t want to talk about it. And I’m not sure I want to know.
She slides her eyes to me and finally seems to notice the bumps and bruises. “I guess you already know firsthand.”
“How did you hold out? Keep from telling him what Dad said? I don’t think I can stand weeks of this.”
“You didn’t tell him?” she asks in surprise, once again eyeing my injuries.
“Of course not.”
She looks ahead to stare at the wall and nods, then she whispers, “Good.”
I feel slightly pleased at that. Lucinda has always been the smart and tough one. Or maybe I just feel that way because I spent the most time around her growing up while the others were off doing their Older Sister stuff.
“We have to stick together. Make sure they can’t get anything out of us,” she insists, whipping her head back to face me. “We need to come up with a lie to give him just in case he does something that inadvertently makes us talk.”
I nod, agreeing that’s a good idea.
“But I want to make sure we have the same information. Dad might have told me something completely different from what he told you.”
“Why would he tell me something different?” I ask, feeling slightly offended. Yes, Lucinda is probably better suited to head a large corporation, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less trustworthy.
“The information could have changed since Richard took me.”
I relax, realizing that could be a possibility.
“So what did Dad tell you?”
I open my mouth to speak before catching myself. There’s a reason I stayed silent in the first place. I look up toward the camera that relayed the first images I saw of my sister.
“The camera?” Lucinda asks, following my gaze. “I don’t see a microphone.”
“They could still be listening. In fact, I’d bet on it. Why else would they put me in the same room as you with no gag.”
She continues to stare at the camera, her face growing angry. I don’t blame her. Everything about this situation is a violation in the worst way. At least I still have my dress on.
“So just whisper it.”
“We can’t take the chance.”
“Don’t be silly, Leira.”
“I’m not being silly, Lucinda,” I retort. How the hell doesn’t she see how reckless that would be? What does it even matter if our secrets are the same? “Besides, hopefully it won’t be an issue.”
“What does that mean?”
I just smile, not wanting to give anything away. By now, my father must have realized I’ve been taken, and he knows the man responsible. No doubt the calvary will be coming soon enough.
So why is Lucinda still here weeks after she was taken?
A wrinkle of doubt tests my will. Why would he wait so long to try and rescue her? When Layla was taken, the house was complete madness in the attempt to first figure out who had taken her, and then try
