He wished he knew. He wanted Sam, but he wanted Zoe more, especially since he'd had her tied to his bed. He'd been so close to becoming a god to her--master of her pleasure, master of her pain, master of her every breath. But then his father had ruined it. And now Zoe was spreading her legs for someone else, or she wouldn't have had a man in her motel room at eight in the morning.
She came across as so circumspect. You have a wife, Colin. But she was a whore, just like most women. Why couldn't he get her to respond to him? Wasn't he good enough for her? He was young, attractive, successful.
He'd never tried so damn hard or been so ineffective with another woman.
"Are you going to answer me?" Tiffany asked.
"She's...stuck up," he said. "She needs to be taken down a few pegs."
"You've already done that. You stole her daughter--"
"You stole her daughter," he broke in.
"For you! And I regret it, okay? I was trying to make you happy, but all it's done is make me unhappy. Do you love Zoe, Colin? Do you love her and not me? Is that what this is about?" She broke into a full-blown sob. "If you're not going to kill her, you might as well kill me!"
He was losing control of the situation when he most needed to retain it. He'd gotten through yesterday by the slimmest of margins. He couldn't fall apart, couldn't allow Tiffany to fall apart, either. His stepmother was expecting them in less than an hour. They had to be at their best so they wouldn't make any blunders.
Slipping out of the flow of traffic, he turned onto a residential street and pulled to the curb.
"Why are you stopping?" Tiffany said with a sniff. "What're we doing here?"
"We're talking."
"About what?"
"You have to calm down."
"I can't calm down. Every time I think Zoe's out of my life, you drag her back into it!"
"You could change that, if only you'd help me lure her to a secluded spot--"
"No!"
He held up a hand. "Just listen. All I want is to take her up to the cabin and make her watch what I have planned for Sam. Then I'll kill them both."
"We need to quit taking risks. We need to live like normal people.
What we've been doing is wrong, Colin. And you know it."
"We'll stop. This is it. I promise. I love you enough to do anything."
Struggling to rein in her emotions, Tiffany wiped her eyes. "You do?"
"Of course. How could you not know that?"
"Sometimes it doesn't feel that way."
"That's just the doubt talking, the old insecurities."
"So...if I help you this one last time, you're done with it all?"
"I am."
"No more pets, nothing?"
He leaned over to kiss her, using his tongue, making it convincing.
But even then he was thinking of Zoe's lips, Zoe's body. "Of course, babe.
It'll be just you and me," he said, gently wiping her tears. "You and me, together forever."
She clung to him, shaking. "That's what I want. That's all I've ever wanted."
"Then bring me Zoe. Give me one weekend with her--and you'll never have to worry about her again."
She stared off into the distance for a moment before meeting his eyes.
"This'll be the end? I have your promise?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?"
She nodded. "Okay, I will."
Chapter 28
The twittering of birds was louder than Sam had ever heard. That meant something had changed. But her eyelids were too heavy to lift. She remained where she was, curled up tightly, not quite sure whether she wanted to wake up. Where was she? The air was cold, the smell was awful and she was in a box.
Had Colin and Tiffany buried her alive?
With a gasp, she managed to open her eyes. She was in a small space but it was a suitcase, not a box, and it was unzipped. Above her, sunlight peeked through cracks in what appeared to be a ceiling of wooden planks.
She was in a shed of some sort; she guessed from the smell that she'd be lying in mud if not for the suitcase.
Had she ever been to this place before? She didn't recognize it--and that frightened her. How would her mother ever find her if she didn't know where she was herself? And where were Colin and Tiffany?
She searched her recent memory, but it was blank. She'd been unconscious; she had no idea for how long. She remembered Colin's footsteps pounding down the hall. Colin unlocking the door and banging it against the wall. Colin whispering his hate in a dark, angry voice. Colin nearly choking her to death for making noise. She'd thought her life was over. His father hadn't come to her rescue; no one had.
I'm going to kill you as soon as I have the time to do it right, Colin had said. You're a dead girl. Then he'd held her head back by pulling on her hair and nearly drowned her as he forced her to drink a glass of water that had the bitterest taste.
And now this....
Was she dreaming? Or was she dead? The sound of birds was like something she'd expect from paradise, but surely God had a better place in mind for her than a smelly old shed.
She wasn't dead. She wasn't even dreaming. When she tried to move, the cold, heavy weight of the collar around her neck told her that much.
Colin and Tiffany had probably abandoned her here. Which meant she might be able to find her way home--or at least try to find help.
In order to do that, she had to get up, make her move while she could.
But her limbs wouldn't cooperate. She was so weak, so cold...
It was no good.
Falling back, she stared at the black lining of the suitcase wondering how much longer it would take to die.
Jonathan had to get out of bed. In February, his parents had gone to their hometown in Iowa, to nurse his mother's dad back to health following a moderate stroke, and they were still there. His sister was spending Mother's Day with her in-laws. So it wasn't as if he had to dedicate much time to the family today. But a call was imperative, especially since he'd only mailed his mother's card yesterday. With the week he'd just had, it was surprising he'd remembered it at all.
Raising his head to see the clock, he yawned. "I gotta get up."
Kino seemed to agree. He nudged Jonathan with his wet nose, no doubt ready to go out.
"Already?" Zoe was sleeping half on top of him. They'd made love twice since he'd carried her back into the bedroom. And now that he was finally sated, he was beginning to feel guilty. What was he doing? Even if she could give him the "more" he was looking for, he wasn't sure he'd be satisfied with it. He was in love with someone else.
As incredible as the sex had been, he was an ass**le for touching Zoe, and he knew it.