Page 14 of The Escape Artist
He found the syringes she'd prepared to use on him and put a few of them in his pocket, just in case. He grabbed her purse with all her credit cards and cash and identifying information. Then he wiped down every surface in the main living area he'd touched, which wasn't much. Ari grabbed the trash bags that no doubt contained water bottles and plates with his fingerprints on them. Then he lifted her into his arms and used her hand grasped around the knob to open the main door. He locked up with her key after several fumbling attempts.
She'd had him on the top floor of some huge industrial-looking building. Her door was the only one of this floor. He carried her down the hall to a stairwell. She felt like she weighed nothing—as if her bones were hollow like a bird's. When he reached the parking garage, Ari pushed the button on the key ring. A silver Lexus beeped briefly, lights flashing twice.
The car he'd been driving on the day of his capture was in a parking garage in the city, assuming someone hadn't stolen it by now. He'd worry about that later.
He loaded her into the passenger side, put the trash bags in the trunk, got in on the driver's side, and started the car. He wasn't sure how long she'd be out, but surely long enough to get her to his house outside the city. And if not, he had backup drugs—though he didn't like the idea of using them on her. He didn't want to risk killing her, and even now he worried what he'd given her was too much.
As he drove toward his own home, he couldn't tamp down the buzz of excitement at his newly found freedom. It was only now, moving out onto the road and into the flow of late evening traffic amidst a steady fall of snow, that he realized just how close he'd been to breaking down completely. He glanced over at her, so sweet and innocent-looking in sleep, and he couldn't believe it. She was his.
It was nearly seven p.m. when Ari finally punched in the security code and drove through the iron gate of his estate. The gate shut with harsh finality behind him. He didn't park in the circular drive, instead choosing to put the Lexus in his large garage with the many other cars he owned.
He backed in so that her license plate was against the wall and not facing out street-side—just to be extra safe until he could get the fucking thing off the back of the car and destroyed. Even though he lived well outside the city within his own strong security setup, he was still grateful for the cover of darkness as he carried her over the cobblestone path up to the front door. The snow began to fall more heavily as he carried her inside.
Ari set the security code then let out another long sigh. He'd need to get that changed. He needed a security system that wouldn't allow the doors to open from either side without clearance. And he might want to look into thumbprints this time. It was pretty fail-safe. And unlike Ari, this girl would not be able to drag or carry his unconscious body to the keypad to escape.
He carried her to his room and secured her, then he took the cell phone that was still in the pocket of his jeans and plugged it up to charge. Once the battery was strong enough to use, he turned the phone on. The date glared back at him: January 6th. She'd had him three weeks.
He'd lost track of time in the cell after the first few days and had given up on making marks to count them. After a while it hadn't even mattered to him what day it was, though it did feel strange having missed most of the holiday season. Not that he was a fan of the holidays.
Ari was unsurprised to find no less than fifty messages from Kane. He didn't bother reading them, he just dialed the number.
Kane answered without preamble on the second ring. “Where the fuck have you been, Ari? You have a deadline. Two more weeks until they want to see the final plans.”
Ari scrubbed a hand through his hair, only now realizing how utterly exhausted he was and how desperately he needed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before the girl's drugs wore off.
“I had to get away and clear my head, move past this shit with Holly. I was camping in the middle of nowhere and didn't have cell reception. I told you I'd make the deadline.” One thing was certain, the past three weeks had gotten him past Holly. Now his sole overriding obsession was the girl chained up in his bedroom.
“Camping in the winter?” Kane asked. He didn't bother to mention the holidays and family. He knew Ari rarely went home for Christmas. The camping lie was actually a good one. Ari often went away during the holidays. His absence hadn't even broken his normal pattern. Kane was the only one who'd noticed him missing, and that was only because of a looming deadline with contacts Kane had set up. It was his reputation on the line if Ari didn't come through.
“It's not cold everywhere,” Ari said. “I was in Arizona.” The lie fell from his lips easily.
“Well you scared the shit out of me. You could have texted before you disappeared.”
“I'm back now. And I'll have the final plans on the date agreed. Tell them to chill their asses out.”
Ari disconnected the call and let out a long sigh. He'd been under deadline to complete architectural plans for a private kink club about ten miles outside the city when Claire had taken him. The club was meant to seem like a normal estate in a wealthy neighborhood with enough land around it to act as a buffer against those who had no business and no invitation to be there.
He was grateful he'd gotten an early jump on the project. Realistically he could finish in the two weeks remaining—assuming he could drag his attention away from his new captive long enough.
7
Claire snuggled into the warm blankets and pillows. She was so comfortable. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so comfortable. She wanted to go back to sleep, but slowly unfamiliar realities began to intrude on her senses. One was the sound of rushing water, the second was that she was naked. She never slept naked. And the third was a heavy metal chain around one ankle. That was the sensory input that finally jolted her out of comfort.
She sat up abruptly as the memories flooded her. The struggle in the cell, her captive's look of triumph as he'd injected her with her own drugs, and the terrifying blackness that had closed in as she'd felt his arms come around her in a possessive embrace. Still, something wasn't right about this.
She wasn't in the basement. He'd never kept her in a comfortable bed before. It was part of why the cell she'd kept him in hadn't had even a mattress. Claire opened her eyes to find a warm glow lighting the room. It was only then that she heard the crackling sounds coming from a fireplace somewhere below her. The fire lit up the room enough that she could take in her surroundings.
Her heart pounded in her chest as the immediate unsettling reality became clear. She'd taken the wrong man. This man had too much money to have ever called her a rich bitch.
The room she found herself in was enormous. Magnificent wouldn't be too strong of a word to describe it. There were high vaulted ceilings with intricate designs etched into them, made clear to her via shadow from the flickering firelight below. It looked like a grand cathedral. The room was all done in white. And it was set up on two levels.
She was up in a sort of second-level nook. It was small compared to the rest of the room but not cramped, and you could stand up in it without having to bend down. A large chain that ended in the shackle enclosed around her ankle was bolted into the floor. She was on a mattress.
It wasn't a bed on box springs, just a mattress on the floor. But it was a very nice mattress with light gray silk sheets and a downy white comforter. There were several soft pillows, also covered in silk. It was an incongruent level of comfort for obvious captivity, and she didn't understand the motives behind it.
She felt a sudden sense of shame that she'd had so much money of her own but had never had a bed this comfortable with bedding quite this nice. She'd had the ability to have it, but she'd just never bothered to care for herself in that way.
If she hadn't been able to give this small luxury to herself, why would he give it to her?