Page 92 of Their Cruel Love
“Stepmother.” Of course she was. That makes sense. “Why? To make sure I failed?”
“The opposite. I’m supposed to covertly help and observe, but things have become too dangerous. There is a final event tomorrow…a chase where they set you loose and make you run. You’re meant to die then.”
“Fuck, again.” How nice. It’s almost anticlimactic due to expecting this news for days. I’m less moved than I am by knowing Milli is gone. I sniff, blink away the moisture threatening to spill. Fuck tears. I do not need them. Later, maybe, if I’m still around to do any crying.
So Mother managed to send Aimee and didn’t tell us three. I am so confused.
I doubt Aimee is lying. But can I trust my own judgement?
“Now I don’t know what to do, Phoebe.”
“If you thought Simon the cocktwunt was about to save us, and that he really was remorseful, I think he conned you thoroughly.”
“Why?” Her little frown is adorable. My image of her as a ninja is wearing thin.
“Aimee, he was getting off on watching me watch my friend die in a vid. He laughed. And really, how was he going to get us rescued before this big event? The timing is off.”
I’m dying today.Shit. Bummer. All the swear words.Milli would want me to have fun, have sex, kill her enemies, and dance on their graves, even if it takes a cheese knife.
“You’re not a ninja, are you?”
Her frown appears and stays a while. “What? No!”
“Special Forces? SAS? MI5?”
“Sorry, no. I’m good at locks, IT work, and gathering intelligence, but none of those.”
“Damnation. Look, I kinda trust you. I shouldn’t though.”
She shakes her head but waits.
I’ve been tapping Simon’s phone to keep it awake but should I give it to her? I’m probably going to lose concentration and let it shut down eventually.
“Do you have an alternative plan to Simon dearest?”
“You have definitely killed him?”
I hold my hand out, toward the hut and the ocean. “Do you see him? A big shadow swooped across underwater and sucked him under.”
“After you kicked him out the window,” she says, absentmindedly. “Look. He was my only real plan. If I’d known how shitty this assignment was, I’d not be here. No boat. No plane. No comms. I can’t even get the phone off of Fiona. She keeps it on her or somewhere else secure.”
Fiona must be her Domme. “Simon said the frat has a security force they can send out. And that the network here gets turned on at a specific time.”
“Yes, to both. Pretty sure it’s around two-thirty AM.”
“So all five of us might die if we don’t get in contact withthe board or my stepmother.” I pull the phone from my jacket pocket.Tap.
“Simon’s?”
I nod. I can give this to the men and hope they can use it tonight or give it to Aimee and trust she does the right thing. I don’t know when I will find them. “Will you be killed too?”
What a nonchalant tone I have, saying that. I guess I’m worn out. I feel like I’ll shatter to bits any second. I’m thin as paper, as empty as the breeze.
Tap.Maybe I could make the phone take longer between taps before it switches off?
She locks eyes with me. “I’m probably okay if I get back soon. They think I’m with them, but they’d make me watch whatever they do.”
“And you can get in touch with this security force? Are they nearby? Close enough to get here in time?”