Just Me - M J Marlow (reading strategies book .txt) 📗

the door open as I listened to him tell me it was all right. A hand covered my mouth and I was dragged back. Foster took the receiver out of my hand. “She only stays alive,” he said coldly to my husband, “if you do what you’re told, Layton.” He laughed as Layton said something. “Oh we’re treating her quite well, I assure you. How long that lasts is completely up to you.” He held out the receiver and nodded. “Come assure your husband that you are all right, Kerrigan, dear.” “Nathaniel?” I whimpered as the guard held my arm bent up behind my back. “You’re hurting me!” I sobbed as the guard tightened his hold. “Stop it!” “You have a very beautiful wife, Layton,” Foster laughed as after he yanked the receiver back to taunt my husband. “I had planned to see what it is about her that appeals to you.” He laughed as I went pale. He ran his eyes over me in a way that had me shaking in fear. He turned his eyes away from me. “The only thing stopping me for the moment is the fact that your lovely wife is pregnant.” “It’s not true!” I shook my head in disbelief. I raised my voice as I tried to pull free of the men holding me. “Don’t listen to him, Nathaniel. He’s lying to you!” “Are you willing to run that risk, Layton?” His expression went cold and deadly. “I had her tested when we arrived just to be certain. She’s been so sick.” He looked at my shocked expression. The man had been watching us? “Several months along, Layton.” He shook his head looked stern. “You took her the very first night she was yours, didn’t you? Hardly a thoughtful act, considering she’d only just gotten out of the hospital.” He ran his eyes over me insolently “Although I see the appeal, you ran a great risk of doing her damage with that selfish act.” I glared at him and he laughed. Then he went quite serious. “You have until the end of the work day tomorrow. I want to see a copy of the document you send to Metropolitan canceling your bid or your pretty wife will become my new playmate.” His men shoved me to the bed and I fell against it and remained on the floor as they left. Foster hung up the phone and smiled as he watched me struggling to my feet and I could see he meant what he had said. If he did not have that document by tomorrow evening, I would be in his bed. I had less than twenty-four hours to find a way out of this place. “I can see your fertile little mind working on another escape attempt, Kerrigan,” Foster laughed as I met his cold eyes. “It won’t do you any good. As soon as you’ve had your dinner, you will be sedated.” “No!” I protested. “Please, Mr. Foster…” “I have been assured that this sedative will not harm your child,” Foster broke in. “I need you quiet, my dear. I am having guests this evening and I do not want them disturbing you, or vice versa.” He came towards me then and I found myself pinned in the corner. His hand moved up to my cheek as I remained absolutely still. “It’s a pity. You are a very beautiful young woman. My guests would enjoy getting to know you.” He let me go with a laugh and I was alone in the room for the next two hours. I dozed off and woke to the sound of cars. I went to the windows and saw people in party clothes arriving. I enjoyed the sight for a while and did not turn as the door to the suite opened. When my visitor did not talk, I turned to see Cheryl standing there in a maid’s uniform. “Mr. Foster says you’re to eat now, Mrs. Layton,” she said in the most convincing English accent I had ever heard. “I’m to wait here to make certain you do.” “And I suppose he told you to make me eat if I refuse?” I snapped at her as I would if she were actually one of Foster’s people. “No, ma’am,” Cheryl shook her head and nodded towards the guards who were watching closely. “They will come make you eat.” I sat down at the table by the windows and Cheryl put the tray down. As she set the dishes out for me, she leaned close and told me to be ready to move. I told her they were going to sedate me and saw her frown. I knew this was going to create a problem for her and her people, but there was nothing I could do about it. Especially when I started to eat and realized that the sedative had been put in the soup I had been given. Cheryl helped me to bed and made me comfortable. Then she took the dishes to the kitchen and turned them over to the scullery maid. “They sedated her,” she said to a man standing in the shadows near the kitchen door when she went out to smoke a cigarette. “She’s not going to be able to help us.” The man nodded and moved off and Cheryl slipped away and got into one of the limos in line behind several others. By the time it got to the house, she stepped out in her evening dress with Liliana and Nora. The party went as planned for the first hour. People talked and danced and flirted. Foster was in his element as Cheryl and her friends targeted him and provided him with attention. He was as stunned as the rest of the guests when an automatic weapon went off nearby. He turned to see ten men in black with their faces covered surge into the house. One of them walked up to him and bowed his head. “Mr. Foster,” he snarled. “You forgot to send us an invitation.” He pulled Cheryl to his side and smiled down at her. “Lock the guests up in here and keep them under guard. Mr. Foster,” he continued as he nodded to two of his men and they grabbed him, “we need to talk.” Cheryl was astounded. They had not factored this into their action for tonight. She did not fight as the man took her along. They went into Foster’s office and the man was shoved into the chair behind the desk. He glared at the man holding her prisoner. “She doesn’t need to be here,” Foster protested as the man ran his gloved fingers over Cheryl’s lips and smiled warmly. “Let her go back to the others.” “Why would I do that?” the man laughed. “I want an unbiased witness here while we conduct our little transaction.” He made Cheryl sit down. “You just sit there and be beautiful, pretty lady.” Cheryl nodded and folded her hands in her lap. “Smart as well as beautiful. I think I’m in love.” “What do you want, Atwater?” Foster hissed. “I’ve already paid you.” “But you failed to mention, old man,” the man hissed, “that the man would send hunters after us once he had the girl.” “He gave you enough money to hide well,” Foster sniffed. “You should be in Rio now not here harassing me and my guests.” “We were in Rio,” Atwater snapped. “Imagine our surprise when we were met at the Airport by your welcoming party.” His eyes were cold now. “I hope none of them were important to you, Foster, because the piranhas made quite a mess of them.” He was pleased when the man actually paled. He had not thought Foster capable of true emotion. “You hired us to snatch the girl and sell her to Layton. We did that for you and we thought the job over. You should have left it at that.” “So I suppose now you’re going to slit my throat in retribution?” “Oh no, sir,” Atwater laughed. “Something far more painful.” He pulled out a piece of paper and set it down in front of him. “You are going to sign this little confession for me. Then we are going to take Mrs. Layton and the pretty lady here and the document with us. We will disappear and you will never hear from us again as long as you don’t make another move against us.” He saw Foster’s mind working. “You can continue to blackmail her grieving husband, Foster. We will keep the little lady hidden well.” “And why should I trust you, Atwater?” Foster asked bluntly. “Because we are saving your unworthy neck, Foster,” Atwater replied. He ripped Cheryl’s purse away and dumped its contents on the desk. “They’re moving in on you. If the girl is here when they arrive, you’re dead.” “FBI?” Foster hissed as he saw Cheryl’s badge. He didn’t have to think. “The girl is upstairs in the guest suite at the back of the west wing,” he said as he signed the document. “I’ll go with you…” “You’ll return to your guests,” Atwater corrected him. “My men and I can handle your goons.” He yanked Cheryl up to her feet. “Come along, pretty. You’re going to be our new toy while we keep the girl safe for Mr. Foster.” He shoved her to the desk. “Get your things.” Cheryl did as she was told. She put the document in her purse along with her badge and other belongings. Her gun was hidden on her person so it was not there for them to take. She had to go along with this for now. Someone had to be close to me to help when an opportunity to escape presented itself. The men left Foster in his office and went upstairs. The guards were shot and dumped in the guest suite. One of them came out carrying me in his arms and they left out the back. Cheryl saw the armed men coming towards the three vans waiting on the other side of the walls. “What the?” Gunfire went off and screams of frightened women filled the air. Cheryl took advantage of the distraction. She grabbed the gun from the man nearest her after driving her elbow into his jaw. Then she pointed the gun at the driver. “Turn off the van,” she said coldly, “or I’ll put a bullet in your brain.” The man complied and she cold-cocked him. She whirled as someone came at her and the butt of the weapon struck him across the jaw. He stumbled back and fell out the side of the van, moaning as the man Cheryl had taken out earlier fell on top of him. She shoved the driver out the door and engaged the locks. Then she sank down next to me with a sigh of relief. “Not quite how this was supposed to go down,” she laughed as she stroked my hair. She got behind the wheel and drove for the gate. When she pulled through it, she turned the wheel and brought the van into a position that blocked the gate for the two vans following. I was awake when the Interpol agents pulled in front of Scotland Yard. I knew I could not be under arrest but the men were not talking to me. I was escorted to a room upstairs and I cried in joy as I saw Layton waiting there. I threw my arms around him and kissed him warmly. When he did not put his arms around me I pulled back and saw the handcuffs. “Why are you under arrest?” I asked him. “You didn’t do anything wrong here.” “It was part of the deal,” Layton told me gently as he made me sit down. “If they got you back, I would turn myself in and give them the information they need to bring my associates down, as well.” He raised his bound