Page 197 of Lau Ahi
“I can appreciate your conjecture but it’s not how I want people to remember me. People start to ask questions. Timelines start to merge together with things I don’t want people involved in.”
“What ended up happening with him?” He slipped the question in so casually that I was grateful he was allowing me to tell him things at my pace.
“The man who kidnapped me had an infatuation with Sasha. An obsession. He’d apparently planned to meet up with her at this event for weeks so that he could take her.”
“There wasn’t any sign about what he could do beforehand? Threats or anything?” It was adorable that he was looking for someone to blame. Trying to figure out a way to right a wrong over a decade later. It was crazy that a man’s desire for violence on my part endeared him more to me.
“From what I know it was just fan mail. Nothing that would’ve raised an alarm that he would go to these measures.”
“If you don’t want—”
My brow arched impertinently. “You wanted to carry this for me, right? Are you running away from that task?”
His eyes were serious again and he eased back against the lounger. “Never.”
“Then listen while I tell you about my death and resurrection.” I squeezed his hands grateful that I could get this out and be done with this.
“I’m all yours.”
I nodded and took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t know if I were drugged or something but I had to be. My memories are fuzzy and very little makes sense.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
“Having fun. It was easy for me to play the role of Sasha because no one knew her better than me. I knew her mannerisms, her speech pattern. All of it was second nature to me. No one thought anything of it and when I showed up they welcomed me with open arms.”
“You were happy.”
I smiled remembering that night so vividly before it all fell apart. The lights, the attention and the thrill of being recognized had felt… good. “More than that, I felt free. The freedom of not having to stress or worry because my job was to play the role of having fun. And I was good at it. But at some point, something went wrong. I woke up with my arms chained behind my back in a cellar, blindfolded.”
“How did you—”
I tapped my nose already sure of what he was asking. “The scent. The damp in England permeates everything and the basement wasn’t something that he’d bothered treating recently if ever. You could smell it everywhere and it made breathing almost impossible.”
“What was his purpose?”
“To save my soul.” I had to laugh at the irony of it but my husband was not at all amused, judging by the frown on his face.
“How was he going to do that?”
I gestured around us to the displays of wealth that we were currently indulging in. “To take me away from the sickness ofthe world of entertainment and luxury. He said that he could see Sasha succumbing to the life and not living long and he wanted to stop it before she got in too deep.”
“And kidnapping you was his way to do that? Or was there more?”
Another laugh escaped me this time it was a defense mechanism to ease the queasiness rising. “Oh, there was more. He was very eager to end her life because he knew that he couldn’t completely prevent her from staying with him if she were alive but if she were dead he could keep her body with him forever. She’d be trapped.”
“You’re talking about yourself in third person.” His furrow deepened as his eyes traced my face, looking for signs of me dissociating.
“No. I’m telling you what his plans for Sasha were. It’s not his fault he was too stupid to realize I wasn’t her.”
Ori was quiet for a moment letting the lapping of the waves and the hum of the engine be the only sound between the two of us. When he was satisfied I was in my rational mind he dipped his head encouragingly. “Continue.”
“I lived in near-squalid conditions and I’m not sure how long I was there before I woke up. The entire ordeal lasted eight days before he decided he’d tortured me enough.”
“He violated you?”
“The moment he kidnapped me was a violation don’t you think?”
“Ka’i—”
