Page 83 of Rogue Wave

Noted.

The piece of rope looked strong but was not very thick. It scraped against my wrists as he worked quickly to tie them together behind my office chair.

As my father put the ropes around me, all I could think about was how he was once again choosing the wrong side. I tried to do all of those things Gale had mentioned.

I put my legs in a wide stance, making sure my butt wasn’t all the way back in the seat. This looser position gave me leverage with the ropes.

I wasn’t sure if I had done a really good job at it or if my dad had done a poor job of tying my ropes, but I noticed there was a decent amount of slack when he finally finished.

I could feel his hands shaking as they brushed against mine. I hoped that hid my own shaking from him, because while I may be attempting to play it cool on the outside, I was terrified on the inside.

This would be helpful. I just needed to wait for the right moment. And when it came, I would take it.

Outside, I heard a rumble of thunder, and the wind started to pick up. The storm was closing in.

This was why my sisters were the meteorologists in the group and not me, since I had clearly misjudged the arrival time of this storm.

“Now, here’s what’s going to happen,” Samson said, his voice saccharine sweet, despite the malice on his face. “You’re going to tell us everything you told the cops and tell us about every piece of evidence you know they collected. I know you’re fucking the cop next door, so I’m sure he’s talked to you about the case, and you’re going to tell us.”

This man was in for a rude awakening when he realized Hank hadn’t told me squat about the case. If it didn’t directly involve me, he hadn’t said a word.

However, I wasn’t stupid. I knew if I told him that, it would only anger him, and I needed to keep him stable long enough for Hank to arrive or for me to get free and make a run for it.

I was again thankful that one of those few life lessons my father had taught me was how to lie and deflect.

“Okay, but I’m not sure I remember everything. It was over a month ago,” I told him, hoping he believed me.

“Try,” he angrily ordered.

I took a deep sigh and nodded. “All the drugs I found were still packaged, so I didn’t know what was inside them at first. They had a lot of barnacles on them, so I really just thought they were more shells and stuff. That’s why I had picked them up, because I thought they were a rare kind of shell that we don’t get here in California very⁠—”

“I don’t give a shit about that,” he interrupted. “What did the packaging look like?”

Before I could answer, rain started to come down heavily and battered the windows as the wind kicked up even more, causing the lights to flicker several times before coming back on fully.

I blinked at the back and forth of the lights, my vision struggling to adjust. That was when the idea came to me.

“Okay, I did take something,” I lied.

Samson’s eyes narrowed. “You just suddenly remembered you had something you didn’t turn over to your cop boyfriend?”

“I didn’t realize it was important until I was going through some of the items I’d taken from the beach this morning. It may still be nothing, but I found some white powder on the shells, along with a sticker.”

I remembered Hank mentioning the stickers when he was on the phone, so I added that detail in to make it sound plausible…hopefully.

“A sticker?” Samson asked.

“Yes, it had an…umm…” Think, Hazel. What was the sticker Hank mentioned? “A snake sticker!”

Yes, that was it.

I watched as the corner of Samson’s mouth ticked up.

“Shit,” I heard my dad mumble.

“Where?” Samson demanded.

“If you could untie me, I can get it for you,” I suggested, knowing it was a long shot.