His Ransom 6(12)

Jake left me in the middle of the labyrinth with a kiss and a squeeze. I sighed with pleasure when he had gone. Today was perfect. Painting graffiti on the side of the train platform… walking through beautifully manicured gardens… having a secret tryst with Jake in the labyrinth… nothing could make this day any better.

My phone rang. I groaned as I sat up and riffled through my purse to turn it off. But when I saw the screen, all of my tension came rushing back to my nerves.

It was Sean.





Chapter Seven

“Sean?”

I put the phone to my ear, casting my eyes around for Jake. I got to my feet and headed to the labyrinth entrance.

“Are you ready to meet?”

“We’re—no, not right away. We’re in Versailles,” I said. I walked quickly to the entrance and looked around for Jake.

“Versailles? Are you kidding me?” Sean sounded ticked off.

“He took me to the gardens.” My eyes flickered down the garden path to the ice cream stand. Fortunately, there was a line, and Jake was standing politely as the tourist in front of him counted out the foreign coins. “He’s coming back soon. What do I say?”

“Tell him that I want to meet you both under the Eiffel Tower.”

“The Eiffel Tower?”

I ducked back into the labyrinth. I didn’t want any of the security guards to overhear. We were going to have to ditch them before we got there to meet Sean.

“Yes.”

“But there’s so many people there. How will we find you?”

“I’ll call you when you’re closer to give you more directions.”

My head spun.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get him back to Paris so we can meet you.”

“Who is it?”

I heard a click as the call disconnected. I turned to see Jake beaming at me as he held out a cup of hot chocolate.

I hated to tell him. I knew he wanted to stay here. And I wanted to stay here too, in this magical fantasy of a castle. But I couldn’t stay. This was a fairyland, and I needed to come back to reality.

“It was your brother,” I said.

“My brother—” His eyes narrowed.

“The man who says he’s your brother,” I said. “The man who kidnapped me.”

“What does he want?” Jake’s voice was clipped, already angry. I breathed in deeply. There was nothing else I could do but try to convince him.

“He wants to meet you again.”





Chapter Eight

“My brother’s dead.”

We were on the train back to Paris. Jake had asked the security guards to stay back in another car. Still, there were people seated all around us. I tried to speak in a whisper.

“I know you think—”

“Lacey, this is twisted. This is a sick thing to do. It’s just a sick game that he’s playing.”

“What if he’s telling the truth?”

“How can you—do you really think I would lie to you about this?”

“No,” I said, putting my hand on his. I didn’t want Jake to be angry at me for believing this. “I think it’s possible there was something else that happened when you were a kid. Something you didn’t know about. Maybe—”

“I can’t believe—”

“You didn’t see him, Jake. I saw him in the light. I saw his face, the way he quirked his eyebrow just like you do.”

“Anybody could have studied video of me to see what I looked like, what I acted like.”

“He was wearing contacts,” I said. “He was wearing dark contacts. Like he was trying to hide the real color of his eyes.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know. I think he didn’t want you to believe he was your brother. I think he wanted you to think he was a fraud, and that was it. He took me down to the catacombs where everything was dim and you couldn’t get a good look at his face.”

“Why? Why, Lacey? Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know!” I cried out, suddenly aware that the whole back section of people had their heads turned toward us. I prayed that they didn’t speak English.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, trying to get my sense of calm back. “Maybe it’s the same reason you don’t want to know you have a brother. Because he’s scared. You’re both scared that this might be real. That you have another part of your family alive to care about.”

Jake’s face went blank and hard.

“I’ll do this,” he said. “But I want you to know that I’m doing it for you. All of this. And if I meet him again, I can’t promise that I won’t punch him in the face for doing what he did to you.”