Change of Heart - By S.E. Edwards Page 0,39

had to track you down to give it to you.”

“Rich, I told you, I am not leaving!”

“Right. Whatever. Wait until you hear the answer to your question before you decide.”

“What question?”

“How I got your wallet.”

I narrow my eyes. “How?”

He takes a deep breath. “I didn’t get it from Victor. Or from Tam. Or from the bar. The truth is: I’ve always had it.”

“You… what?”

Rich laughs again. Humorlessly. “You see? Don’t be so quick to say you’ll come back. Remember when you woke up in the middle of the night with me to find someone banging on the door?”

“Yes,” I say slowly. “That was what started this whole thing.”

“Nope. That had been an act. To…” he takes a deep breath. “To dupe you into coming with me.”

“Coming with you? Where?”

“Away.”

“No.” I shake my head. I don’t know if I can believe my ears. I don’t believe my ears. The room starts to spin. “I saw those men breaking down the door. I saw what they did to your apartment. No. That couldn’t have been an act.”

“It could, and it was. All of it was just a ruse to get you to come with me.”

“A ruse? Why?” The spinning gets worse. I put a hand against the wall to steady myself. “Rich, you’ve been drinking. You’re still drunk. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“My mind is as clear as day.” He snorts. “You think I’d make something like this up now? Why would I do that? The men who broke into my apartment were not thugs hired by loan sharks. They were two of my friends.” He exhales again. “We had this thing planned for a long time. We were just waiting for the right girl.” He motions in my direction. “For you.”

I have to sit down. I make my way to the bed on unsteady feet, and lower myself directly in front of Rich. I don’t know how to react to what I’m hearing. “What do you mean?” I ask slowly.

Rich growls. “Think, Penny! Think about everything that’s happened to you! I needed to find someone—a girl—who looked like you. Light skin. Dark, curly hair. Short. Slender body. I’d been hunting for weeks. When I saw you at Barren that night, I knew you were the one.”

I already know the answer to my next question, but I need to hear it from him. “The one for what?”

“The one I could pass off to Tam and Victor as my sister!” Rich shouts.

My stomach knots. Suddenly, everything makes sense. Rich’s persistence the night we met. Slowing down the car to give Tam a look at my face. Driving me to a remote gas station and drugging me there. All the times Victor referred to me as “the sister.”

I don’t know what to say, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “But why would you have my wallet?”

Rich sneers. “Come on! Isn’t it obvious? So that you would be forced to go with me. If I could make you believe you were in danger… that the loan sharks knew who you were… I could get you out of town. I could get you somewhere far away, slip something in your drink, and hand you over to Tam and Victor. Just like I did.”

“I… I still don’t get it. Why would you ever give up your sister?”

“I wouldn’t. Dammit, Penny, that’s the point! But Tam and Victor don’t know that. That’s why I had to find someone who looked like her. Someone like you. To keep my sister safe.”

“That’s horrible!”

“I know. You still sure you want to come back? Still sure you don’t want to go to the cops?” He directs a grin at me that doesn’t touch his eyes. “The phone’s right there.” He nods in the direction of the desk phone.

I don’t move. “Why do they want your sister?” I ask quietly.

Rich shakes his head. “I don’t believe you, Penny. I told you that I lied to you, drugged you, and abandoned you to the worst type of people. And you’re still not running away?”

“You came back for me.”

He gives me a dark look. “I almost didn’t, you know. I knew if I did, my sister would be in even greater danger. So would I.”

“Is that what you meant when you told me that risking your life wasn’t the worst thing you were doing?”

Rich nods grimly. “Now you’re using your brain.”

“But you did come back, Rich. You came back, and you risked your life for me. I’m not going