the phone. I grip the table so hard my knuckles turn white.
The Elephant has her.
32
Hazel
I’m drifting in and out of consciousness. It’s a weird feeling, sort of like I’m at a beach and the waves are dragging me in, pushing me out, dragging me in … over and over. I guess I’m in the back of a car. I think my hands are tied. Reality has become a little blurry.
I make myself remember what happened before I woke up here.
I was in the kitchen, right? Yeah, that’s it, I was in the kitchen making a soufflé and doing a terrible job. Soufflés are one of those dishes that require the baker to be focused and attentive and totally not in-their-own-head. But I was pretty much the opposite. I kept thinking about Carlo and all the things I should’ve said to him.
I was wondering if I should’ve told him I loved him too, when I heard the commotion in the hallway.
There was a crash and then a bunch of shouting. Stupidly, I guess, I ran out there to see what was going on. I just wanted to make sure Ubert was okay. But he wasn’t okay, not at all. He had a big hole in his belly and he was slumped against the wall.
Benjy was standing at the end of the hallway with three men I vaguely recognized. Dad’s men. He was holding a pistol with a long cylinder attached to the end. I’ve watched enough movies to know that it makes guns quieter.
“Hello, Colleen,” Benjy said, sounding almost sad. “You have to come with us now.”
I shook my head. “Don’t do this,” I whispered. I nodded at Ubert, whose hands were twitching as he tried to reach for his gun. But the gunshot was a bad one and he was only barely clinging to consciousness. “Let me help him. Please.”
Benjy sighed and then tossed a severed finger onto the floor. I swallowed vomit.
“Please don’t make this harder than it has to be. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Daddy sent me—”
“Don’t call him that!” I hissed. “You’re a grown man, Benjy. Do you have any idea what you sound like when you call him that?”
He just shrugged, and then nodded at his men. “Get her. Don’t hurt her if you can help it. Use the chloroform if you have to.”
What happened next might have been funny if it wasn’t so scary. They chased me. I ran. But since the penthouse is all interlocking doors, it was like one of those cartoons where you keep just missing each other in the hallway. I’d hide in the studio only to quickly run to the study, then to the small gym, then back to the kitchen. But I could only keep it up for so long.
Soon, Benjy had me trapped in the bathroom, gun casually aimed at me.
“Just let me put these on you,” he said, gesturing with the zip-ties. “It’ll make things easier.”
“I thought you were in the hospital,” I whispered.
Benjy shook his head.
“Cassandra said you were in the hospital,” I said. He looked blank. “Your girlfriend.”
“I’m a virgin, Colleen.” He giggled strangely. “You know that. I’m still looking for Mrs. Right. Cassandra is one of Daddy’s women.”
“You’re sick, Benjy. You need help.” I shook my head, backing against the bathtub, reaching around for a weapon. I grabbed a small hand mirror, smashed it against the wall, and hefted a small shard of glass. It cut my hand but I barely felt it. “You’re not taking me. No fucking way. You know what he’ll do to me.”
Benjy sighed in a way I knew well. It was that sigh that said he’d do whatever Dad asked him to do, even if it was wrong, because that’s what he’d been doing his whole life.
“Use the chloroform,” Benjy said, nodding at his men. A flat-faced one with gleeful eyes stepped forward, tipping a jar into a rag. “But don’t hurt her.”
The rest is fuzzy. I know there was a fight. I know I lost. I know they stuffed a rag over my mouth.
Between then and now, though, is not much else but darkness.
“Benjy,” I whisper.
“Yes, sis?”
“These zip-ties are cutting into my wrists and ankles.”
It’s true. I must’ve been struggling when I was unconscious. Or maybe it’s just the bumpy car ride. Where are we going where the roads are bumpy? The woods?
“It’s not much longer,” he says.
“Benjy, you know what he’s going to do to me. He’s going to kill me, but