a stranger. “She left me when I was a baby. She didn’t prefer a simple island life.” I hear my dad’s voice as I say those words. His words. I don’t have any idea if that is really why she left. It’s just what he always told me. I sigh.
Stop second-guessing your dad.
I love my dad. He has always been there for me. And how do I repay him? Leave him when he’s sick. Now, I might never see him again. Tears pool and I blink them away.
Stay focused, Aspen.
“Here’s the thing. Rudy Foley and Rose Burnet don’t exist.” I glare at the man who’s obviously trying to get me to tell him something different. But I can’t. Those are my parents. I can’t explain why they can’t locate them in their system. He raises a brow. “You really didn’t know they weren’t your parents, did you?”
Yes, they are! “Why are you doing this to me? Who are my parents then?” I cry out, my emotions breaking through my tough facade.
“That will be answered in due time.”
He has to be lying. He can’t even answer my questions. “How can I destroy you if I don’t know who you are?”
“Because you’re alive.”
I wonder for how long, though. “If you take me to the airport, I’ll take a flight back to Tahiti tonight. I’ll leave here and never return.”
He draws in a quick breath and releases it. “It’s too late for that.”
I drop my head in silent resolve. It’s time to escape. All those years my father taught me self-defense and martial arts, I never imagined I would need it. I just want to go home.
Although, there’s one question that’s been nagging me and I'd like an answer before I fight for my life. I lift my head and pin my stare on the man.
“Qui est Tobias?” Not until the question slips off my tongue do I catch that I asked in French. I open my mouth to repeat the question in English, but he answers before I can get the words out.
“He’s a ghost. The military trained him to kill, and when he got out, he became a contract killer. Dangerous doesn’t begin to describe him. The people that usually meet him are already dead.”
The knot of fear in my throat strangles my words. This is who he’s waiting for? “Why… why would he come here?”
“For you.”
Spikes of that same fear wrap around my spine, stealing my fight from me. I’m certain my training is a five-year-old’s karate chop compared to his. Is he coming to finish the job he paid him to do? My gaze bounces throughout the room, frantically searching for anything to help me escape. Darkness on the other side of the drapes makes me shiver. He could be watching us and we’d never know.
“Don’t think about trying to escape,” he snaps, holding his gun up.
“Why are we in the middle of nowhere if you’re expecting someone to find us?”
He releases a humorless laugh. “I left breadcrumbs just in case he doesn’t already have a direct link to you. He’ll find us.” A direct link to me? What does that mean?
I bite my lip, silently questioning if I was to escape, if I could find my way through the thick freezing black forest. The cold still stings my bones. A tremble vibrates through me. Neither situation sounds promising. I hug my knees and drop my head between my arms.
Minutes turn into hours and nothing happens. Richard remains on guard and I struggle to keep my eyes open, watching him. The quiet house is warm, but a thick layer of dust covers every square inch of the place. I catch a glint of a spider web in the corner when the heat turns on, making it sway in the air.
I was hoping he would relax in a chair, maybe even fall asleep, giving me an opportunity to escape. But he’s vigilant in his post. It’s useless asking questions he won’t answer.
“Can I use the restroom?” I ask, my voice raw with emotion. He eyes me for a moment.
“I’m not taking off the cuffs.”
I hold my hands up in the air. “That’s fine. But I really need to go.”
He jerks his head to a small hallway. There’s only two doors, I assume they go to a bedroom and the bathroom. The first door is the bathroom. Stopping in the doorway, I lean back, glancing to the other door. The light from the living room illuminates a bed, but other than