Casing ✔️

Chapter 37

How long would it take me to get my driver's license, so I could stop trusting other people to get me where I needed to be? The question was the first thing that entered my mind as I felt the headache form, and my eyes started to open up.

Sharp lights were around me, making it hard to see anything at all. And my neck hurt—really hurt. Probably from the awkward position I was seated in. As my body slowly came back to consciousness, I realized I was sitting, with my wrists and ankles tied down around the arms and legs of a particularly uncomfortable chair.

Whoever had me were great hosts, apparently.

My mouth was dry, and as I tried to lick my lips, my tongue hit something sticky and yucky, letting me know my mouth was covered with tape. Stupid tape.

If this was dad's way of scaring me out of Datoches, he was only making me more adamant to stay. I was so sure the car was a peace offering—a sign that he accepted my decision and wanted to keep being the wonderful father he'd always been. Minus the locking me up part.

I couldn't wrap my head around how he'd recruit Borgen to do all that either. He was loyal to James—at least I thought he was.

My head hurt even more when I tried to think and make sense of the situation. I had no idea where I was, or how long I'd been here, or how long I'd been out. The only thing I knew was that the lights over me made an annoying sound, and that I was inside a pretty sizable room, with a few more chairs, and a shelf with tools.

It didn't look like any place I'd been before. And there were no windows, making it hard to know what time it was. The remaining part of my sanity told me I couldn't have been out for too long, otherwise James would've found me by now. The only thing I knew for sure at the moment was that he'd turn the world upside down to find me.

And if this wasn't dad's fucked up attempt to drive me out of the city, he'd be right there with James, combing through every pebble on every street.

But I had no other idea of what this could be, unless...unless someone didn't like the show of power James and Damian held at the warehouse, where they killed those men, where I'd been hosing away blood with Diana.

Could this be more disloyal people? Someone who wished to take the future consigliere's girlfriend to leverage for something? I had way too little knowledge about anything the Strac's were doing that they wouldn't gain shit from me anyway.

The chair jumped and screeched against the floor as I tried to rip my arms and legs free. I had some wiggle room on my left wrist, but that was it. There was no way I was tearing through that rope, and no way I was getting out of this place alone. I had no weapon, not even my mouth, as I sat there and just stared at the blank wall in front of me.

I was helpless. I hated it.

And the crack in my heart that I felt from Borgen's betrayal was the worst part. He rarely said anything at all, but he'd driven James and I around for a good while now, and just James even longer. He took us to our dates, and he...he never really said anything. How could he do this? I'd never been anything but nice to him.

Fuck, it irked me. Just as much as it did that I couldn't get out of this stupid chair, no matter how much I tried.

It probably didn't help that I was exhausted from whatever shit Borgen used to get me unconscious either.

My gaze moved to the door when I heard footsteps. Muffled voices and shadows under the door confirmed that someone was coming, and I had to quickly figure out if I wanted them to know I was awake, or fake sleeping.

As the handle went down, I let my head hang, and my breathing turned heavy, as if I was asleep.

A low chuckle rang through the room, making my spine chill in all the wrong ways. Then a warm hand landed on my knee, the bare skin beneath my dress prickling into goosebumps at the touch, and I struggled to keep from kicking whoever was in front of me.