It had been him.
Which was why it felt so weird, so open-ended. With no meeting place, no way to provide the “Calgary Family” with what they wanted from me.
“Why were you pretending to be them?”
“To prove to Colin how disloyal you were. And figure out where the money is. It isn’t yours, you know.”
“No, it isn’t mine. It was Cody’s. And he toldmewhere it was. Not Colin. Me.”
“It wasn’t just his. It belonged to the organization.”
“I’m pretty sure the money an organization kicks up belongs to the boss of whatever that organization is,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“Kicks up. Is that a fancy new word your mafia guy taught you?”
“Who are you talking about?” I asked, feigning ignorance.
“Oh, please. You used my phone, remember. All those searches in my history after. You really were dedicated to fucking over the guy who took you in and took care of you, I’ll give you that.”
“Took me in and took care of me. Lucas, he kidnapped me. He held me captive. For years.”
“You had your own apartment that you didn’t even have to pay for.”
“That I was never allowed to leave!”
“I told him you were an ungrateful bitch. He didn’t like that,” he said, shaking his head at whatever memory that brought up.
“Colin didn’t like that?” I asked.
“He didn’t like it when anyone called you names. Cut out Larry’s tongue for it before he killed ‘em. Stood right there and watched.”
Oh, God.
Okay.
Alright.
It was not the time for guilt.
I could work through that some other time. If I made it out of this. Which was seeming less and less likely with each passing moment.
Because, clearly, Lucas was fucking insane. And insane people were pretty noxiously impossible to reason with.
“Does… does Colin know that you took me?” I asked.
“Not yet. He’s going to. He needs to.”
“Why?”
“Because he needs to know how disloyal you have been. Keeping things from him. Plotting against him. He needs to know.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? Because he thinks you are perfect. He’s blind to what you’ve done.”
“Why are you so loyal to Colin, Lucas?” I asked.
“What do you mean, why? He took me in. When no one else gave a fuck about me—including you—he took me in and he gave me a job and money and a place to stay.”