“Hallie! What are you doing here?” she exclaimed in a hushed yell, gripping my upper arms and shaking me a little.
“I’ve been searching for you for years, Mom.Years,and that’s the first question you ask?”
Her voice pitched. “Didn’t you get my note? To not come looking for me?”
“I did, but I thought you would never write such a thing, so I ignored it.”
Mom’s face paled and she panted through what seemed to be a wave of nausea. “Oh, Helga.” For the first time in years, she gathered me into her arms and squeezed me so tight, I couldn’t move.
I clung back just as hard, heart aching and tears threatening to break through.
“You can’t be here, honey,” Mom urged. She kept a firm grip on my arms. “You must head home immediately.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Why—”
“Helga, listen. Go back to the States and never come here again. Always know that I love you, and I left because you were in danger. It was either you or me, and I came back here so they wouldn’t take you.”
Tears shone in her eyes now. The glassy sheen washed through her stricken gaze and her voice broke in a desperate whisper. “Please, honey.Please.Get out of here before you can’t.”
“I’m not leaving without you, Mom.” I thrust a crumpled piece of paper into her palm. “This is my temporary number. Use it when you can. I’ll wait for as long as it takes, but we must work fast. I have a plan.”
Mom’s fingers shook as she pushed the little balled up scrap of paper into her bra. “I’ll call you when I can. Though, they watch me most of the time. Please, Hallie, be safe.”
“I will, Mom.” I gave her another hasty hug, then gently shoved her at the door. “Now go before he gets suspicious.”
“Bye, honey. I love you.”
“I love you too, Momma.”
With that, she was gone, leaving me alone in the bathroom with my hand pressed to my chest. My lungs burned with the need to cry for her, yet my blood burned for revenge. While the story was still incomplete, I had enough of it to know that Mom hadn’t returned to Cape Town because she wanted to.
I waited another couple of minutes before breezing from the bathroom like anyone else would have. Barely two steps forward, I was jerked to a halt by someone grabbing my hair and yanking it hard. A split second later, a large black hand roughly slapped over my mouth.
I stumbled backward, cursing myself for wearing high-fucking-heels that put me at a huge disadvantage, along with wearing my hair long and loose.
I fought against the urge to instinctively raise my hand and grapple with the fingers that wrenched my hair from the roots. Instead, I lashed out while being bent backward and off-balance.
“It’s pointless fighting, Mejuffrou [Miss] van Staden. Daddy will be so happy to see you.”
“Let me fucking go,” I screamed from behind his palm, still writhing and kicking as best I could. If he was going to take me down, it wouldn’t be without a fight.
I landed a heel to the top of his foot, and he grunted with pain. Instead of making his grip falter, it riled him further. My head violently snapped backward, then forward, before being thrust in a new direction, coming face-to-face with the irate appearance of my captor.
It was then I realized just how far out of my depth I was. This man was big. Fucking huge.Skin so dark I could almost see my own reflection and eyes as black as coal. His teeth gleamed white in contrast when he leered closer.
“Fucking try that again, and I don’t care how much you’re worth, you’ll cease to live. Now, come. And you’ll walk properly if you want your mother to stay on this side of the soil.”
The threat against Mom sealed the deal. I was going with him whether I wanted to or not.
Chapter Fifteen
Hallie
Being unceremoniously shoved into an unmarked car pissed me off even more. No sooner had my captor slid in behind me and nodded to the driver than the car lurched forward and sped along the street.
“Promise me she’ll be safe. I swear to God if she’s hurt, I’ll kill every last one of you fuckers!” I hissed.
A hard shove to my chest propelled me into the back of the seat. “You’re in no position to make demands, and I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”