Lila

She'd had way too much time to sit and think. After she'd finished screaming until she almost lost her voice—which no one heard since the Penthouse was insulated and safety-lined like an army Barracks, she was forced to just… sit.

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And think.

And consider.

And question.

And far, far too many things occurred to her that she hadn't seen earlier. And far too many things stood up and demanded to be confronted. And Dane wasn't there for any of it, which made her want to strangle him.

So, it was almost a relief when she heard movement in the bedroom on the other side of the door. She started screaming again in case it wasn't Chris. But of course, it was.

She glared at him over the gag he'd left—not too tightly—in her teeth. He'd also tied her hands at the front, which now, three hours later she was grateful for. Her shoulders would have been so sore by now. She'd hoped to be able to get the ties off when he was gone, but either he knew his knots, or she needed more practice, because had hadn't been able to budge them. And with her mouth unable to close, she couldn't even use her teeth.

"Asshole," she spat through the gag.

Chris sighed and came to stand in front of her. "I'm going to show you something, and then I'm going to untie you. And I want you to know, if you don't think this through, you're risking more than just yourself."

She narrowed her eyes, but her stomach trilled. Was it another video? Was Dane under greater threat? Her heart hammered against her ribs as Chris pulled out his phone, muttering under his breath, then held the screen in front of her.

A strange noise erupted from her throat when the image showed Dane, dark shadows under his eyes, and lines of worry on his face. But he was free, sitting in a car, and staring right at the camera.

"Lila, babe… I'm… I don't know what to say. I wish I was there to tell you this myself. You have no idea. But I need you to listen to Chris, okay? Listen to him and don't… don't raise the alarm. He's working with me. He's been fooling Doug into thinking he was against us, but…" he swallowed and his eyes cut to Chris behind the camera, then back down. "I just need you to trust me that you can be certain, okay? Absolutely certain that he's proved himself. I'm free of Dad right now because of him. And that's not a little thing."

Lila's eyes filled with tears. Dane was shaking. He was turned sideways in the car, bracing his arms on the seat and the dashboard, his shoulders hunched in the small space. But his eyes were alight and his voice… rough as it was, it sang in her heart.

Then she got a flash of him with his hands on that woman, and she sobbed.

"So, I'm free, Lila. I'm free—at least from Dad." He cleared his throat and swallowed, clearly overcome by even saying those words. Lila cried and a high-pitched whimper broke from her throat. "I need you to know, the only reason I'm not with you right now, telling you this in person is because there's two things happening: One is that the Police have made charges and if I show up in public, I'll be arrested. And the second is that if I hide with you and they catch me before I can get this cleared up, you'll be an accessory and you'll be arrested too. Same goes for any of the staff. They've put my name and face out there now. I can't… I can't be seen without bringing the Police. I'm not going to do that to you, babe. I can't."

"What?" she cried, looking at Chris, who just frowned at the phone.

But on the video, Dane continued. "You keep doing what you do, okay? You go to work, and you do what you need to do, and when I get this sorted out, I'll come for you and I'll explain. I promise. I'll explain everything." He put such heavy emphasis on the word, she knew he was thinking of that video, just like she was.

Her shoulders shook with the tears, but she kept blinking, swinging wildly between joy and rage. Seeing him was feeding something that had been hollow and aching in her chest since the minute he left her at the apartment. She needed more. She needed to see him now. To touch him. To hear him. To hold him. But in the same moment, she wanted to scream at him, to hit him, to rage.

Fighting to keep her face as expressionless as possible, she wanted to look at Chris, to measure his reaction to all this, but she couldn't take her eyes off Dane's face.

On the film, Dane ran a hand through his hair and those little muscles at the back of his jaw twitched. "So, listen, here's what's happening. By the time you're watching this, I'll be talking to Harry Quinn—I know you met him. He's a good guy, Lila. You can trust him. But he's also a target for my father… and his crew. So, it's dangerous to be close to him. Don't meet with him again if you can help it, okay?

"Then I'm going to talk to John to get some help with the stuff you already know about it. That's going to help with the charges. I hope. There's a chance, anyway. They might arrest me, and if they do… we'll deal with it. But I'm going to work really hard not to let that happen. And once we've cleared things up, I'm coming to you. The first second I can do it without bringing the Police down on you, I'm coming, Lila. I promise. Please… wait for me. Don't make any big decisions until we've talked, okay?"

The camera jiggled then, like Chris was moving or making a gesture to Dane. Dane gave a little nod, then looked right at the phone. "I love you, Lila. Nothing has changed, I promise." Her heart sang—and cried—at those words. "I know this has been hell. Real hell. It's been… it's been… the hardest time of my entire life. I swear. But it's almost over, I promise. I'm going to fix this. Please… don't give up. Please." There was a moment when he looked down and her breath caught—was he going to cry? But he swallowed and looked back up. "I love you and I'll talk to you soon, okay? I promise."

The camera dropped then and Chris started to mutter, "Puss—" before the file cut off.

Lila sucked in a breath, then looked at Chris, whose jaw was tight and he stared at her. But it was less anger in his eyes, than wariness.

"I'll take the gag off now," he said after a second and she nodded. As soon as he untied it she spat it out.

"Where is he?" her voice was rough and her mouth too dry, but Chris spoke as he worked on untying her ankles, then he her hands. She wiped her cheeks and sucked in, desperate to stop looking so weak.

"He's not far away, but we had to hide him. He thinks he needs to stay away from everyone so no one else can get blamed if the Police take him in."

"You got him out?" she said, her voice quavering.

Chris nodded, though he didn't meet her eyes.

"How?"

"Doug's dead."

Lila covered her mouth with her hands and made herself breathe, breathe, breathe, praying Dane hadn't… that he wasn't… "Did he do it?" she said in a tiny voice.

"No."

All the air blew out of her lungs and she sagged, dropping her face into her hands just for a second, just to say Thank you, God, then she pushed to her feet. Her back was aching and she stretched it and twisted back and forth to loosen it. "I can't believe you tied me up."

"You wanna try and tell me you wouldn't have run to the cops the second you got loose?"

She glared at him. "I think you can understand why?"

"Yep. And I think now you can understand why I had to tie you up."

She pursed her lips. "What did he… what did he say? About… the videos?"

"Not a lot. He said he wasn't explaining himself to me. That he owed that to you first."

Lila nodded, but adrenalin shot through her system. He didn't say it was faked. He didn't proclaim his innocence. He said he'd explain.

The last of her hope that John might come back and say it was a fake, died.

"Where's my phone?" she said.

"Out in the dining room. I picked it up and put it on the table, but I haven't touched it otherwise."

She put her hands to her hips and blinked back tears—half of relief—and looked around. The bathroom was huge, but… "I need you to leave this room," she said quietly.

"Why? Don't you want—"

"What I want is to use the bathroom before I embarrass myself. And then… then we'll talk."

Chris put his hands up. "Sorry. Okay. I'll be in the living room when you're… ready. And, just so you know, the Police are back in the apartment. Looking for something—they had a search warrant. I let them through. And I'll deal with it. You don't need to do anything. They said they'll only be an hour or two and… I don't know what's going to happen, but we're supposed to stay out of there."

Lila scoffed. "Of course we are," she said quietly and had to swallow more tears. She hadn't realized how much she'd enjoyed having that hideaway with Dane until it was violated this way. "Thank you, I guess."

Chris took a deep breath and looked at her from the corner of his eye. "I'll leave, Lila, but I want you to know… I really am trying to help you. And Dane. I'm not… I'm not an asshole."

She looked at him for a long second. "Depends how you define asshole, doesn't it?" she said finally, and forced a smile.

Chris gave a small chuckle, but it died as soon as he turned around to leave.

She stared at the door when he closed it behind him and almost ran to it to make sure he hadn't locked her in again. But she knew… somehow she knew…

So even though she only needed to be in there for a minute, she didn't leave the room right away.

She took the time to think and wonder and pray.

And ask herself what she'd say when Dane showed up.

But even when she left, she didn't know the answer.