Cold Deception (His Agenda 4): Prequel to the His Agenda Series (18 page)

Lacey blinked in answer. The cold blade at her neck reminded her he was in control.

“Good. I want you to make some calls. Call everyone you know and tell them you’ve found your long-lost sister. You’re leaving town immediately to be with her. Make it convincing, or I’ll cut your throat right here.” His breathing was hot and heavy against her skin. “Once we’re done here, I’m taking you home. There’s something I want to show you.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Lacey’s face hit the floor and a pain like she’d never known ripped through her. Maybe she broke her cheekbone—she couldn’t be sure. At this point, everything hurt. It took a moment for her to register where she was. A dim light came from the doorway at the top of the stairs. She was in the basement, and Terence had not switched on the light. The floor was freezing cold, dirty, and rough.

Coughing from the dust mixed with a sharp smell that reminded her of urine or vomit, she watched Terence watching her. She scrambled to a sitting position.

“What do you think you’re doing… bringing me here?” She was scared of him when she left, but she’d never thought he harbored this kind of violence, not really. She hadn’t thought leaving him would put her in a more dangerous situation.

“I’m keeping you down here for a while. You can’t leave and cheat on me and not expect to be punished for it.”

“You can’t do that. You can’t lock me up. Are you crazy?” Fear tightened her chest, because now she knew that he was crazy, and he would do anything to control her.

“What’s going to stop me?” He laughed. “It’s not as if we get many visitors around here.”

Shit. He was right. They had never invited anyone over to the house but Marion. Before she got a job, Terence had kept her in a bubble, with little connection to the outside world. How had she not noticed it? How had she not fought back sooner? This had been his plan all along. To keep her for himself.

“Keeping me here won’t change anything. You can’t force me to love you again, Terence. It’s over, accept it.”

He suddenly grabbed her shoulder, pulling her off the floor, digging his fingers into her skin. She whimpered, but he refused to let go.

“You’re hurting me. Let me go.” Each word was charged with fear.

To her relief, he let her go with a shove that sent her back to the floor.

He turned and walked to the stairs. At the top he fixed his gaze on her. “I’m giving you another chance. I’m choosing to forget what you did with that son of a bitch. I only need one promise from you. That you will never leave me again.”

“What happened to you?” Lacey shook her head. She felt dazed, lost. “What happened to us?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know what happened. You destroyed us. We were happy until you chose a life outside of our marriage.”

“No, Terence, you’re the one who broke us. I loved you so much, but you were stifling me. You were starting to make me feel like your slave, as if I wasn’t my own person.” Tears poured down her cheeks.

Terence responded by walking back up the stairs and out the basement door. Lacey heard a click as he locked the door behind him, leaving her in darkness. The only light came from the slit underneath the door.

Sobbing uncontrollably, she fumbled, touching the walls, searching for the light switch. She had no idea where it was, as this was her first time in their basement. Like Terence, she had not wanted to see the setting of the abuse he had endured at the hands of his father. Now he had locked her up in the very place he had feared so much.

She eventually found the big fridge she had noticed a few minutes earlier. Maybe there was something inside she could use? At least the light inside might be working.

A powerful stench hit her as she opened the door, forcing her to hold her breath. At the same time, the refrigerator light allowed her to see what was inside. Her heart froze as she gazed into the eyes of a corpse. A scream pushed its way up her throat.

Chapter Forty-Nine

The dead woman stared at Lacey, eyes blank, mouth open.

Lacey, who had never seen a corpse in real life before, covered her mouth with both hands and stumbled back. She didn’t stop until she reached the opposite corner of the basement. A dead end.

She cowered, shaking so hard she bit the tip of her tongue. The pain was distant. Nothing came close to the fear surging through her, the horror of being in such close proximity to death. What horrified her most was the thought that Terence might have something to do with it. Had he killed this woman? Why? Who was she?

Despite the smell, the body looked fresh, the skin still intact. The exterior had not started to rot yet. The woman must have died only a day or two ago.

The past flashed before Lacey’s eyes. She remembered what Terence had said to her, that he had been in prison for a murder he did not commit. Her spine went cold. He had lied, and she had been a fool to believe him. She had married a murderer.

Instinct told her to get up and find a way out of the basement, but fear paralyzed her. She wanted to scream and yell for Terence to let her out, but she was afraid of seeing him, the stranger she had loved. He probably wouldn’t blink before killing her as well. But the thought of being stuck inside a basement with a corpse wasn’t a whole lot more appealing.

***

Lacey glanced at her watch. An hour had passed since Terence locked her up, and he hadn’t come back. A couple of hours later, around 8 p.m., the urge to urinate hit her. She had no choice but to relieve herself in one of the corners of the basement. Done, she returned to where she had been before. Her cold joints cracked and ached with each movement.

She sank to the floor, leaned her forehead on her knees, and sobbed. She was hungry, thirsty, and cold, but had no choice but to ignore the needs of her body that couldn’t be met.

A click signaled the door being unlocked. The first thing she did before the door opened again was glance at her watch. Ten p.m. He’d kept her in the basement for nine hours without food or drink. What kind of monster was he? Was that how he had killed the woman in the fridge? Did he keep her in the basement until she starved to death?

Lacey watched him looking down the stairs at her. Her earlier fear was gone. All that was left now was hate, and the desire to get as far away from him as possible. Her mind urged her to jump to her feet, to run up the stairs and try to get past him and out the front door. But her tired and weak body failed to even stir from the floor.

There was a hint of a smile on his lips, which didn’t waver as he descended the stairs. His gaze turned to the open fridge, and the smile transformed into a grin. “I see you’ve found her.” He halted at the bottom of the stairs and jammed his hands into his pockets. “I wanted you to see her, so you’d know what I do to people who betray me.”

“You murdered her.” It wasn’t a question.

“I did.” He walked over to the fridge and observed the corpse for a long time. The smell didn’t seem to deter him. He looked like he was thinking. “I bet you want to know who she is.”

“No.” Not knowing was best. Lacey wanted her to stay a nameless corpse forever.

“I’ll tell you anyway.” He turned around, his arms crossed over his chest. “She is—no, used to be—my mother. The woman who ruined my life has finally paid for what she did.”

The revelation knifed Lacey through the chest and she grabbed her throat, unable to breathe, unable to speak the words swirling around in her head. So many unanswered questions.

“Don’t you just love surprises? I knew this one would throw you.” He strode to where she sat and kneeled down so he was at her level. “Before I heard you fucking another man, I thought we could get past this. I thought we would find a way to start over. Now I’m rethinking my plan. If I let you out of this basement, you’ll try to leave me, won’t you, Lacey?”

She shook her head vigorously. How else could she save herself?

He reached out a hand and brushed her sweaty hair from her forehead. For an instant, his face changed to the one she had fallen in love with, those kind and gentle features. But when he withdrew his hand again, the hard look returned.

“Can you blame me for wanting to leave?” Sudden confidence washed over her. “Look at you. You’re not the man I married. You murdered your own mother. How could you do such a thing?”

“The bitch deserved to die. Now she’s going to keep you company for a little while longer. If you have questions, ask her. Ask her how she denied knowing me when I contacted her. Ask her why she didn’t show any remorse for abandoning me.” He straightened up and walked away. Before he reached the stairs, Lacey discovered a strength she didn’t know she still had and lunged for him. She hit him with such force, she almost knocked him off his feet. “You make me sick to my stomach. I regret the day I met you.”

He caught himself in time and spun around. Rage made his eyes glow. “Does your pussy regret it too? As I recall, you wanted me just as much as I wanted you.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I can tell you one thing, Lacey. If you ever pull that shit again, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”

His eyes told her he meant every word, and it chilled her. She backed away from him and returned to her corner. She was his prisoner. She might as well accept it. Only she didn’t know how to do that.

“Want to know something?” He dug into his pocket and removed something. He threw it at her. It bounced on the floor and came to rest at Lacey’s feet. A silver wedding band.

“That ring was a symbol of somebody’s vows, until she broke them. Her name was Krista. She, too, cheated on her husband.” He paused. “I made sure she paid for her sins. I wiped her off this Earth. Don’t make me do the same to you.”

Chapter Fifty

Terence returned to the basement eight hours later. Lacey was trying to sleep. It was the only way she could ignore the hunger and thirst. Her breathing felt like it was slowing down and there was no saliva left to moisten her mouth. She was too weak and cold to even look up when Terence entered. Her eyes were open, but they only stared up at the ceiling.

Terence came to her side, helped her sit up, and lifted a cup of water to her lips. She tried to gulp up as much as she could, enjoying the way it soothed her mouth and throat, but Terence moved the cup away when she got too greedy. After a few more sips, he withdrew the cup completely, and while she watched, he poured the water onto the floor.

Lacey wanted to get down on all fours and lap up the stream before it was sucked up by the dirt, but she did not want to give Terence the satisfaction. She moved away from him and lay back down on the floor, on her side this time.

“Turn over,” he ordered. She ignored him, so he flipped her over himself.

He began to remove every piece of her clothing. She fought him all the way, but failed to stop him.

Her eyes widened with horror when he stood and unzipped his jeans. Was he out of his mind?

“No,” she managed and shook her head, but he flipped her onto her stomach without a word.

He fell over her, pressing her into the dirty floor, his face buried into her shoulders. His weight pinned her completely down. The little energy she had left wasn’t enough to stop him from hurting her even more. He roughly pushed her legs apart, and while she wept into the floor, he raped her. He rolled off when he was done, and left the basement with her clothes in his arms.

Five minutes later, he returned with a plate of steamed vegetables and rice. “See, I’m not as evil as you think I am. As soon as you learn not to mess with me, I’ll get you out of here and we can start over. What happened just now was a test. You failed.” He reached for a piece of carrot and ate it. “If you had let me fuck you without putting up a fight, I probably would have let you out of here. But I didn’t like your resistance. You’ll stay down here until you stop fighting me.”

Chapter Fifty-One

Terence

Terence hung up the phone. He had canceled yet another job assignment. The bills were piling up and they needed to be paid, but his mind was too scattered to focus on anything but Lacey.

He glanced at the pile of mail on the kitchen windowsill. The envelopes would stay closed until he sorted out his marriage.

He still wasn’t sure what to do with Lacey. He’d have to get her out of the basement at some point, to end the punishment, but how could he trust her again?

“Fuck.” He pressed a fist into his mouth. Why did she go and mess everything up for them?

The doorbell rang and he swore under his breath. He wasn’t expecting anyone. In fact, he had gone the extra mile to make sure no one entered the house. There were too many things he wanted to hide.

He moved to the kitchen window and peered through the thin ice filming the pane, careful not to be seen. He could not see the person at the front door, but he got a good view of the car parked on the curb. Somebody had rung the doorbell yesterday too. Terence had just come out of the basement and looked out in time to see the same black Mercedes drive off. While he watched the car now, a stick-thin man with a slight limp, carrying a briefcase, appeared in Terence’s line of sight and climbed behind the wheel of the car. He took a last glance at the house and drove off.

Terence paced around the kitchen with his fists clenched. What if the man was a detective? Maybe someone connected him to Krista Smith’s murder? The papers still reported her missing, and her case had been labeled suspicious. And then there was the case of his mother. No, he would not think about the possibility of someone coming to look for her. Not even Marion knew Terence had contacted her.

He closed his eyes and listened to his heart thumping. The cell he had spent all those years in flashed before his eyes. Sweat popped up on his forehead. He did not deserve to go back there. The things he had done had been for the right reasons. He was only correcting wrongs. There were people out there who were guilty of worse crimes.