The Bachelor's Auction

Chapter Twenty-one

"Can you tell me where I am right now?" Charles asked a curious note in his voice, holding on to the phone that his 'nephew' had picked up yesterday.

"Why would I give away security information to you?" Lucas replied easily. He relaxed his body to keep his tone light.

"Listen, I know you can see me. What I'm asking is if you know the significance of the location where I'm standing right now." Charles matched Lucas' conversational tone.

"It doesn't really have any significance to me."

"It's where the cooks used to enter to make food for the workers here."

"So?"

"I was a cook here."

"So?"

"I'm quite familiar with this complex. I used to roam the corridors late at night when we were supposed to be sleeping. There have been some changes. The ventilation grates they aren't where used to be. Of course, you don't have a paying public going through here anymore so the ventilation needs are different now. You've put in some high tech security stuff in the trees and on the ground. But I doubt that you have collapsed any part of the tunnel system. That makes us even."

"So?"

"I want to talk to Carrie." Charles expression took on a cunning look.

"She's sitting next to me, listening. You can say what you want to her."

"I want to talk to Carrie alone. I'll let you search me. But send her to the old kitchen area."

"No." Lucas voice hardened immediately. Charles was crazy if he thought they could reach on Carrie meeting him. He felt Carrie tremble momentarily when Charles said her name.  She was not going to be bait; even if he had to tie her up to prevent it. This was his operation not Dixon's so Charles really needed to watch his step. 

"Carrie, what do you say?" Charles waited for her to answer. When she didn't he continued. "You don't want your mother's death on your conscience, do you? You're not that kind of girl." He seemed sure of that assertion.

"Her mother's death won't be on her conscience..." Lucas cut in.

"I don't believe Carrie's with you. Get her," Charles interrupted Lucas.

"I'm here," Carrie said quietly. She put a calming hand on Lucas' thigh. Who needed calming Lucas briefly wondered.

"Then meet me, twenty minutes for your mother's life. She's not with me because I've buried her alive. You're on the clock to keep her alive." Charles bared his teeth like a rabid wolf.

"If... if what you say is true, she might already be dead. Are you talking about the poor woman you were dragging around with you yesterday?" Carrie's doubt was clear in her voice.

"Yeah, Charles," Lucas said reentering the conversation. Neither of us believes you'd be walking around with Carrie's mother as a drugged liability. But I have been wondering why you've diverted resources from your drug operations to pursue Carrie?"

"You don't recognize your mother? She was dressed in the shorts and shoes she had on when we left you at school. I thought you'd surely remember them." Charles acted surprised at Carrie's response. "She was a liability but if you'd have come out to get her I was prepared."

Lucas looked at Carrie, raising an eyebrow. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. He was pleased she wasn't falling for Charles' ruse. There had been nothing special about yesterday's outfit. Millions of women probably had one just like it or quite similar to it. He wanted Carrie to respond so he said nothing. She had been so certain the woman wasn't her mother.