STALKED AND STOLEN

Chapter 23

“Jay already had a grudge against your father,” Tommy said. He took a seat opposite me on the sofa and put his cup of tea on the table in front of us.

We sat in the back room of the garage on two red sofas facing each other. The room was clean and bright, with grey linoleum floor that looked like tiles. A shelf above Tommy held a pile of books.

“Why would Jay have a grudge against my father?”

“Your dad represented the piece of shit who killed his brother.”

“Oh.” I sat up, my palms and fingers wrapped around the mug of tea. “I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to know anything about my dad’s work.”

“So, when we were offered a hundred grand to kidnap you, then keep the ransom, we took it. Jay has a new baby. Pete has a habit. And I have...” he shrugged.

“Your nanna.”

He nodded.

“All we had to do was take you from the house, get the ransom money and leave. All within two days, but The Boss dragged it on and on, and I still don’t know why. You were just a pawn in our game. The deal was you didn’t get seriously hurt, but we had to make it look good. It had to be real.”

“Wait. So, Pete isn’t The Boss?”

Tommy bit his lip and shook his head.

“Pete couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.”

“It’s Justyna, isn’t it? Justyna and William, they told when my parents would be gone. They’ve been acting really weird lately. But what I don’t understand is why. Why would they do that to me? For money?”

My mind frantically ran over everything, and I was still stumped. I thought about Sam, then I remembered Sam had left that morning. But he’d told me he’d saw them. I hadn’t ever felt confusion like it.

“Sam. Sam came home. I don’t know why, but he was at home, and he saw you. Did you see my little brother?” I tried desperately to slide the pieces together, but none of it made any sense.

Tommy shook his head.

“She didn’t give any information. She gave us a set of instructions and we did our job. There was never meant to be any public appeals, no police, it was meant to be an easy job. It all got way out of control.”

“The Boss, she was a she? A woman?”

Tommy nodded.

“What did she look like?”

“A woman.” He shrugged, giving the impression he thought all females looked the same.

I sat on the edge of my seat and placed the cup on the table near a pile of old magazines.

“Did she have an accent?”

Tommy’s gaze drifted as he thought about, then he nodded.

“I knew it!” I slapped my own leg. At the same time it felt like my heart had shattered into little pieces. How could she do such a thing? She was like aunt. We were so very close.

“Why you telling me this now?’ I said.

“I have the money for her, so it doesn’t matter what happens now, as long as she’s ok. You could give me up, but you haven’t. Why not?” he eyed me suspiciously.

I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat. Not because the seat wasn’t comfortable, it was, but because of what would probably soon be my ‘diagnosis’.

“My dad forced me to see a therapist, and she’s saying I have Stockholme Syndrome.” I looked everywhere else besides his eyes. “She thinks I’ve formed some sort of bond with you because you were nice to me.”

“Oh really?” he leaned his elbows on his knees and eyed me up smugly. “And have you?”

“Of course not. That’s ridiculous.”

“Well it is a bit weird that you’re sat here, after everything I did... we did. But, I can’t help that i have that effect on women,” he joked. Although I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that Tommy made girls swoon. He was the type of lad that no woman should go for, yet, he attracted them like pigs to mud.

I rolled my eyes and run my finger around the rim of the white mug.

“Honestly, as bad as you are, I feel safer here than I do at home. I don’t know what to do now.”

"Does anyone know you're here?" He asked, and I shook my head.

“Tell you what, let me just run and syphon the python. Then I’ll take you up to the house. You can stay there till you work something out.”

“Really? You would do that?”

“Do you trust me?” he said.

I was crazy, I knew it, but I nodded. There was something about him, something so... genuine.

“Be two minutes.”

“You’re finishing up something on the car?”

“No I’m going to the bathroom. Syphon the phython, you know...” he gestured with his hand like I was slow, and he was right. It took me at least thirty seconds before I realised what he was talking about.

I gasped and looked away. My face heated up as hot as a summer’s day in July. I hadn’t ever had a boyfriend or even seen... you know, what it was he was talking about. It made me blush.

He snorted and walked out. I got the feeling he liked seeing me uncomfortable. He was definitely a bit of a dick. My gaze landed on the magazines, and I read the title on each one. Next to them I noticed something familiar. At first I couldn’t place it, but then it hit me. The little notebook Tommy had used while we were in that van. He wrote in it every single night, and there it was, right in front of me. I wondered what it said inside. I wondered if it had anymore details he was holding back. I had to look. There was no way I couldn’t.

I snatched it up from the table and opened it to the first page. As my gaze ran over the paper, my eyes grew wider, until my eyebrows had no where else to go. My mouth dropped open, and a gasp hit the back of my throat.
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