The angle was from above, and I got an awkward view of myself from behind. He drew something on the screen in front of him and it simultaneously showed on the screen I could view. He’d circled the van he and King had abducted me in.
“We weren’t the only ones there for you.” A circle in red this time shown around a black van parked across the street. “You were set up,” he repeated. “Your interview was moved so that someone would mistake you as Mr. Fisk’s daughter.”
“How?” I blurted.
An image popped on the screen of a young woman who dressed not in the same clothes but definitely in the same style, enormous hat and all.
“He used you because he knew the people he’d worked with targeted his daughter. You landed in his lap when you applied for that job. When he saw your picture—” I gave him a you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look. “—He pre-screens his candidates. Not an uncommon practice. When he saw the resemblance, he used you. Dressed you up like his daughter and sent you to a public place.”
“His offices are public,” I stated.
“And they are on a major street, which operationally isn’t impossible to take someone, but it’s a lot easier here.”
He tapped the screen. Though nothing changed in the image, I could see on the wall monitor, I got his meaning.
“But why?”
“He’s involved in the buying of young women. Young women who may resemble his daughter.”
I curled my lip in disgust. “That’s just…”
“I won’t speculate why. But King didn’t lie to you when he told you we were there to protect you. It was us or them.”
“Why not tell me the truth? Why lock me up? Did you have her, too? Her voice—”
“I’m sorry for that. But I needed you to look convincing when we contacted him. Your discomfort could save lives. As for his daughter, we didn’t have her. She had enough on social media for us to clone her voice.”
Before I could ask more on how that was possible, he slid something across to me. I didn’t know what it could be, as I’d already signed the non-disclosure agreement with the woman who’d greeted me in the lobby before he walked into the room. If I relayed anything of this conversation, I’d be sued into poverty—not that I wasn’t almost there. Then again, how much of this was legal? I’d been kidnapped. Then again, I hadn’t contacted the police. My doing so at this late stage could put my complaint in jeopardy. I’d played right into his hands.
I picked up the paper, which turned out to be a check. “Fifty thousand dollars.” I didn’t know if I was insulted or grateful.
“Although you weren’t harmed—”
“Weren’t harmed?” I repeated indignantly.
“Physically, and we protected you from far worse, I felt you should be compensated as you unknowingly helped our operation.”
“Are you working with the police?” I tossed out, knowing this was not a sanctioned legal operation.
“In a manner of speaking. I’m working with someone in law enforcement who knows what I did and why I’m doing it.”
I leveled a hard stare at him. “Are you going to tell me?”
“For many reasons, I won’t be specific in my cause, as I have an opportunity I want to offer you.”
“An opportunity?” I asked, realizing too late that I sounded like a parrot by repeating phrases he’d said.
“Yes. I’d like you to go to work for… King.” He grimaced as he spoke the last word.
“Why?” Yet again, I found myself using the same word as none of this yet made sense.
“There was something in the last thing he said, leads me to believe Declan Royal is more foe than friend.”
“Declan Royal,” I said, more to myself before meeting Connor’s gaze. “That’s his name. Why did he call himself King?”
He tapped his index finger against his chin. “A question I asked myself. A play on his last name or a dig at me.”
“You’re not friends?”
Before I could blurt my next thought, he said, “Friendly, of a sort.”
“Yet he was my keeper.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Declan and I are of the same mind when it comes to certain things. I needed someone I could trust to not take advantage of the situation you were in. But there’s also a saying keep your friends close—”
“But keep your enemies closer. That still doesn’t explain how you could trust him not to… I mean, he had me strip.”
“Yet he never touched you inappropriately.”
“Yes, but,” I complained. “How could you know he wouldn’t do anything more?”
He sighed. “Declan is a dominant, as am I. Like he said, he doesn’t have to take from someone unwilling to give it. He has willing partners to play to whatever kinks they share. I knew he could be trusted in this area.”
“But you consider him an enemy?” I asked, holding his stare.