Princess (American Princess #1)(32)
Author: Courtney Cole

“No, he isn’t!” Sydney insisted.  “Please, just let me give him a drink.”

“ Stop begging.  It’s beneath you.”

He jerked his head toward the boy in one curt gesture and Sydney immediately jumped up and ran to Danny.  She knelt beside him, cradling his head in one arm as she gently held the water bottle to his mouth.

“Danny, drink it. Come on, be a good boy.”

His eyelids fluttered and then opened.  He looked at her and then weakly drank the water.

“That’s right, that’s good.  Drink just a little more.”

Her voice was soft and encouraging as he drank the life-sustaining liquid.  The entire time, Harrison Daniels stared at them both in disgust.

“I’ll never understand women.”

His lip was curled and she could tell that he didn’t want to understand women.  She suddenly understood from his tone why he had been so cold to her from the very beginning.

He disliked women.  He felt as though he was above trying to think like one.  She knew it as surely as she was breathing, but couldn’t imagine what had happened to him to make him feel in such a way.

“You don’t like women.  Why?” she questioned, staring up at him.

He stared at her coldly.

“It’s cute that you think you are in a position to question me.”

He turned his back on her for a moment, a brief second- the space of one breath.  Then he turned back to her.

“Do you want to live?”  His smile glittered in the light.

“Of course.  But I know you aren’t going to allow that.  So why don’t you just go ahead and kill me now?  Why stretch it out?  Do you need to make me suffer? You need to break me so that I will beg while you rape me?”

“Partly.  But I need you to do something for me.  And then I might let you live.  You’re going to be a movie star.  You’ll like that, won’t you?”  His tone was mocking.

“What kind of movie star?”

“Any kind I want you to be.  But for now, I’m going to give you a script and you’re going to memorize it.  Then you are going to perform for me on camera- perfectly. Or he dies.”  He jerked his head toward Danny again.  “But if you are good, I’ll let him live.”

Sydney eyed him carefully. She knew that there was no way in hell that he was going to let either of them live, not when they could both identify him.  She chose her next words carefully.

“I promise to do what you ask if you will give Danny food and water.  Will you do that?” She watched his reaction, trying to gauge his intent from his expression.

“That’s a small enough price to pay.  But what about yourself?  Don’t you want to eat?”

“Of course I do,” she whispered, hating herself that she would admit it to him.

But she was so, so hungry.  Her stomach felt as though it had collapsed upon itself.  It had been overshadowed completely by her desperate thirst, but now that she could think a little more clearly, her hunger pangs were almost overwhelming.

He smiled at her again, the perfectly polite smile of a host, before he ducked out the door, closing it behind him.  He was only gone for a minute before he returned with a large box.  He set it down in front of her.

“This is full of peanut butter sandwiches and chips.  There are also bottles of water.  Be careful, because it has to last until I come back next time.  Now, I’m going to take you to the bathroom and you are going to clean yourself up.  And then we’re going to make a movie.”

Fear stilled her heart.  She could only think of one kind of movie that a man like him would want to make with a woman.  And since she had already ascertained that this particular man hated women, she couldn’t even imagine what kind of horrible, degrading things he would make her do in his movie.

She took a deep, stilling breath before she nodded.  The detective took a step toward the door, then turned to her again, his voice icy.

“One more thing.  Don’t try to run from me or I will kill the boy.  Don’t doubt it,” he threatened.

She didn’t.  She could tell from the steely expression on his face that he wouldn’t hesitate a millisecond before killing Danny.  She turned to the frightened little boy.

“Don’t be afraid, Danny.  I’m going to go with this man to help him with something.  While I’m gone, I want you to eat a sandwich and drink a bottle of water. Okay?”

Danny nodded but his expression was worried. Sydney turned and walked with detective Daniels out the door, waiting while he paused to lock it.  She took note that it was padlocked into a hinge on the door.  She wondered if she would be able to force it open.  She silently vowed to try if he left them here alive.

The detective escorted her to a dingy bathroom which was a hundred times dirtier than Stephen’s had ever been.  Her thoughts wavered briefly at the thought of Stephen. She knew he was probably beside himself right now.  She silently said a prayer for his protection and then turned on the water in the sink, as Detective Daniels stood silently at her side.  As the water ran into the grimy sink, he handed her a wash cloth and a hair brush.

“Clean up,” he demanded.

She looked into the cloudy mirror and studied her reflection.  She had sunken circles under her eyes which were probably a combined result of the dehydration and lack of sleep.  Her skin looked incredibly pale from being closed in the dark room.  She was only a shadow of herself.

She wiped her face with the rag and then combed her hair.  She tried not to notice that there was dried blood on the wall beside her. When she was finished, she turned to the detective.

“I don’t suppose I can have a toothbrush?”

He shook his head impatiently.  “No one is going to notice your teeth.”

He grabbed her elbow and dragged her from the bathroom into another bedroom where there was a single chair set up in front of a camera. She was instantly confused.  She expected to see a bed in front of the camera.  Not this.

She turned to him in surprise.   “What are you going to have me do?”

He thrust a paper into her hands.  Her eyes skimmed over it and with every word she read, her heart sped up a little bit more until it felt as though it would leap from her throat.  Her fingers shook as she held the paper and finally she looked back up at him.