Maid for Me (18 page)

Mina nodded again and watched Jameson disappear into his bedroom. Tonight, even a nightcap would not keep insomnia at bay. For the second time in his life, Jameson prayed. The first time was when he thought his only son wouldn’t grow up.

It took Mina six minutes to wash her face and change into a pair of jeans, a loose black t-shirt and sneakers.

She tied her messy hair in a ponytail and followed Graham out of the manse. Parked three blocks away, Graham’s black pickup truck looked like it belonged in a scrap metal junkyard.

“Get in,” Graham said, hopping onto his truck and shouted, “Yeehaw!”

Mina hesitated, afraid she would destroy the vehicle with her weight. She climbed onto the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt.

“You sure you should be driving this? I will remind you that we’re going to save someone tonight.” Mina had a feeling Jameson couldn’t think straight earlier because he was so worried. Other than tag along with Graham, she didn’t know what else she could do. At least with the police tracking device in hand, she had some control of the situation.

“My Baby has never failed me. Besides, she’s just twenty-two this year.”

Mina cleared her throat. “There’s always a first time for everything.”

“Nope, not for my Baby.” Graham kissed the steering wheel. Instead of revving the engine, Graham turned on his laptop and connected it to a palm-sized satellite-radar.

He rubbed his hands together. “God bless technology. Romeo and Juliet would have lived long enough to become a bickering couple if they had cell phones.”

Mina raised her brows. “Ditto. So you can find Jaiden with just a touch of a button?”

Graham chuckled. “It’s not that simple. Tell me, do you remember if he had his cell phone with him?”

Mina nodded. “Not the one with the doll’s head picture. He had a new one with him.”

“Not a problem.” Graham’s fingers moved on the laptop keyboard so fast, they became a blur.

“Who is the third Stalker?” Mina looked away and closed her eyes.
Please be okay, Jaiden. We’re coming to save you.

“You know Amelia Nool, right?”

Mina blinked. “Jaiden’s maid? I knew something was off about that woman when I met her. She even said that Jaiden’s her son. I mean they look alike and all, but—”

“She’s not his mother. She’s wishes she were—she and Matt are together on this by the way.”

While Graham tracked down Jaiden’s location, he told Mina everything he had uncovered about Jaiden’s three stalkers.

Matt and Amelia had sent the doll head picture and put the bloodied knife in the newspaper. Madison was the one who hired some teens to vandalize Jaiden’s car after he rejected her. Graham, who learned about what had happened to Madison from Jameson, told Mina how the police had found the note on Madison’s dress. He deduced Matt was the one who had pushed her off the balcony.

Graham also told Mina that Amelia was Jameson’s secret mistress. Amelia was pregnant with his child, but had a spontaneous abortion five months before the baby was born. Around that time, Emma Daniels was also pregnant. Engulfed with grief, Amelia developed a mental illness—a serious type of post-traumatic-stress-disorder. She continued her affair with Jameson and fantasized Jaiden was her child when he was born.

After finally learning about the affair, the year Jaiden turned five, with a heavy heart, Emma Daniels left her family and had a divorce with Jameson.

Two years ago, Amelia snapped and suffered a massive mental breakdown when Jaiden left the Uptown over the summer. Jameson forced her to resign and even filed a restraining order against her. Matt, who had always been in love with Amelia, had been vengeful since then.

“I have dug through some health records and it turns out Matt has been hiding the fact he has schizophrenia.” Graham sighed. “Sometimes, you just don’t know who you can trust. And that’s why I told Jameson, he should be nice to his employees. Like me. You’d always want someone like me on your team.” Graham patted his chest.

Mina tightened her fists around her seatbelt. “That’s disturbing—not your complete lack of modesty but the part about Matt and Amelia. God, I hope Jaiden is okay.” The worry she felt was the same kind of worry she would feel if Kaila or Kit were hurt. She felt sorry for Jaiden. All his life, he had been lied to and now, he might not even get to know the truth.

No, I can’t think like that. We’ll be able to save him!

“Hopefully, yes. Alright, I got a location.” Graham pointed to a flashing dot on his radar. He pressed the ENTER button on his laptop and a satellite view of the location appeared on the screen. The image showed a cabin surrounded by evergreen trees. Graham grabbed the steering wheel. “Let’s go, Baby.”

Baby the pickup truck sounded like it was about to die before it started. Graham stepped on the pedal hard and Baby zoomed down the street, almost as fast as Jaiden’s Maserati.

“It’s all about the nitro.” Graham grinned and almost gave Mina a heart attack with his total disregard for all traffic laws.

He’s worse than Jaiden. Why are all the people around me so over the top?

Mina closed her eyes, praying she wouldn’t end up flying out the window before they reached their destination.

We’re coming, Jaiden. Please be okay until then.
With worry bubbling in her, she now felt the truck didn’t seem to go fast enough.

“Step on it, Graham,” she said and Graham obliged, zipping past cars on the Upstate-bound highway.

Meanwhile, back at the manse, Bunion sat before the waterfall pool with a bottle of cognac in his hand. He sobbed.

“If anything happens to my Young Master, I don’t know what I’ll do.” He wiped his eyes.

Kaila strolled into the gardens and noticed her baldheaded poker-buddy.

“Bun-Bun,” she shouted, sauntering over to his side and taking a seat next to him. Without permission, she took the bottle out of his hand and took guzzle down the cognac before coughing and hiccupping. She laughed and threw her arms around him.

One thing led to another and the next morning, they would find their bodies twisted like a pretzel, half their clothes all over the floor of Bunion’s bedroom, just like a rated PG-13 plus scene. What they wouldn’t know was that they had spent the entire night wrestling. Of course, they would wake up thinking they had done something bad. Hilarity to ensue.

*FOURTEEN*

Half past midnight, twenty-eight miles away from North Uptown, in a forest cabin nestled in the outskirts of Uptown’s Upstate, Jaiden winced and opened his eyes. A sedative Matt had administered earlier with a hidden syringe in his hand on Jaiden’s shoulder knocked him out. Jaiden’s entire body felt weak and achy. With his wrists tied together in a thick, rough rope, Jaiden’s fingers grew numb. He looked down. Matt had bound his legs as well.

Standard kidnapping scenario, except he was lying on a pile of hay in a giant sized wooden crib.

“What the hell is going on?” Jaiden tried to remove his restraints, tearing the skin around his wrist and ankles. He cursed, analyzing his environment. A relatively empty room with wooden walls and floors, a sole table in the corner with a lit candle, a boarded window, and a closed door. He remained still and closed his eyes so his hearing would become sharper. He heard footsteps outside the room.

“Matt! I know you did this. Come out and face me like a man.”

The door swung open and Amelia, dressed in a white nightgown, ran into the room with her arms spread apart.

“My child! You’re awake.” She smiled, her eyes widened, the shadows beneath them dark and panda-worthy.

“Amelia? Mom?”

“Sweet darling! Yes, I am your mother!” Amelia bit her bottom lip and tears welled up in her eyes. “Finally, you know the truth.”

For a second, Jaiden wished he could throw his arms around Amelia in a warm embrace. Yet something seemed off about her. For one, she shouldn’t be here.

“I’m glad to see you, but why did Matt kidnap me?” he asked.

Amelia reached over the crib to stroke wet bangs away from Jaiden’s forehead and face.

“He didn’t kidnap you. He merely helped you here. It’s so we can do the ceremony later, sweetheart.” The way Amelia smiled made the hairs on Jaiden’s neck stand erect. She looked at him as if she could look through him, her eyes unblinking and her entire face tensed.

The cogwheels in Jaiden’s mind turned. He didn’t like the way she had said the word ceremony. He batted his eyes and widened them to achieve puppy-eyes status. “Mom, these ropes hurt me. Could you untie them? Please?”

Amelia tapped her bottom lip with her finger and glanced at the door. “But Matt wouldn’t like that, love. I can loosen them up just a bit so your skin can breathe.” She did just that, loosening the rope around his wrists and ankles. With one strong pull, Jaiden assumed he could break loose.

“What kind of ceremony are we doing?” he asked.

Amelia raised her arms. Then she rubbed her belly.

“We’re turning back time. Matt says if we do the ceremony, then I’ll have my baby back. My poor baby.” Amelia blinked and tears rolled down her sunken cheeks. “It will be quick and painless, Jaiden. After that, I’ll have one happy family.” She blew him a kiss and left the room.

Jaiden shivered.
Death can be quick and painless
.

This Amelia wasn’t the Amelia he remembered. With one swift movement, he pulled the rope around his wrists apart. He rubbed his hands as blood rushed back to them. He untied his ankles, shot up to a stand, and jumped out of the crib as if it were a hurdle to a skilled sprinter. He stretched his body and wondered if he should try kicking the boards covering the window. He was sure Matt was in the next room.

Jaiden reached into his pockets for his cell phone to call the police, only to find it gone.

Matt had confiscated it earlier and kept it with him.

Crap.

Jaiden planted his ear by the door and could hear Matt’s voice. His heart raced and pumped buckets of adrenaline through his veins. He thought about Mina. If he had her fighting moves and impulsivity, he would just dash out of the room and confront Matt.

Jaiden rubbed his face and inhaled. His temples pounded and his body still felt weak from the sedative. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt Amelia, but by now, he assumed his Stalker was actually Matt and Amelia. From their messages to what Amelia had just said, Jaiden had every reason to believe his life was in danger. He blew out the candle and retrieved the metal candle holder before he situated himself behind the door.

“Mother, I’m hungry,” he shouted.

“Coming dear,” Amelia said. The doorknob turned and Amelia pushed the door open.

“Jaiden?”

Jaiden jumped out from behind the door and ran past Amelia. He sprinted out of the room and wielded the candle holder. Outside the room was the cabin living room. Matt sat, legs crossed, before an unlit fireplace. Strapped around his chest was a hunting rifle. Seeing Jaiden rush toward him with the weapon, Matt raised the rifle and aimed it directly at Jaiden’s chest. Jaiden hated himself for freezing but he knew if he took another step, he would soon have a bowling-ball sized hole in his chest.

“Drop the candlestick,
Young Master
.” Matt laughed. “I always felt like a slave working for you Daniels.”

Jaiden dropped the candlestick.

“Raise your arms.”

Jaiden looked around for an escape or something he could use against Matt.

“I said raise your arms,” Matt screamed. Jaiden raised his arms.

“Shoot him up, Amelia.”

Amelia did as told, walking over to Jaiden and injecting his neck with a few drops of sedative. Jaiden grimaced. The sedative worked fast. His eyes rolled backward as he dropped to the floor.

“Let’s just get this over with. The sooner we perform the ceremony, the sooner your baby will be reborn,” Matt said, closing the distance between himself and Amelia. He took her face in his hands and smiled.