Chapter 3 - The Water I Poured Down the SinkOnce the voices below faded back into the wind, I dragged myself to the nightstand, picked up the glass of drugged water Callum had left for me, and poured every last drop down the bathroom sink. I refilled it with fresh tap water, smeared a faint white residue on the rim so it would look untouched, and crawled back under the covers just as the suite door clicked open behind me.
Callum walked in wearing his gentlest, most concerned expression — the one that used to make my chest go warm, back before I understood what it actually meant.
"Juliet, sweetie? How are you feeling?" He sat on the edge of the mattress and reached out to stroke my cheek. Every cell in my body wanted to bite his finger off at the knuckle.
"So dizzy, Callum..." I slurred, keeping my eyes half-lidded, playing completely incapacitated. "The water tastes bitter."
"Just electrolytes, darling," he lied smoothly, pressing a kiss to my forehead like the devoted husband he'd spent two years pretending to be. "Sleep now. I'll come wake you up later for some air."
The second the door clicked shut behind him, I sat bolt upright. The recording was safe on the burner phone.
I pulled out the satellite connection device wired into my father's private security network and dialed the one number I'd had memorized since I was nine years old — my father's head of security, a former Navy SEAL named Marcus Doyle who'd protected our family for over two decades.
"Juliet?" The voice answered on the second ring.
"They're drugging me," I whispered, my voice tight enough to cut glass. "Callum, Roderick, and Vivienne. They're planning to throw me overboard at midnight and stage a car crash for Mom and Dad up in the mountains next week. I have a full audio recording of the entire conspiracy."
Dead silence on the line for one terrifying beat.
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"Give me your GPS coordinates," he said, suddenly all business, all steel. "We're forty minutes out on the secondary intercept vessel. Stay down. Don't consume anything they hand you. Can you hold thirty minutes?"
"I'll play the victim until the last possible second," I told him. "Bring heavy restraints."
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