A Hostage to Delusion by M J Marlow (the reading list book txt) 📖

was very firm, but gentle, as she helped Cassie through the day. For the first two days she could barely move she was so ill as she fought off the virus. But her body was beginning to recover now and she was just exhausTed.
“How is my pretty wife today?” Adam smiled as he came into their room. He came over to the bed and kissed her on the lips. He saw the tray. “Only half, honey? You can do better than that.” He picked up a carrot stick. “Come on, honey. For me?”
Casey did not argue with him. It never did any good to argue with him. He had been so caring this past week as she was ill. She flinched as he touched her lips and he frowned.
“Still hurting, honey?” Adam asked.
“You startled me,” Cassie said to him; “that’s all.” She laid her hand on his arm. “Please let me out of this room, Adam. I feel like I’m in prison.” The door opened and Connie was there with a pill and a glass of water. “Thank you, Connie.”
“I’ve asked Angela about that,” Adam replied. “She agrees with me that we can start letting you outside, as long as we take certain precautions.”
“Precautions?”
“Connie,” Adam said without taking his eyes off of Cassie, “you can go now. I’ll be spending time with my wife.” The door closed and Adam smiled and held his hand out to her. “I have something I need to say to you, Cassie.” He turned as Angela came into the room. Cassie watched as the woman put her hand on Adam’s shoulder. “It’s time we stopped this nonsense.”
“I don’t understand,” Cassie shook her head. “What is going on here?” She looked from her husband to the doctor and fear flooded into her mind. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”
“What an imagination!” Adam laughed and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead again. He grew quiet and Cassie could see the anxiety on Angela’s face. “I should never have let him force me to marry you, Cassie. It was wrong.”
“If this is some new game you’re playing, Adam,” Cassie snapped, “I’m not falling for it.” She tried to pull away and he held on easily. She saw his expression mirrored in Angela’s and quieTed. Something was going on here but it was not meant to harm her. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
“I certainly owe that to you,” Adam smiled briefly. He looked at Angela and the woman nodded. “Cassie, you know I was drugged the night I raped you. I would never have gone along with their plans otherwise.”
“I wouldn’t have believed you, Adam,” Cassie told him truthfully, “if I hadn’t see the tape my grandmother made of that night.”
“It’s true, Cassie,” Angela told her. “Our father was determined to pay Justine back for all the years she had been blackmailing him.” She saw Cassie’s look. “He was going to destroy her and he saw you as the perfect tool.”
“I went to Angela,” Adam told Cassie, “the morning after I’d attacked you and she took a blood test. The results of that test are being kept in a file as evidence.” He stroked Cassie’s cheek. “We are going to make him pay, honey, and we’re asking you to help us help you.”
“He is Jonathan Garrison,” Cassie struggled to hold back the tears. “He had the whole town gang up on us, didn’t he?” Adam nodded and she believed him then. “Why are you doing this now?”
“Because despite my best intentions,” Adam said to her as he looked into her eyes, “somewhere along the line I fell in love with you, Cassie.” He saw her eyes and knew the truth. “I am not going to keep you married to me if I’m not the man you want.” She was stunned by his admission. “Will you help us put an end to this nightmare?”
“How?”
They filled her in briefly, asking her to continue to play the angry unwilling wife for now. Then Adam picked her up in his arms and carried her to the office. He sat her down on the couch and she watched as a man in coveralls rolled a black cube in on a cart. He lifTed it into the corner of the room and opened the top to fiddle with some controls. Then he took what looked like a simple gold cuff bracelet out and brought it over.
“Howard is going to put a bracelet on you, my honey wife,” Adam said as the man brought over the cuff and fastened it onto her right wrist. It was four inches wide and the fastening was invisible under her inspection. “Isn’t it pretty?”
“It’s more than a piece of jewelry, though,” Cassie frowned while she looked the thing over. “What new torment have you designed now?”
“The cuff is programmed to set off an alarm here in your office,” Howard said to Adam, “and in the Sheriff’s Office if your wife wanders off. Like the choker you put on her earlier, it also has a GPS built into it so that you know where she is every minute.” Howard waved a device that looked like a penlight over the cuff and Cassie heard it beep. “We’ve given her a half mile in any direction from the alarm unit, so she can get some exercise but not get off the property without your knowing about it.”
“Have I told you today how much I hate you, Adam Garrison?” Cassie glared at him. She tried to get to her feet and he held her down. “You’re hurting me, you bastard!”
“Isn’t she a lovely little bitch, Howard?” Adam laughed as he ran his finger over the choker. Cassie tried to slap him and he caught her arm and twisTed it behind her back. He kissed her roughly as she struggled to get free of him. “Behave yourself, my pet, or I’ll put you back in your cage.” He set her on her feet and slapped her on the backside. “Go get some air, honey.”
Adam watched as Cassie left the office and smiled. Howard looked at him in confusion as he put away his tools and prepared to leave. Adam went to the window and saw her heading for the corral.
“You really think she will stray?”
“I know she will,” Adam replied. “My pretty Cassandra is a strong-willed child who hates me with every fiber of her being. She is not going to stop until she finds a way to get free of me.”
“So that’s why you tagged her?” Howard smiled. “Smart thinking, Adam.”
“It pays to be at least three steps ahead of her,” Adam replied. He went to sit behind his desk and pulled out his checkbook. He handed Howard the check. “Thanks for your assistance, Howard.”
“For this kind of money,” Howard smiled as he saw the figure, “you can count on me for anything, Adam.”
Cassie was climbing the rails of the corral fence when Howard drove away. She watched the man go and looked at the hateful device and sighed. Adam and Angela were afraid their father would move on her if he ever realized they were not going along with his plans anymore. This cuff was their way of protecting her. She looked at the horses and a black one came over and blew in her face.
“You are a handsome animal,” she laughed as she stroked its nose.
“I can saddle him,” a man spoke up behind her, “if you’d like to go riding, ma’am.”
Cassie turned and saw a man with wavy brown hair standing there. His smile was warm and gentle. His green eyes were narrowed from working out of doors and his skin was tanned and weathered. He was wearing a light blue denim shirt and levis. There was a large buckle on his brown leather belt.
“I can’t go riding,” Cassie said with regret. “I’m not allowed off the property.” She saw his confusion. “I don’t know how to ride.”
“Mrs. Garrison,” the housekeeper came running out of the house. “You have a phone call.”
“You’re his wife?” the man asked in astonishment. “But you’re just a kid!”
Cassie shrugged and ran for the house. As she got to the stairs she had an attack and tripped. She hit the stairs and hit her head. The man came running and had her on the swing, looking at her in concern.
“Are you all right, ma’am?” he looked at her in concern. He saw Edna. “She needs tending. She fell and hit her head.” He caught Cassie as she starTed to black out. He picked her up and carried her inside. “Mr. Garrison,” he said as Adam came running. “Your wife had a fainting spell and hit her head on the stairs.”
“Edna,” Adam said as he took Cassie from the man. “Find Connie and call Angela.” He nodded to his man. “Thank you, Marcus. Honey,” he crooned as he carried Cassie away, “I knew it was too soon to let you out. I’d die if anything happened to you.”
Cassie struggled back to consciousness and found Connie taking her blood pressure and pulse. She remembered coming in to take a phone call and then nothing. Had she ever taken that call? She saw Adam seaTed nearby looking worried as Angela talked to him.
“Is someone sick?” she asked. She tried to sit up and fell back as she was hit with a dizzy spell. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Your blood pressure is running high, Cassie,” Angela told her. “How is she doing now, Connie?”
“Still a trifle high, Doctor,” Connie told her. She stroked Cassie’s hair. “You shouldn’t have been running across the yard like that, Cassie. You’re not ready for that level of exercise.”
“Edna said I had a phone call,” Cassie said. “I got exciTed.” She looked at the woman standing in the doorway. “Who was on the phone, Edna?”
“Phone call?” Edna frowned. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Garrison. I don’t remember any phone call. Mr. Garrison takes all the calls.”
‘But you said I had a call,” Cassie frowned at her. Everyone looked completely mystified at her statement. “Please don’t play games with me. It’s cruel!”
“Calm down, Cassie,” Angela said as she readied a needle. “I’m going to give you a little something to bring your blood pressure down. Then I want you to try and get some rest.”
Cassie bit her lip to keep from shrieking and winced as the needle bit into her vein. She didn’t know why Edna was lying. She had told her there was a call for her. Cassie was certain of that. So what was going on?
“It’s all right, honey,” Adam said as he came over and stroked her hair. “You’re just a little confused right now. You’ve been so sick and you pushed yourself too far on your first day out.” He saw Cassie’s eyes drift close and looked over at his sister worriedly. Angela shook her head slightly. It seemed there was a spy in their midst. “You sleep now and let us take care of you.”
They left Connie to watch over Cassie and went out into the living room. Edna sank down into a chair and smiled. Adam and Angela played along as she laughed in triumph. They were well on their way to convincing everyone, including Cassie, that she was not in her right mind. Her inheritance would be his to control as she soon would be. He haTed having to keep up the pretense but he knew the longer their father believed they were toeing the line, the safer Cassie would be.
Marcus heard all of their plans and he frowned. That poor darling girl was being tortured so these bastards could have her money?