Page 60 of Stains of Desire

I rotate the squirrel over the fire. "I travel a lot. Dirk and I do a lot of extreme sports. We're the closest out of the crew."

"What kind of extreme sports?"

"I was base jumping in the fjords of Norway before we got the call from Interpol to rescue you."

"What is BASE jumping?"

"We free-fall off a cliff for a while before opening our parachute."

She gapes at me. "Are you crazy?"

I chuckle. "Yep."

"What was it like?"

"Pure adrenaline."

She hugs her knees. "Were you scared?"

"Little bit."

"You're insane."

"You could do it."

She scoffs. "No way."

"Why not?"

"I would probably forget to pull my parachute string."

"Nah. You'd just open it earlier than you had to and miss half the rush."

She shakes her head and mutters, "You really are crazy."

I tug her onto my lap so her face is toward me. "If you were back in England and Millie was with you, what would you be doing?"

She freezes. "I... I don't know. It's been too long. Millie was one when we left. William wouldn't let me go home and visit."

Every time I hear William's name, my desire to kill the guy grows. Keeping Penelope and Millie from their family only makes it exponentially expand.

"Were you close to your family?"

"Yes. They didn't understand why I wouldn't come home, and William wouldn't let them visit. I had to make excuses and couldn't tell them the truth. I'm not sure what they think happened to me over the last eighteen months. But I'm sure they are worried."

"As soon as we get to safety, we'll let them know you're alive, okay?"

She nods, opens her mouth to speak, then closes it.

"What is it?"

Her voice shakes. "William stopped letting me talk to Oliver's parents. They haven't seen Millie, either. It's not right. They loved her and were good grandparents to her. They must hate me."

"When we rescue Millie, we can take her to England and you can make amends."

"What would I even tell them?"

"We'll figure it out." I grab the meat off the fire and put the end of the stick back in the ground to cool off.