“Because you have your place in my life and it’s not to entertain me.” He chuckled. “I rely on your friends in the prisoner tent to do that when I feel the need. Haven’t they told you all the things they have to do to please me?”

She felt rage tear through her. Don’t let it loose. This wasn’t the time. “They don’t talk about you. I just wish you’d find Baldwin and leave them alone. No sign of him?”

“Not yet. But the trackers found one of his cigarette butts about four miles west. They’ll locate the asshole once they find his trail again, and we’ll have a long talk.” He took a step closer and said softly, “And maybe one of those subjects will be you, Sasha. As I told you, I was curious why Baldwin was pushing me to arrange ransom for you, so I decided to explore it further. I contacted Larry Hoffman, the lawyer I use as my hostage negotiator, this morning and asked him to delve deeper into your background and find out why no one appeared to be particularly eager to have you returned to their loving arms.”

“I told you why.”

“Yes, you did. But Hoffman just called me back, and there seems to be a problem. Once he started to dig into Sasha Lawrence’s personnel records from the school, he found he kept running into discrepancies. Nothing obvious, but still troubling. For instance, your mother, Hannah Lawrence, was no longer at the address she gave in London and he was having to take more time to discover where she’d moved.”

“My mother always moved around a lot.”

“But wouldn’t she want to be sure to be able to be reached when her daughter was in such danger?”

“She’s probably listed with one of the U.N. charity organizations.” She lifted her chin and stared him in the eye. “What are you getting at, Masenak?”

“I was wondering if Baldwin was trying to set up a ransom deal of his own and ran across the same stumbling block as Hoffman. But he might have had more time to find answers. Did he? Is your name really Sasha Lawrence? I had an intriguing thought. What if your parents who enrolled you at St. Eldon’s are perhaps mafia or some other crime family who might offer me a great deal of money if I realized what a treasure I’d stolen from them?”

“No,” she said curtly. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I be working in the stable if that was true? Not everyone has money. My mother did the best she could.”