“I’m sure.” I nodded. I needed answers. I needed to know what was going on. I needed to make sure that Larry was okay. His wife had left the diner in tears, and I hadn’t known what to do or say. How could I apologize? I didn’t even know what had happened to him. This was about more than just me now. Larry’s comments had ignited the questions in my head. What was going on here? Why had he told me to not think about Mattias? What clues had Jakob been trying to give me earlier? I bit on my lower lip as I remembered the name he’d give me. Why had he mentioned Tyler Durden and Fight Club? Was Tyler Durden a clue related to my brother? Was that what he’d been trying to tell me. I wished that I had my phone on me so I could google it.

“Have you ever heard of Tyler Durden?” I asked the chauffeur as he held the door open for me.

“The guy from Fight Club?” He frowned. “The Brad Pitt character?” He stepped back as I got out of the car.

“Yeah, him.” I tried to remember the plot of the movie, but my mind was coming up blank. Why was this the only movie I didn’t know about? “He fights with the Edward Norton character, right?”

“I think so.” The driver nodded. “They fight, but he doesn’t really . . .” His voice trailed off as he closed the door. “I’m sorry, miss, but I must take you to a special room now. You must listen carefully and follow all instructions. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” I took a deep breath. What was going to happen to me now? “What happened with Tyler? What didn’t he really do?” I asked the man, but he didn’t respond. I followed him into the house stiffly. It wasn’t what I had expected. The Gothic-looking house, majestic and dark, didn’t fit my image of Jakob. Though I supposed my image of Jakob was as false as everything else I thought I knew about him.

“Into the study, Ms. London.” He opened the door for me. “You’re to put on this blindfold and these earmuffs and then to come with me.”

“A blindfold and earmuffs?” I frowned. “Why?”

“I just follow orders, ma’am.”

“I guess.” I sighed. “Is that it?”

“I’m to handcuff you.” He looked down.

“Handcuff me?” I shivered in the cold room. “Is that necessary?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Am I going to be able to leave?” My head was telling me to make a run for it. None of this was sounding like a good idea. None of it at all. But a part of me was excited. What did Jakob have planned? My nerves were on edge thinking about what he was going to do to me. Implicitly I trusted that he wouldn’t harm me, at least not physically. He’d already had plenty of chances to harm me if he wanted to. He was playing a game with me—some sort of sexual game. And I knew that it was the only way to get answers out of him. I didn’t know if I was capable of winning, though. The way my heart was beating told me that I was too emotionally involved to be smart. However, a part of me didn’t care. A part of me was willing to accept whatever went down.

The man just stared at me without answering and I held my hands out to him. “Handcuff me then,” I said bravely, swallowing hard. This might have been the stupidest move I’d made in my life, but I wasn’t going to know unless I went along with it. The man picked up the handcuffs and locked them over my wrists before blindfolding me with a piece of dark silk. I couldn’t see a thing through the material and I was already beginning to regret my decision.

Then he slipped a pair of earmuffs over my head and walked me slowly back out of the room and through the house. We walked for what must have been a little over a minute, then I felt him lift me up and place me on what seemed to be a bed. I tried to control my breathing as I felt my head hit the pillow. What did Jakob have planned for me?

I felt my earmuffs lifted up and then lips pressed against my ear. “In Fight Club, Edward Norton’s character was fighting Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, but you find out at the end of the movie that he was fighting himself,” the voice whispered quickly in my ear before replacing the earmuff. I lay there, my head spinning as I tried to comprehend what he was saying. Then I remembered. Edward Norton was really fighting himself. Tyler Durden didn’t really exist.

I lay back for a few minutes thinking, then I felt the soft touch of fingers on my leg. I was no longer alone. The fingers ran up my leg in a familiar way, tickling and teasing me at the same time. I stilled as he ran his fingertips all the way from my ankles and up my thighs, pushing my skirt up as he touched me. He grabbed my wrists and I felt him taking the handcuffs off. I sighed in relief that I was no longer constrained, but then froze as I felt a piece of rope replacing the cuffs and tying my wrists together. Why was he putting rope on my hands?

His fingers ran over my stomach and then across my breasts. I was ashamed that my nipples were already hard, but he seemed to enjoy that, as he ran his palms across them several times. I lay there, unsure of what to think and feel. My body was on fire and my mind was in shock. Then he slipped the earmuffs off. My ears adjusted to the sound in the room—all I could hear was his heavy breathing and the sound of my own heartbeat. I wanted to say something, but my voice wouldn’t work.

“You look so beautiful.” The voice was deep and muffled and I didn’t understand why it was so hard to hear him. He leaned down and I felt his lips pressed against mine, kissing me softly. I lay there passively, something in me not feeling right about the situation. I turned my face to the side and he groaned, grabbing it roughly.