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I drop the phone.
“Mr. Leighton?”
I’m already in the car, revving the engine, the other doors to the G-wagon slamming shut. I don’t think. I just slam the clutch pedal, speeding for the freeway entrance, and drive so fast, everything seems like a blur.
My heart has never hammered so hard against my chest, and suddenly, I begin to realize I’ve been such a pawn in all of this. Listening to what everyone else is telling me to do and ignoring my allies who surround me daily.
Ignoring the woman I used to be obsessed with hurting.
Only everyone is getting it all wrong.
I was keeping my distance… so I wouldn’t fall prey to that repeated cycle.
I’d no longer feel the need to hurt her again.
Yet, look what my distance has caused.
“Domino…” Ares’ broken whisper forces me out of my paralyzing thoughts, making me realize what he’s looking at.
A stream of smoke fills the sky.
No.
Fucking no.
Please… no.
I drive as fast as the car can go, turning the curves and taking every shortcut I know to get to the sanctuary we’ve called home for all these years. The level of dread coursing through me makes me brace for the worst, so when the car finally skids to a stop, I’m frozen in my seat, gripping the steering wheel for dear life.
None of us speak, but our ragged breaths are enough to prove how much this place means to each of us.
And it’s somehow still standing.
“It’s not on fire,” I dare to say the reality before us. I look back at the stream of smoke in the air, hearing the sirens in the distance, but whatever is burning is farther away from us.
On the outskirts of Leighton.
“Dolcezza?” Zander whispers, reminding us that she’s still missing.
Rushing out of the car, we enter the quiet mansion, clearly abandoned by all our staff and security. We begin to look in each room, starting with hers, which is empty. We move from room to room, checking everywhere down to the very basement and garage, but we can’t find her.
“Fuck,” I curse, panic settling into my very bones. “If she’s not here… she can be anywhere.”
“Margo said she saw her. That she was sleeping. She has to be here. This douche wouldn’t bring her to be seen and take her off elsewhere. Too much work,” Ares emphasizes.
“Which room have we missed?” Zander questions as we look at one another.
Then he and Ares are staring my way.
Wait.
“My room,” I whisper before I run up the stairs, again and again, until I’m the first on the third floor and running down to the end of the hall. I fumble with the keypad, unable to figure out what the fucking code is, but it takes me a second to realize it’s unlocked already.
Fuck…
The creak of the door opening slowly from my gentle push reveals what we’ve been desperately looking for.
Zander and Ares are at my sides in a heartbeat, the three of us fighting to catch our breaths as we all stare at the bed of white that cradles a sleeping Iva.
