Fear leeches out of her pores before she once again shakes her head. This one is more hesitant than her earlier one.
“Then why did you do it? Why go against me knowing you could lose everything!”
As Alice’s stilettos skitter across the pavers, she attempts to lodge them into the cracks, hopeful her fight to live will have me recalling the time I saved her from this exact scenario.
If my anger wasn’t bubbling over, I might have, but it’s too late for her now. I can’t separate the past from the future any more now than I could when I was driving here. Roxanne is nowhere near as far along as Audrey was when she was taken. However, all I see when her face pops into my head is the horrific footage of Audrey going through a botched caesarian. My fucked-up head has replaced Audrey’s face with Roxanne’s, and it’s messing with my mind even more than Lucy’s frantic cries for me to stop holding her mother’s head under the water in their half-a-million-dollar pool.
“Get her out of here!” I scream at Rocco a mere second before pulling Alice’s head up so she can suck in the quickest breath. It isn’t long enough to fill her screaming lungs with air, but it will warn her I’m not playing. I’ve played the game as taught the past two years. It got me nowhere, so it’s time for a new set of rules.
As Lucy fights Rocco with more gusto than an eight-year-old should have, I bring Alice’s drenched head to within an inch of mine. “Where are they taking her?”
“I don’t kn—”
She’s back under the water in an instant, gargling and screaming while her nails make a mess of my arms. She digs them in deep before dragging them to the hand wrapped around her throat. If the water doesn’t suffocate her, the hold I have on her throat soon will.
With her eyes on the verge of sporting new blood vessels, I lift Alice’s head for the final time. Her gasps as she struggles to fill her lungs with oxygen are barely heard over Lucy’s frantic bangs on the window of her room. She’s three floors above, but she thumps her fists on the glass as if breaking her window will magically save her mother.
I wish it were that easy, but sometimes, the heroes in stories need to be villains too, especially when the only person they looked up to disappointed them time and time again.
I’m waist-deep in freezing cold water, but my skin is so hot, it hisses as well as my words when I growl out, “Where. Are. They. Taking. Her.”
“I…” when my hand moves for my gun, over the time waster Alice is being today, she talks faster, “… overheard them saying something about a ranch. T-t-that they had a bigger payday coming.”
I instantly feel hopeful. “Roxanne’s family’s ranch?”
Tears mix with the saltwater coating her face when she shakes her head. “They were talking about a gala, something about a ransom drop.”
When my hand raises in the air, Lucy screams my name in a mangled roar. It reminds me so much of Roxanne’s endeavor to protect her mother. Even when she should have hated her, she still went in to bat for her.
“I’m telling you everything I know, Dimitri,” Alice swears, her tone honest.
The truth in her eyes does little to calm me down. “You should have told me from the start. You should have warned me.”
“Warned you about what?” she asks on a sob. “That your enemies were going to take Roxanne as plannedby you? That she would be thrust into a world you should have done everything in your power to keep her away from? What was I supposed to tell you?”
I hold her under the water again, the truth of her statement too much for me to bear. Not only was this the outcome we were reaching for, I’ve known for years my enemies have always been one step ahead of me, so why did I expect today to be any different?
As Alice’s crying comment rings in my ears on repeat, her thrashes become stiller and stiller. She’s seconds from death, her fight honorable considering the circumstances. She gave all for her daughter, only to lose in front of her.
My grip on Alice’s throat slackens when the frantic screams of a child in despair fills my ears. Lucy’s bangs broke through the glass. She is cut up and bleeding, but her thoughts remain with her mother. “Stop, Uncle Dimitri, please stop.”
Alice and I aren’t related. I earned the privilege of being called Lucy’s uncle when I saved her life. Now I’m taking away the only person she’s ever cared about.
When Lucy’s cries reach an area of my body I’m certain stopped functioning years ago, I fully uncinch my grip on Alice’s throat. My unusual offer of mercy comes too late. Alice is floating in the pool. Her eyes are wide and unblinking. Her chest is still.
I killed her for doing exactly what I would have done in her situation.
I murdered her for putting her daughter first.
That makes me a fucking monster—just like my father.
3
Roxanne
As the haze making my vision murky clears, I attempt to take in the area surrounding me. I’m lying on my side, a scratchy blanket the only thing responsible for my modesty. My throat burns with every swallow I take, and my head is thumping.
I don’t know where I am, but I wish I could be here without being naked. This is as awkward as it gets for me. I’m not one of those women who are comfortable in their own skin. I’d rather be found in a hessian bag than have Dimitri’s crew walk in on me stark naked when they track my location.
