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He was a damn fine guard dog after all.
My throat tightened up on me, and I turned my attention to Rinaldo, who looked over to Matthew.
“Go tell Howard to retrieve the body of Mister Arden’s dog,” he said. “Have him take a crew to clean up the apartment as well. Leave no trace.”
“Yes, sir.”
Matthew left the room. By the time he returned, Lia had composed herself again.
“Go on,” Rinaldo encouraged her.
“He had these little plastic strips which he put around my wrists. He had the gun in my back as he pushed me into a car outside the apartment building. I was trying to watch where we were going, but I couldn’t figure it out—I don’t know the city very well.”
“Did he take you straight to the warehouse, where I found you?”
Lia nodded.
“The whole way, he kept saying how much he was going to enjoy making you suffer, Evan. He said he’d been planning it a long time and he couldn’t wait to see your face when you found me.”
I swallowed and looked out toward the window for a moment. The flickering image of the bomb kid was there in the glass, but I didn’t acknowledge him.
“He took me inside,” Lia continued. “He kept laughing and telling me he wasn’t sorry it was going to hurt because he wanted you to suffer everything I suffered. He said he was going to kill you eventually but not until you’d paid for what you’d done. I kept asking him why, but he never told me.”
She took another breath.
“He pushed me down on the floor inside that room. That’s where you found me.”
“I found you in a chair,” I reminded her.
Lia just shrugged as she looked away from me. My eyes met Rinaldo’s, and I could see my expression reflected in his face.
She was hiding something.
“What happened?” I pressed.
“He put me in the chair when he figured out you were coming,” she said.
“What about before that?”
Lia was jumpy and kept looking away from me. I reached over and took her chin in my hand to force her to look at me.
“What did he do?” I asked.
“I told you. He pushed me down on the floor.”
“What else?”
“He just…well, he hit me.
“What else?”
“He…touched me,” she whispered, still refusing to look into my eyes.
“Where?”
Her eyes closed, and she shook her head silently.
There was something growing inside of me—something dark and powerful and deadly. I watched her face and knew there was a lot more than what she’d already said. Inside, it felt like my organs were caught up in the beginnings of an earthquake.
