My phone buzzes on the nightstand. Hoping it’s Silas, I grab it. But the number on the screen isn’t Silas’s, and I don’t recognize it.
I open the message, and my blood freezes.
It’s a video, and the thumbnail alone is enough to make my heart stop. It’s a dimly lit room with concrete walls and a single overhead lightbulb casting a ribbon of white light over a figure in a chair.
Nessa.
With a shaking finger, I press play.
The video is grainy but clear enough for me to see my best friend is bound to a chair. There’s a gag in her mouth, and her face is streaked with mascara and tears.
A hand removes the gag from her mouth.
“Say something to the camera,” a voice says off-screen. It’s male and Russian, and I know exactly who it is.
Konstantin Lomonov.
Nessa glares in the direction of the voice.
“Go fuck yourself.” She spits the words like venom.
There’s a pause, and then the sound of a sharp and brutal slap. Nessa’s head snaps to the side. My hand flies to my mouth.
I’m going to kill him.
I’m going to find him and blow his head off.
I force myself to keep watching.
Nessa straightens defiantly. She turns back to the camera. Blood drips from her lip, and her eyes blaze with anger.
The voice speaks again. “Tell Antonia she has twenty-four hours.”
Nessa swallows hard, and suddenly, the video ends.
I stare at the screen, and my pulse roars in my ears.
Konstantin has found me. And he’s taken Nessa to force me to come to him.
My phone vibrates with another message.
Come alone, or this ends badly for your friend.
A violent wave of fear crashes over me from the top of my head right down to my toes.
They’re going to kill her.
No, if you tell Silas, they will kill her and him.
But if you give him what he wants, Nessa might have a chance.
This is nothing about trusting Silas, but having known all along that I need to fight this battle on my own. Silas has become part of my family as well, and I can’t endanger those who he cares about most either.
I lean over and press my lips to Larissa’s forehead.
“I’m going to bring your mommy home,” I whisper. “I promise.”
I pull the bedroom door closed behind me and walk quietly down the hallway so none of the security team hears me.
