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“You are not my fucking father.” I refuse to back down. “And I will not let you do this to me.”
“Do what? Bring you home?” he retorts. “Don’t you wanna see your mother?”
Mother?
The mere mention of her makes my eyes widen, and my jaw drop.
No, it can’t be real. He’s trying to get to you, Harper. Andrea is the only mother you have now, the only one who matters. The rest is all a farce, a tale spun by a deranged man set to destroy your life.
“Take me back there,” I say with an unyielding voice. “Take me back to Marcello!”
“Marcello? That useless fool?” Frank snorts. “I don’t think you really want that, baby girl.”
“Don’t fucking call me that!” I yell. “And the only useless fool here is you!”
In the heat of the moment, I do the only thing I can think of to get myself out of this mess. Throwing myself at him, I wrap my arms around his neck just as I was taught in self-defense class. I clamp him against his seat and choke him alive. Tears spring into my eyes as the sound of his gasps and gulps fills the swerving car, but I push them back with relentless courage. I cannot let this man do whatever it is he wants to me, my real parents, my life … to Marcello.
All of it was caused by this man, this man who pretended to be my father just so he could force his twisted fantasy onto everyone.
No more.
“Let go!” he squeaks as I squeeze harder and harder. “We’re gonna crash!”
“I don’t care!” I shout, and I close my eyes as the car heads straight for the river banks.
Please Marcello, come find me.
Please, I need you to save me once again.
“HARPER!”
His voice is the last thing I hear before the car plunges off, flipping around, before it hits the water, the blow so hard that I’m thrown back against the backside of the car, and everything in front of my eyes turns black instantly.
Marcello
My whole world has shrunk down to this moment.
Wind rushes through the bullet holes in the van, sounding like screams.
The engine groans as I push the vehicle to its limits.
And in the distance, there’s the black sedan that holds my woman. My possession. My Harper. My entire fucking life.
I will fucking get her back, no matter what it costs me.
The car hasn’t left the area of the docks yet. We’re still hurtling alongside the river, my van about a hundred feet behind his.
I’m running out of time and options. I don’t want to shoot out the tires for fear of a bullet going too high and hitting Harper, and even though I’m gaining on him, we’re almost to the interstate on-ramp. All bets are off if Frank can make it onto the highway.
“I’m coming, kitten,” I repeat under my breath like a prayer. “I’m fucking coming for you.”
She just has to hold out a little longer.
My hands are squeezing the hell out of the steering wheel, white bone showing beneath my skin. If I can’t save her, nothing will ever matter again. All my memories and achievements will merely be the anchors dragging me down to the bottom of a deep, dark ocean.
I’ve fucked up so many times, and for so long, I thought it was because of her. I thought Harper was the one making me weak, making me careless.
But I see it all so clearly now. She’s the only one worth doing any of this for.
I’ve cut the distance to a hundred feet. If I don’t find a way to stop them in the next minute or so, it’ll be too late. Frank will escape, and with his contacts, there’s no telling what corner of the city he’ll disappear into. My Harper will vanish.
I can’t let that happen. I’ll have to shoot.
I pick up my gun and roll down the window. It’s like the sound gets sucked out of the world as I aim my weapon, finger on the trigger, ready to fire as soon as …
Suddenly, the sedan swerves. Just a tiny bit for a split second, so fast and subtle that I wonder whether I even saw it at all.
Then it happens again. A swerve to the left, another back in the opposite direction.
With the screech of tires on asphalt, the car jerks hard to the right—and goes careening into the river.
Fuck! No!
The vehicle hits the water, the sound like a sonic boom. The dark waves swarm it and suck it greedily down.
I can think only one thing: Harper’s in there.
I have to go get her.
Fear grips my heart in a tight fist.
I slam on the brakes. My van whines like a dying animal as it slows down. I don’t bother waiting until it stops before I throw open the door and leap out.
