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The knowledge of that had caused Dario to become lax. He’d thought that when he was with her, she was protected. He’d lined up bodyguards to cover her the rest of the time. Instead, he should have gone into full security mode. A team following them. A trackable device on her person. Their destinations secured in advance. A level of protection that rivaled the Secret Service.
The agent’s voice dropped into an apologetic tone. “We’re tied up with this warehouse search. I don’t have assets to reassign to look for your girlfriend.”
Dario fought the urge to reach out and punch the nearest wall. “These are connected. For all we know, she’s taking Bell to the warehouse now. This is your hottest lead, and it’s fresh.”
So fresh he could still smell Bell’s perfume. So fresh that the sound of the ATV seemed to hum in his ear. Why had he taken the call? Why had he shut the door? Why had he left her alone and thought she’d be safe?
Because it was a woman. A sexist move that had cost him everything. He saw a woman and dismissed her as a threat. He dismissed her, and the moment his back had turned, she had struck.
“Chances are, she’s not taking Bell to the warehouse. Chances are that she’s taking her somewhere remote. Come on, Dario. You know this.”
The softening of his voice did nothing to cushion the vision he created. Somewhere remote where she would be hurt. Somewhere she’d scream, and no one would hear. Someone that she’d be scared and he wouldn’t be there to save, comfort, and protect her.
The thought was a knife to Dario’s gut.
BELL
I was close to vomiting. I willed my stomach to calm, the pitch and coil of it to lessen, and watched the darkness, catching the moment the shadows shifted and the woman re-entered the cell. Still no sign of Dario, no mention of him. I wanted to know, but I was afraid to ask.
“Who are you?” I rasped out the question, my throat still dry, my repeated requests for water ignored. I had wanted a friendly tone, but it came out wrong. Hard. Accusatory. Then again, any chance of a friendship between us had dried up around the time she Tased me.
She ignored my question, moving to the far end of the cell, and I noticed the other door. Through the open entrance and across the hall. Another cell. Like this one. I struggled to bring my feet underneath me, fighting against the cuffs until I managed to get my soles flat, my body rising… I got a glimpse of another dark head, a girl, and then my ankles caved, my legs too rubbery. I fell forward, the cuffs yanking me back right before my head hit the concrete floor.
“Careful.” The woman carried a metal folding chair, and set it up in front of me.
“Who’s that?” I lifted my chin and tried my best to use it to point to the opposite cell, my sluggish mind putting together some of the pieces. Remembering what Dario had told me. This had been the first stop on Robert Hawk’s prisoner’s journey. A warehouse with captured women. But Hawk was dead.
“Ignore her.” She sat in the chair and flipped on a penlight, bringing it up to my face. The light was blinding, and I winced, closing my eyes to it.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? The light?” She brought it closer to me. “I was right here once. Just like you. Only, unlike you, I didn’t deserve it.”
I wet my lips. Tried to swallow. Listened to her and hoped that a lecture was all that she had planned.
“We were so close,” she whispered. “All you had to do was die, and everything was going to be okay.”
Her words were so soft that I almost missed them, the light coming too close to my pupil. I pinched my eyes shut in defense.
“Do you know what you did wrong, Bell?”
Yeah, I knew what I did wrong. Trusted this crazy bitch to show me a bathroom without incapacitating me. That was the first thing that came to mind. But other than that, there was only one thing I could think of, at least in terms of landing me in Robert Hawk’s warehouse. Dario.
I wet my lips. “Dario.”
She turned off the light and I blinked rapidly, trying to see past the dots in my vision, trying to get a good look at her face.
“You disrespected my family.”
She bent over and reached in the canvas bag that sat by the foot of the chair.
“You made me look like a failure in front of my father.”
When she straightened, she held an item that made my nausea swell.
“He died before seeing my mistake righted.”
She rose to her feet and flipped the knife over in her hand,
“Which means, pretty little, sweet little, slutty little Bell…” She leaned forward until her hair brushed my neck, her mouth close to my ear. “You’re going to have to pay for all that. Pay for it, and punish Dario… All. At. Once.”
