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Chiara’s face transforms in disgust. “Do you think I’m scared of you? You’ve already taken everything from me that I love. Shout all you like. I won’t hear you.”
“Stay right there,” he growls, and pulls out his phone. He makes a call to someone and arranges something they seem to have already discussed.
“Yes, tonight. Now.” The mayor hangs up. “You can go, Fiore. Thank you for bringing my daughter home.”
“What was that call about?” Chiara asks.
“You’ve disobeyed me for the last time. I’m having a tracker put on you so you can’t run off again.”
“What do you mean, put a tracker on me?”
“A chip. Something implanted so you can’t take it off and run away again.”
A chip implanted. I grit my teeth against all the things I want to shout and the punch that I desperately want to land right in the middle of Mayor Romano’s face.
“That’s disgusting. I won’t let you,” Chiara tells her father.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Lost for words, Chiara turns to me.
I shake my head. There’s nothing I can do. “I warned you to obey your father, but you didn’t listen to me. Now, you’ll suffer the consequences.”
“You cold bastard,” she whispers.
I seal my heart off from her words. I’m cold. I feel nothing. I care about nothing but myself. What happens here tonight has nothing to do with me.
I lunge for the front door handle, stalk down the front path toward my car and get in. I go to start the engine, but I can’t do it. If she’s going to suffer, then I should sit here and suffer with her.
Ten minutes later, an SUV pulls up and a man in a white coat with two men escorting him get out, and they go inside Mayor Romano’s house.
Then the screaming starts.
She’s lucky. It could easily have been her life tonight if the others hadn’t found her.
But it doesn’t feel lucky as she screams and screams, and then the house falls ominously silent. Either they’ve bound and gagged her or drugged her.
A few more minutes pass, and then the doctor and his escort leave the house and drive away. I lean my head against the steering wheel, fantasizing about kicking the front door down and beating the mayor to death. Why did I stay? I was just opening myself up to the agony of sitting out here like a powerless moron while someone hurts her.
I grab my phone and make a call. “One day, I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Who?” asks the voice on the other end.
“Mayor Romano. Chiara disobeyed him, and he put a chip in her so he can track her wherever she goes. He wasn’t gentle about it, either.”
There’s silence on the other end of the line, and I know what they’re thinking. I’m the one who decided he wants to play house with the Mayor of Coldlake’s most prized possession. At least it was a chip and not a bullet in her head.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and try to dispel the memory of Chiara’s screams. “There’s the other plan.”
But maybe I’ve ruined the chances of that plan succeeding before it could even occur to me.
The voice on the other end hesitates. “Yes, I’ve been wondering if that’s crossed your mind. How could the two work at once? We can’t sacrifice one for the other.”
But what if there’s a way to have both? I try and try and force the two ideas together but can’t see a way to make them fit.
“The wedding’s soon. I’ll focus on that. Talk to you tomorrow.” I hang up and start the car. Ginevra’s wedding is in just three weeks and my sister is radiant with excitement and love.
And Chiara?
