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“What’s going on?” I ask as I stride toward Ludis.
He swallows hard as he glances around, as though he is avoiding my question. I glare at him, waiting for his response. He knows I don’t like repeating myself.
However, his next words shock me to the core.
“It’s your wife, Boss. I was just about to call you.” He licks his lips, his voice hoarse. “She’s gone.”
“What?” I snap in disbelief. My eyes drop to something in his hand. The night dress she’d been wearing when I took her last night. The scrap of fabric is blood-stained and torn, streaked with dirt.
No.
A mix of disturbing images suddenly flicker in my mind, like a mental collage of everything that has happened over the past few weeks.
Garret’s betrayal…
The hit taken out on me…
And then, the fuckery around the Spanish deal…
This is no coincidence!
But in the middle of my mental collage, there is one particular image, casting its shadow over the other ones: a punctured heart in a bloodstained box. The bloodied heart that was left outside my gate yesterday. The message is clear. Even though the heart wasn’t human, I know without a doubt that the next one I receive will be.
Solnishko…
For a brief moment, it’s as if my legs weaken. It’s happening again. The sense of loss. The horror of death. The image of my mother and my sister drowning in their own blood because I didn’t get to them in time.
I let them down…my own mother and sister. And now Aurora’s gone, too.
All because I was a fool. Because I had to get into my car and tear off like a sullen adolescent.
But I’m not a boy anymore. Nobody takes what belongs to me and lives to tell the story. I stare at the torn clothing Ludis is holding. I fight back nausea at the message I was sent before.
Fuck.
They’ve taken her!
And she’ll be returned to me in pieces.
Suddenly it feels like my world has come crashing down.
I can’t let this happen again.
