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“I have to call Cauldron. Have my driver take you home.” I walked into the closet and pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved shirt before I headed for the door.
Elise was halfway dressed. “Why would someone take her?”
“I told you I have enemies.”
“But she has nothing to do with that—”
“That’s not how this world works.” I left the bedroom and headed to the elevator.
She was right behind me, her shoes in her hand. “Does she know something she could share?”
“No.”
“Then what’s the point of hurting her?”
“Because it’ll hurt me.” That was why they took her. I killed Karl’s brother. It was only fair to kill the woman I loved.
Elise stood next to me in the elevator, her mouth shut, her eyes averted.
I didn’t have the luxury of consoling her. I couldn’t alleviate her insecurities. I had twenty-four hours to save Camille’s life, and I couldn’t spend a single moment on Elise.
* * *
I went to Camille’s apartment first.
Just on the off chance it was some sick joke. Just on the slim possibility they’d hit the wrong apartment. But one look inside that place confirmed the truth. A lamp was shattered on the floor. The TV was still on even though no one was home. Drops of blood were on the floorboards like someone had been slashed with a knife. There was definitely a struggle.
“Fuck me.”
I headed to Cauldron’s apartment next. In the middle of the night, I woke up Pius and demanded Cauldron be disturbed. I paced in the sitting room as I waited for him to get his ass out here. My heart was racing with adrenaline, but on the exterior, I looked perfectly calm. I was just as afraid of not getting Camille back as I was of telling my brother what had happened to her.
Cauldron finally made it down the hallway, barefoot and bare-chested, his eyes pissed off because he assumed whatever I needed was trivial and not worth this midnight visit. “What is it?”
There was no good way to say it. None at all. “Karl took Camille.”
It took Cauldron a solid five seconds to process it, either because he was still partly asleep or the information was just so terrible he couldn’t believe it. “Why would he take Camille?”
“An eye for an eye.”
The reality hit him like a punch to the face. His expression changed, the cords in his neck tightening as he clenched his jaw. The veins in his forehead suddenly popped to the surface. His eyes were so angry they deepened in color. It looked like he might let out a scream any second. “What does he want for her?”
“Me.”
He stared at me.
“A trade.”
After a long stretch of silence, he spoke again. “They’ll kill her anyway. They’ll just make you watch.”
“I know.” I’d cut Karl’s brother open and put his organs in other people. He wasn’t the only one who’d died. The recipients did as well because they weren’t a match. It was a fucking catastrophe. So he wanted me to experience the same thing—to watch the person I loved be chopped into pieces. It meant Camille’s fate would be horrific. “We’ll get her back, alright?”
Cauldron seemed stunned into silence, which was a first.
“Cauldron?”
“How long do we have?”
“Twenty-four hours,” I said. “We’ll get her back—”
