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“Oh, everyone’s alwayssorry,” he growls. “But no one’s willing to make itright. That’s what all of this was about, Dahlia,” he mutters. “Making it right. But you couldn’t keep your fucking nose out of it. And then you brought that…that fuckingpsychopathinto the mix, too.” He shakes his head, hefting the brick in his hand. “I like you, Dahlia. I didn’t think I would, when my father and your mother got together, and I met you. But I do. And I like Adele, too. Which is why I genuinely hate that I have to do this.”
Oh God.
Gerard makes a strangled, choking sound. My eyes slip past Raph to him, and I realize he’s looking right at me, like he was deliberately trying to get my attention. His eyes are haggard and bleary, but I can still follow his gaze as it slides past me, then raises to the lightbulb above him. He looks past me again, then up to the lightbulb once more.
I tense, my eyes quickly darting behind me, where they spot the fist-sized rock lying in the dirt.
Raph hefts the brick in his hand again. “I truly am sorry, Dahlia. So I’ll let you decide how it is you want me to make this look for your mother. Do you want to have simply been kidnapped and killed cleanly? Or maybe you’d prefer it if I make it look like that psycho Deimos took you somewhere and let your little fucked up sex games go too far?”
I pale, shaking my head and shuffling away from him on the dirt floor. “Raph, you don’t… You don’t have to do this.”
My hand slides back, my fingers curling around the stone.
“Well, no, unfortunately, Dahlia, Ido. I mean I like you and everything, but I like not going to prison even more. Nothing personal.”
“Well, this is.”
My mom used to take me to thePétanquecourts at the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. It’s like the French version of bocce ball. And I got pretty good at the underhand toss you’d use to get the ball exactly where you wanted it.
Luckily, I’ve still got the magic touch.
I lurch to my feet, and in one motion I whip the rock underhand right at the lightbulb hanging down over Gerard.
It hits.
With a smashing sound, the room is plunged into pitch black. I don’t hesitate. I lunge past where Raph was when the light went out and bolt for the stairs. I’ve gotten very good at running in the dark.
“Run, Dahlia!” Gerard bellows in his hoarse voice. “RUN!”
I scramble up the stairs, my heart climbing into my throat as I hear Raph screaming at me and following me up the steps. I go crashing through the kitchen and slip through the chain on the back door. For a second, I try the doors to Raph’s car, but they’re locked. And when I hear him kick open the back door and roar my name, I forget the car and bolt down the road toward the crowds of people.
The mariachi band has been replaced by a rock n roll one, all of them dressed like leering, dancing skeletons, and their music blares over the crowd.
“HELP!” I scream, throwing myself into the throng of people. But the music is so loud, and the band has a definite rock/metal vibe. And suddenly, the crowd I’m in morphs into a sort of mosh pit, with people shoving each other and dancing and going nuts.
Everyone’s in skull masks or face paint. They dance in and out of my peripheral vision as the music blasts and I shove my way through them.
“DAHLIA!”
The voice is right next to me. My gaze rips around, and I choke when I see Raph’s leering face in the crowd, coming toward me. I pale, edging away and shoving my way back through the mosh pit, keeping my eyes locked on him. He turns away, and when he spins back, he’s slipping a skull mask down over his face.
Suddenly, he’s completely lost in the crowd.
I’m shaking as I shove my way through, getting banged back and forth by the dancing, surging crowd. I tumble out from the melee, gasping, my heart roaring in my ears as I run. I look around wildly, and my eyes bug out when I see a masked man wearing the same clothes Raph was in coming for me, leering at me from behind his skull mask.
The fair area is almost deserted now that everyone’s over at the stage area for the band. I bolt toward the nearest building, and when I get to the back door, I yank it open and dive inside.
It’s pitch dark.
I stumble away from the door, spinning before I suddenly wince as I slam into something.
Fuck.
I gingerly touch my face, tasting blood on my lip before I fumble around the barrier in front of me. I make it past that, but then I hit another wall. Whirling, I touch another smooth, slick obstacle.
What the fuck is this?
I flinch when I hear a door yank open and then slam shut from somewhere behind me.
