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He took the papers.
The adoption papers.
“We want your name, too,” Josiah said. “Me and Theo already talked about it. Well, mostly me. He just ran around the room, screaming his head off in excitement. He’ll be Theodore Iokua Savea Lattimore, and I’ll be Josiah Nikora Savea Lattimore. That way, we’ll have both our dad’s names.”
Joel smiled. “I’ve gotten all the best gifts ever today. I don’t know how you guys will top this at Christmas.”
“Ma said we just won’t get you anything for Christmas.”
“That is something she would say.”
Mike entered the front room.
Joel dished out another round of hugs, kisses, and promises and whispered in Theo’s ear that he would be back before he knew it. Then he left, hopped inside the SUV, and didn’t look back.
He couldn’t.
Instead, he put his head down and squeezed the strands of his hair until it felt like his scalp would bleed. He let everything pour from him, from the fear when he first realized he couldn’t find Ayesha to having to look at Josiah and make him a promise he could only hope to keep.
Then he raised his head.
Shut everything off.
He no longer cared what would remain of him after he was done with Lavigne. It was a killer Lavigne was looking for, so that was precisely what he would get.
CHAPTER40
Lavigne returned with a bucket and doused Ayesha’s naked body with another shock of ice-cold water. The first three times, she’d screamed, but her mind had acclimated after the first frigid bath.
He didn’t say anything.
Didn’t ask any questions.
When she woke up, it was in this room with its gaudy, peeling wallpaper that didn’t match the checkered carpet on the floor. There were no windows, and she didn’t know where guys like this always found rooms with no windows.
Her prison housed a queen bed with two pillows and a door that led to a dingy bathroom. The only adequate thing in the room was the lighting.
As the water saturated her hair and skin, he stared at her. To her, he looked tired, like he’d been awake for the better part of a year. He also looked older than she’d expected, his sinew mixed with the evidence of aging muscle tissue. His head looked recently shaved, and more white hairs than dark peppered his mustache and beard. Dark spots created a freckled pattern on his face, and his skin looked as though it had once upon a time been pale and smooth. Sun exposure, along with what was probably decades of iniquity, had turned it into rawhide.
“I don’t know what you’re waiting for,” she said. “Or why you even took me.”
He left, leaving the door wide open, but he’d created a human leash out of rope and leather attached to a metal rail to stop her from getting further than the strip separating her prison from what looked like a tiny living area.
She heard running water.
Machinery whirred.
Crackling noises followed, and as his footsteps returned, she clamped her jaw shut and closed her eyes.
He overturned the bucket.
Frigid water shocked her system, and ice pelted her hypothermic skin. Reflex made her reach toward her stomach, but she withdrew her hands. If he discovered any further vulnerabilities about her, the torture would increase.
This time, when he left, he shut the door.
Fear kept her in place.
Shivering, she unfolded her limbs, used the metal rail to pull herself to her feet, and took her first good look around the room. By now, they knew she was gone. She wouldn’t disappear, especially on her wedding day. Still, it was possible that Joel’s determination, Julien’s brain, Dez and Gage’s instinct, Mike’s stealth, and Giorgio’s crazy could, very well, not be enough to find her.
