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At some point, I got up to stretch my legs, and went to the kitchen. I turned on the water in the sink, splashed my head and face. Grabbed one of Angela’s neatly ironed tea towels to rub my hot face, my aching head. My jaw hurt from grinding my teeth.
Freya followed me, and leaned on the kitchen entryway, studying me.
“Try not to punish Mick right now,” she said quietly. “Do it later, if you want. When Holly and Kat are safe. We need him as functional as possible right now.”
I shrugged. “I’m being more than fair. He made his choice, and he didn’t choose Holly. I’m being as civil as it is humanly possible to be, under the circumstances.”
She nodded. “I feel the same. It’s a fucking nightmare. And even so. I can already think of three things to be grateful for right now.”
“Tonight? Really?” I let out a harsh laugh. “Three?”
“True thing,” she said, her face solemn.
“I know you want to tell me what they are, so go on. Put me out of my misery.”
“That, big brother, is beyond my power right now. But here they are. One, I’m so incredibly glad Angela wasn’t here when all this came down.”
I hissed in a sharp breath, imagining it. “Fuck, yeah,” I muttered. “That’s lucky.”
“Two, our niece is brilliant,” Frey went on. “She broke the spell Nicole had on Mick, which left us an opening. Not much of one, but still. What a kid.”
“Okay, I’ll concede that one, too,” I said. “Holly rocks. And the third?”
Freya gave me a gentle smile. “Kat,” she said softly. “She was for real, from the very start. No matter what happens, you don’t have to swallow that bitter pill. Your heart steered you true. You were right to trust it. That’s something to celebrate.”
I have no idea what look must have come over my face, but she made a low sound in her throat, grabbed me, and held on tight.
I hid my face in her curly hair and just kept on trying to breathe.
CHAPTER39
Ethan
Holly’s phone buzzed again. The sound worked on me like an electric shock.
One single ring, and the phone lay silent. I picked it up. A new text message was highlighted. The subject line was HUP HUP BETTER GET MOVING!
Like the other time, there was a video link in the message. I set it to play.
Nicole was wearing the hideous pig mask again. She gave them a finger-fluttering wave. “Good morning, Mr. Masters!” Somehow, the electronic voice modifier did not remove the toxic, sickly sweetness from her tone. “Welcome to your new identity, as our humble, hardworking little bitch!”
“Go fuck yourself,” Freya snapped. “Snotty hag.”
“Shhh,” I hissed. “Listen.”
“I know you’re eager to hear your first instructions. First of all, all the plotting and planning you’re doing to rescue Holly? Forget it. Not going to happen. Accept it, and everything will be easier. Especially for Holly, if you get my drift.”
I clenched both my hands as she spoke, trying to breathe down the anger. I needed to be cold for this. Distant, detached, sharp as a razor blade.
“It’s time for you to get into your car, and drive at the legal speed limit to this address in downtown Portland…alone.” She held up a small whiteboard, with a street address scrawled on it in pen. “Leave your car outside, right on the street, keys inside. We’ll take care of it for you. It’s not like you’ll ever need it again, God knows.”
“God, I hate her so much,” Jed muttered.
“When you go inside, tell the security guard you need to talk to Franco,” she went on. “He’ll tell you what to do. And another thing, very important. Come with no cell phone, no trackers or traces, no electronic devices of any kind. You’ll be going through a portal that can sense everything, even items that are hidden inside your body, so don’t even try to get sneaky. Or Holly will pay. Do not doubt it.”
The pig fell silent for a moment, waiting as if waiting for a response from him. Then she made an impatient shooing gesture with her hand. “So? Get moving! Don’t just sit there trying to think of a way to trick me. There isn’t one. I have thought of everything. And remember. No one follows you. And I mean no one.”
The video ended. I looked around at all of them. “So,” I said. “Time to go.”
