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I smile thinking of Sia’s face right before she plants a little kiss on my cheek. She likes the meals I grill for her. The way I abuse her in bed… she yearns for it, just like I do. Too bad she’s been conspiring behind my back.
You couldn’t pull the trigger back then, Sia. But how about now?
Boom!
The front door kicks in and blows off its frail hinges.
I don’t even flinch.
“Freeze!” Arnold shouts with a gun pointed at my head – I can see him shaking in my periphery.
“Careful, Arnold,” I say, and I see confusion wash over his face. “You think you’re in control, but you’re not.”
“Shut up and stand down!” he calls.
“Ah, ah,” my voice rattles calmly. “Another step, and five women suffocate one floor below this one,” I lie for effect. I’m stalling… for Alessia.
He thinks I’m bluffing, so I show him how foolish he is.
“Toyota Camry, parked a mile out, on my property. Copper. You trekked south and rounded around the west side of my shack, thinking you were avoiding windows.”
I can almost taste the mounting tension. Fear is washing over him right now. I’ve seen it a thousand times in my line of work.
“You were talking to yourself on the way here, Arnold Frick. It’s strange, how you have no radio… no backup.”
“Leandro Rigiano,” Arnold’s voice shakes. “You’re under arrest.”
I laugh loud at that, and his arms tense straight, hands gripped around his pistol.
“Let her go,” he pleads.
“That depends on you.” I smile, slowly putting my hands over my head.
Chapter 24
Alessia
I’m shivering from the conversation I just walked out of. Literally, there’s goosebumps lining my arms as I fear Anabel waiting with a knife for my return. The glare she gave me when Leandro called my name pierced like a bullet.
As Jane’s bitchy expression lingers in my mind, as Gabby’s disappointment drains my energy, a loud voice steals all of my attention.
Someone’s talking to Leandro.
Another male.
I’m pretty sure I don’t have a pulse right now. Fear froze it.
Leandro sounds calm, which is a good thing, I guess. But he’s never brought a visitor in the months I’ve been here, and pretty sure in the years that all of the others have served either.
What is going on?
I reach the surface to see a pistol laying in plain sight. My hands start to tremble. Did Leandro plant it there? Is the other voice an intruder?
Oh my God.
A part of me wants to run back downstairs, but a voice stops me.
“Sia, is that you?” Leandro calls. “Don’t be shy. Grab what I left for you and come join us in the kitchen.”
