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“Fuck you.”I lifted my head from the floor and spat.
He strode closer and I fought the urge to flinch. But there was no fighting my whimper as he grabbed my arm and wrenched me from the floor. “You will do asIsay, Katerina,” he commanded.
But he had no idea who he was dealing with.
He had no idea that every fucking time he called me that name, something dangerous in me reared its head. “Go to fuckingHell, youpatheticpiece of shit!”
There was a low chuckle as he stilled, his fingers digging into the flesh of my arm. “You see…now that’s just uncalled for.”
He moved in a blur, driving his fist through the air and into my side.
Agony roared through me as the air rushed from my lungs. The blinding light was gone, leaving me reeling in the dark. I doubled over and my knees buckled, dropping me back to the floor. I blinked and gasped as stars detonated behind my eyes.
Through the bright flashes, thick-soled boots neared. He crouched down, the shine of his gun all I could see. “Now, I’m only going to ask this one more time, then I’m going to get angry. Say the words, Katerina…say the words for good old dad.”
I drew my knees closer as that agony moved through my side and curled around the baby. I tried to keep it together, tried to keep the tears from welling in my eyes, tried not to suck in the filth and the stench of this place.
This place where they held me.
Far away from the perfect shimmering island…
Far away from Lazarus.
The blinding lights shone in my eyes once more, blurring his face behind the camera. He waited…waited for me to say the words he wanted me to say…waited for me to fight and scream, to force his hand and to use the gun he carried.
But would he do that?
Would he shoot me and leave me in this hovel to die?
Flashes of memories came in.
The look on everyone’s faces the night Baldeon disappeared.
The way Anna gripped my hand and wept, whispering the gory details of what had happened.
Details Finley had told her.
Details of how Baldeon had died.
Hands tied behind his back.
His throat cut so deep it severed his spine.
“Say the words, Katerina.” My abductor urged.
That radiant glare made my eyes widen and my breath catch. I licked dry, arid lips and started, shifting my gaze to the camera. “Dad, it’s me. I’m alive, but I don’t know where I am…give them the money, okay? Give them whatever they ask for.”
42
Lazarus
Her building was empty. We searched every floor and every room, tearing through the empty space until there was nowhere left to turn. I called Finley Salvatore and spoke to Anna, but between her frantic cries I got the information I was dreading. She hadn’t heard from Kat at all.
No one had heard from her.
I stared at her phone in my hand and swallowed the tremble of fear.
“We’re turning around,” Finley growled. “We’re coming back.”
