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She ripped her hand away, finally allowing me to pull air into my lungs. My throat burned, my skin sore, then I felt something wet dripping down my neck. I glanced down, seeing the redness staining my T-shirt.
She’d made me bleed.
“Let me go,” I croaked out, trying to get out of the binds. The chair I was sitting on rocked back and forth. I felt it tipping, but I didn’t care. I needed to get out of here. I needed to— “Where’s Dario?” I shouted, the sound echoing off the walls. It was cold in here, so much that I was shivering in just my T-shirt and…where the hell were my jeans?
“Not your concern,” she sang, staring down at her nails and picking something from out of them. I could see my blood sitting there, running down her fingertips.
“Where is my son!” I screamed, tensing in the chair and rocking it forward. I needed to get the hell out of these binds.
“Shhh.” She slammed her hand over my mouth, but I carried on bucking away from her. It was no use though because it didn’t make her move. “You’ll make him mad.” Her gaze snapped to the side as if someone was there, but when I followed where she was looking, I couldn’t see a thing but concrete walls and the light shining at me. The room was tiny, a square box with no windows.
“Make who mad?” I asked, thinking that maybe if I went along with her, I could appeal to something inside her. Something to make her see that what she was doing wasn’t right. I needed my son. I needed him more than I needed my next breath.
“Him,” she sneered, bending at her knees so her face was at the same height as mine. “If you make him mad”—she shook her head, shivering at her words—“he’ll do things worse than death itself.”
“Miriam,” I whispered, trying to get her to look at me, but she was too occupied with looking toward the door, staring at it like it would open at any second. “Please, just let me go.” I was soft, tentative, not wanting to make her jump. “Get my baby and we can go. I can help you escape.”
Her head whipped around, her eyes crazed again. “Escape? I don’t need to escape!”
“Miriam—”
“No!” She stepped back, pacing in front of me. She’d walk three steps and then spin around and walk another three. I couldn’t tell what she was saying because she was mumbling too fast. “You made the plan go bad. He’s mad. Mad. Mad.” She gripped onto her hair, pulling at it. “I have to make it right. I have to do better.”
“Please,” I begged, hoping it would make her see sense. The only things I had were my words, and I needed to use them to my full advantage. “Please just get Dario. I need to know he’s safe. I need to—”
“He’ll be safe,” she said, stopping directly in front of me, “with his new family.”
“New family?” I frowned, a sinking feel making me dizzy. “You mean the people who I met? Claire and Dexter?”
She snorted. “They weren’t real. You believed it though, didn’t you?” Her lips lifted into a grin, obviously pleased with herself.
“They weren’t real?” If I just kept her talking, then maybe…
“No.” She sniffed. “Well, Claire was an actor, but Dexter…he’s my business partner.” She clicked her fingers, then pointed at me. “You saw him today. You know…when he knocked you out.”
My heart raced. The man who had held me, who had stuck that cloth over my nose and mouth. He was her business partner? In her adoption agency? None of this made any sense. I was sure that if I wasn’t tied to the chair, in pain, my brain a foggy mess, I would have been able to work it out. But all I could do was stare at her dumbfounded.
“I…I don’t understand.”
She raised her arms in the air, letting out a scream that hurt my ears. “I said too much!” She slashed her arm through the air, her hand slapping me in the face, and her nails scraping against my cheek. “Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!”
“Please, Miriam. I can get you anything you want, anything you need—”
“I said shut up!” She raised her leg, her foot colliding with my chest at full force, knocking the breath out of me and making the chair shunt backward. It teetered and my instinct to bring my arms out made me strain against the ropes. But it was no use, I felt myself going before I hit the ground, first the chair and then the back of my head.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” Miriam chanted, her voice getting lower and lower, or maybe it was me, maybe I couldn’t hear her as well as before. Maybe…
My eyes fluttered shut but I opened them again. It was no use though because I couldn’t fight it. Couldn’t make myself stay awake. I’d hit my head. I was drowning in darkness, and the last thing I thought was: I hoped I saw my son one last time.
CHAPTER 16
DANTE
“Call Remy,” Lorenzo barked. I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but when Romeo pulled out his cell, I knew it would be him who was adhering the demand. “Tell him to get his hands on any footage he can from today.” Lorenzo squeezed my shoulder, his face inches from mine. “We’ll find her, little brother. I promise we’ll find her.”
“She’s been gone all day.” I ground my teeth together so hard I was sure I heard one crack. “I’m so fuckin’ stupid.”
“No. You’re not. You were distracted.” He grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me so that I looked him square in the eyes. “This is the last lesson you need to learn. Always—and I mean always—have your wits about you. Never let your guard down, not even with those closest to you.”
