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But I…I hadn’t been moved since I got here. I shouldn’t have been jealous of the woman, it was clear she was hurt every time she was removed, but at least she got to stretch her legs. At least she got to feel the pull of her muscles. I craved it more than anything right then, but what I didn’t want was a repeat of the punch in my face. That was enough to keep my mouth closed and try to go by unnoticed.
Still, not being confined to this cage for just sixty seconds would have been heaven right then. This cage would only be big enough for a medium dog…and as I thought that, I realized that it was exactly what these cages were for: animals. Yet, every single one of them housed a human. Mostly women, but there were a few young males too.
I’d tried to count the number of cages at one stage, but I’d lost count when I got to one hundred and ninety-three. Maybe I’d imagined getting to that number. It felt impossible, but I knew it wasn’t. The large room felt more like a warehouse, or an airplane hangar.
Time and time again I’d tried to capture any little detail to figure out where I was, but it had been futile. There were no distinguishing factors, and everyone had been blindfolded or had a sack over their head when they arrived here. I had tried to talk to the people beside me—maybe they knew something that I didn’t. One rarely said a single word whereas the other—the woman still yanking at her hair—never stopped, the problem was, when she was talking, she didn’t make any sense. It was useless rambling, but I’d still paid attention on the off chance that she mentioned something she saw.
Pulling my legs tighter to me, I curled in on myself, my eyelids heavy. I hadn’t allowed myself to sleep properly since I’d been dumped in this cage, only having a couple of small naps a day, and even though I had no concept of day or night, I was pretty sure I’d been here for a couple of weeks.
Depression and exhaustion weighed down on me, and all I could think about was the last time I’d felt like this. The last time I felt like the world was going to swallow me whole. At least back then, I’d had someone I could lean on…
“They’d be so proud of you, Bay.” I lifted my head, capturing my uncle’s gaze. His tailored suit fit him to perfection, the expense of the material unmistakable. My uncle was a handsome man, rugged but also sharp with his intelligence. To me though, he’d always be the man who played hide-and-go-seek for hours and attended my tea parties in my playhouse while it rained, not caring that his legs couldn’t fit inside and his feet would get soaked.
Now though, he was so much more than that. Now, he was the only family I had left on this earth.
His expression gave nothing away as he stared down at me, waiting for my answer.
“They’re not here,” I told him. My voice didn’t waver, not with the truth that I’d just spat at him. There was no point in him telling me what my parents would have felt. It wouldn’t change the fact that they weren’t here. They were gone, leaving me to fend for myself. At least, that was what it felt like.
The expression on my uncle’s face fell, the first time I’d seen anything but the carefully schooled features. “Bailey…”
I blinked, waiting to see what else he would say, but when he remained silent, I told him, “They left me, Uncle Caden.” The hitch in my voice wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. “I should be with them.” A tear fell from the corner of my eye, trailing down my cheek. “It should be me who’s dead, not them.”
“No.” His deep voice had my eyes widening. “Don’t you ever talk like that again.” Uncle Caden’s hands landed on my shoulders, over my black jacket—black clothes, only fit for a funeral. “You’re still here for a reason, Bailey.” He paused, his eyes searching mine. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but his next words hit harder than anything else ever could. “We’re the only family each other has. We’ll look out for each other. Always.”
Always. His words echoed in my head as my body finally gave in and drifted off. The room full of cages disappeared as I escaped inside my own head, making up my own dreamland where I could walk freely. Where I could shower. Where I allowed some hope to drift in at the thought that Uncle Caden might find me.
But just like always, hope was a futile thing. It wasn’t reality. And the moment I gave way to that thought, fear set in. Fear that Uncle Caden would never know where I was. That he’d never be able to find me. That this would be my life now.
* * *
ROMEO
I raised my brows as Lorenzo shook his head as he took his seat at the head of the dining table with the remnants of a grin on his face. “They’re coming down now.”
Aunt Rosa laughed, and even I couldn’t help the lift of my lips. We didn’t mind that we were waiting for Navy and Dante. They’d sneaked off to their old bedroom, not caring for a single second that we all knew where they were going and what they were doing.
They’d been through the wringer lately, but now they were finding who they were together and trying to rebuild themselves after Navy and Dario had been taken.
The smile dropped from my face, replaced with a sneer as I thought back to only a few days ago. It had been tense, but more than that, overwhelming at times for me. I’d never had such a deep connection with someone, but all it did was confirm to me how much I loved baby Dario. His life was at risk, just like Navy’s had been.
But now it was over. We’d dealt with the people who took them. I’d made sure they were eradicated from this earth. So now we were at peace.
It was calm…
Almost too calm.
The calm before the storm…
I didn’t voice that out loud though, I knew better than to jinx it, so I silently waited, staring at the family-style dinner sitting in the middle of the table. There was nothing like the homemade Italian foods at the Berettas’. Mom used to cook like this all the time, but then she stopped suddenly when I was ten. I didn’t see her for an entire week, and then when she reappeared, she was different…the light in her eyes had dimmed and she just wasn’t the same.
I still didn’t know what had happened back then, no matter how much I tried to find out, not a single soul knew what had happened—apart from my mom.
Some faint banging drifted into the dining room, but I wasn’t on alert because I just figured it was Dante and Navy making their way down here before all of the food went cold. But as soon as I heard a loud booming voice shout, “Where is he?” I snapped my head around to look at the door, catching Lorenzo’s gaze in the process. We both knew that voice, but we’d never heard it likethatbefore. “I need to talk to Lorenzo!”
The door swung open and I darted up from my seat, knocking the wooden chair over in the process. It clunked on the floor as Mateo’s frantic face glanced around the table.
“It’s Mr. Blue,” he rushed out, his eyes wide. I made my way toward Lorenzo, only stopping when I was by his side. I spotted Rafael and Christian out of the corner of my eye, joining us. “He’s…something isn’t right.”
