Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 122216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I’m becoming as paranoid as my husband. I turn to apologize as the woman jams a syringe into my neck.
“I’m sorry,” she rushes to say. “They said they’d kill my son if I didn’t.” Tears spill down her cheeks. A man comes running from the back. My vision is already too blurry to make out much of him.
“What do you think my husband will do?” I get out before my knees buckle and everything goes black.
2
NICK
I pace, my mind a mess as I imagine fifty different horrible scenarios, each of them worse than the last. “Where is she?” I turn to Marco.
“It’s a surprise. Calm down.” But Marco fidgets with his watch, his eyes on the timepiece.
“Are they late?” I ask.
“No. Not yet.” He checks his phone.
Fredo is perched on my desk, his eyes watching like one of those old clocks as I walk back and forth, back and forth. I don’t like not knowing where Sophia is. It makes me fucking itch. It’s making me slowly go insane.
“Just tell me where they went.” I stop and pin Marco with a glare.
“No. Be patient.” He glances at the clock over the mantle.
“They’ve been gone for half an hour. That’s half an hour too long.” I cross my arms over my chest. “We should go check on them.”
He shakes his head. “They were very clear that we weren’t to interfere.”
That gives me an idea. “Okay, so we won’t interfere. But that doesn’t mean we can’t simply drive by their location? No harm, no foul.”
His eyebrows draw together as he considers it, and then he looks at his watch.
“I can tell you’re worried about Evangeline.” I go in for the kill. “Why not go check on her to make sure she’s all right? They won’t even know we were there. We’ll race home and be sitting here waiting when they get back.”
He sucks on a tooth, then gives me a grudging nod. “Yeah, let’s go.”
I don’t wait for him. With a quick stride, I head out of the office, down the hall, and into the garage.
“I’ll drive.” He snags the keys to the Rover.
“I’m better.”
“This isn’t a race.”
“Maybe not for you,” I say under my breath, but I oblige him and climb into the passenger side.
“Besides.” He starts the engine. “I’m the only one who knows where we’re going.”
We pull down the drive and out onto the highway, and Marco picks up a decent amount of speed as we head toward town. Even so, that itch at the back of my mind increases, and real worry starts to eat away at my heart. She hasn’t texted, and I know Evangeline hasn’t contacted Marco.
I flip through my contacts and pull up the driver, then call him.
It rings. Rings again.
That’s when my stomach churns.
He should’ve answered on the first ring. The first fucking moment he knew it was me calling, he should’ve picked up.
“The driver isn’t answering.” I grate the words between my teeth.
The color drains from Marco’s face, and he floors it, the SUV speeding down the highway as he passes cars and takes the curves at a madman’s pace. I hit the button to speed dial Sophia, and Marco is doing the same for Evangeline.
“Faster!” I slam my hand on the dash, my heart racing as all those scenarios I’d just been imagining come rushing back. What if she’s hurt? What if she’s–No! I won’t let myself think that. I can’t.
Sophia doesn’t answer. Neither does Evangeline.
He burns through a red light as our phones ring and ring until we hit voicemail, and then I dial again. There’s nothing else I can do. My mind is on fire, my body so tense it’s almost quaking.
“Get ready. We’re almost there.” He turns down a wrong-way street, the other cars honking as we jet past them.
I open the glove box and pull out a Glock.
“Here, we’re here!” He screeches to a stop in an animal shelter parking lot.
I jump out of the car and run to the doors. Inside, my worst fears come true. Blood streaks the floor, and a woman’s body lies sideways across the hall.
“Sophia!” I scream her name, my throat shredding as I kick open the doors along the main hallway. I find a vet in a white coat lying in a pool of blood, and behind him is a cage with three kittens in a row, each of them watching me with wide eyes.
“Evangeline!” Marco follows, both of us frantically searching.
“Help!” A woman’s voice, but not my Sophia. “Marco, help!” Evangeline cries.
He turns and rushes back to the lobby, then kicks open the bathroom door. “Baby!” He pulls Evangeline into his arms as she cries, her body shaking. “They took Sophia. Someone knocked me out from behind and locked me up in here. When I woke up I didn’t know what to do. I-I think it was the vet. I think he stashed me here. I think he must’ve known or, or, or–” Her voice breaks on a sob.