A coil of dread twists in my gut, because if I didn’t willingly leave, I must have been taken.
I return to the conversation I had with my mother, and my refusal to do my job. Would she have turned me in right then and there? Did The Web take me into custody?
I grab my neck and find that my collar is gone.
No!
Did they kill Mateo?
Tears form in my eyes, but before they can release, the door flings open and a dark bearded man I’ve never seen before enters the room.
He looks at me, his eyes full of trepidation, and I wonder what could have a big man like him so anxious at the sight of someone as small and disheveled as me, but before I can say anything, he barks, “She’s awake.”
EIGHTEEN
Mateo
I enterthe room and see my wife sitting up, a blanket clutched to her chest.
And my heart breaks.
“You disappoint me, Ivy.”
She blinks at me.
I pull over a chair and take a seat. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions. If you lie to me, I’ll know it, and I promise to make you pay. Do you understand?”
She nods.
“Are you a part of an entity that calls themselves The Web?”
She looks down at the bedding.
“Answer me, Ivy.”
She nods.
“Say it!”
“Yes,” she finally says.
My stomach drops, though I don’t know why it should. I already knew what she was and her intentions for me.
But I have to hear them from her spider lips.
“Were you intending to kill me?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m sorry to say, but that’s not going to happen.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“I never wanted you dead. Or…once I did, but I don’t now.”
“Don’t think for a second that you can weasel your way out of your punishment, which will be vast. If you thought Black Thorn Manor was bad, just wait until you’re locked in a real cage.”
