Mathew walked to the other side of the cameras again, adjusting the lighting to get it just right. Professional to the end. And then, to my horror, he picked up something from the floor, gesturing around the room with it.
“You want to know what this is really about, Dakota?” He turned back to me, his voice turning cold and methodical. “First, I’m going to destroy what’s left of your pathetic online image. Show everyone who you really are underneath all the makeup and filters. The broken, ugly truth.”
I’d already revealed my makeup-free self to my followers, so something told me whatever he had planned to show who I “really” was, would be much more ominous.
“Mathew—”
“Then, when I’m done humiliating you the way you humiliated me …” His voice dropped to a whisper that somehow felt more terrifying than his shouting. “Well, if I can’t have you, no one can. Especially not him.”
The implication hit me like a sledgehammer. He was going to kill me. On camera. For everyone to see.
“Enough talking.” He walked closer to me, and that’s when the studio lights reflected off something in his hand.
Something that gleamed like a promise.
A knife.
59
AXEL
The police officer, Ryker, and Jace crowded next to me, staring at my screen in stunned silence.
“He has her.” The words came out flat, final. “This isn’t the Romano family. It’s Mathew.”
I’m going to kill him.
“I’m calling backup,” the officer said, suddenly all business now that he had proof.
Too late for that.
God, she looked so vulnerable. Right behind the cold dread of realization came boiling hot fury that burned through my veins like acid. He’d taken her. He’d done this to her. I needed to get to her. Now.
But where? Where the hell was she?
I scrutinized the video feed, searching for any clue, any detail that could tell me her location. A lone wall stood behind her, wallpapered with photos of Dakota, like some sick shrine. I pushed down the bile of disgust, realizing this was so much more than a jilted ex-lover.
This is pure, deranged obsession.
Wait.
That door.
“What is it?” Jace asked, noticing my sudden focus.
“I think I recognize that door.” My heart hammered against my ribs.
“How?”
“When I was moving Dakota’s camera equipment out, I smacked it with one of the tripods. Put a little hole in the door, just like that.” I pointed to the screen, to the tiny puncture in the wood that I’d made. “She freaked out because she thought it would cost her the security deposit and …”
The only way I’d gotten her to calm down was by kissing her.
“He took her to her old apartment.”
“What’s the address?” Ryker demanded.
I rattled it off: apartment number, building code, everything.
