That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Finn Kearney want me dead? No matter how much I ponder it, I have no answer.
“Why?” I whisper to the empty room.
Panic claws at my chest, making it hard to breathe. I yank at the cuffs again, harder this time, not caring about the pain. The metal slices deeper, warm blood coating my palms, making the metal slick.
“Help me,” I try again, voice cracking with the effort. “Somebody, please.”
I don’t know if anyone can hear me or even where I am. Am I still in Cleveland? Yes, I have to be. That’s the only acceptable outcome, so I won’t even consider anything else. If I’m still here, Matteo will tear the city apart.
All I have to do is wait.
It’ll all be okay.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Chapter 39
Raven
Time stretches like taffy in this windowless prison, each second marked by the relentless dripping of unseen water.
Even though my voice is nothing more than a hoarse whisper by now, I keep trying to scream for help. My wrists are slick with blood, raw from fighting against the handcuffs, but I keep pulling anyway.
What else can I do? Sit here and wait for whatever Finn has planned? Not fucking likely.
I’m on my ninth—or maybe nineteenth—attempt to dislocate my thumb when the door creaks open, and my heart slams against my ribs hard enough to bruise.
I tense, preparing myself for Finn’s return, for whatever sick game he’s playing. But it’s not Finn who steps through the doorway.
“Raven? Jesus Christ,” Adam Kearney whispers, his face draining of color as he takes in the sight of me chained to the table. His eyes, so similar to his brother’s yet so fundamentally different, widen with genuine horror.
“Adam?” I croak, disbelief making my voice catch. Is this a trick? Another layer of Finn’s twisted plan?
“Oh, my God, Raven.” He rushes toward me, hands trembling as he pulls out a set of keys from his pocket. “What the hell… who did this to you?”
“Your brother,” I spit, watching his face for any sign of deception. “Finn grabbed me outside the hospital, drugged me, and chained me up here like a fucking animal.”
Adam’s hands shake so badly he drops the keys, cursing as he fumbles to retrieve them from the concrete floor. “No, no, no. This can’t be happening.” He finds what looks like the right key and tries to fit it into the lock on my handcuffs. “I swear to God, I didn’t know. I had no idea he would—”
“It didn’t work,” I say as he tries another key, the metal scraping against metal. “That one doesn’t fit.”
“Shit, sorry.” He tries a third key, then a fourth, muttering apologies with each failure. His anxiety is contagious, making my heart race even faster.
“What are you doing here, Adam?” I demand, not sure I should let my guard down just yet.
“I just… I knew something was wrong. Finn’s been acting strange for the last year or so. Secretive. Angry. But this…” He shakes his head, genuine distress written across his features.
Finally, the fifth key slides into the lock with a satisfying click. The handcuffs slide open, and I nearly sob with relief as blood rushes back into my hands, bringing pins and needles of pain.
“Hang on,” he grunts, tearing fabric from the sleeve of his shirt.
“Do you know where we are?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. While he’s preoccupied doing that, I quickly pat the pocket where my knife should… yep, it’s still there. “How far from the city?”
“We’re in an old storage basement under one of our warehouses,” he replies as he finally gets a strip of fabric free. “Here.”
I take it from him and wrap it around my wrist as well as I possibly can, not speaking until he holds a second one that he secures around my other wrist.
“We’re on the east side, so only like twenty minutes from downtown,” he clarifies.
