I skidded to a stop. “Gio, I want to know where my daughter is.”
I couldn’t help it. My voice shook. I had already done everything he asked of me. I hadn’t even contacted anyone before running from the house and getting in the car.
And now here I was, an hour outside the city in the dark alone with my brother, and he didn’t even have my child.
Squinting, I tried to peer through the heavily tinted windows of the car behind him. There was nothing to see, but I didn’t think Lily was in there.
“Lily?” I called out loudly. “Lily, it’s Mommy—"
The back of Gio's hand cracked painfully across my jaw and sent me sprawling. I crumbled to the floor and lifted a hand to my stinging face.
Gio was my brother, I had known him literally my entire life, and not once in that time had he ever hit me.
“Get,” he enunciated each word, “in the fucking car, Sophia.”
Glaring at him, I climbed to my feet. My hand was still pressed to my face. The sting was fading, but it was quickly getting replaced by the sting of anger.
“You are so easy to manipulate, Sophia. You always have been.” He pointed to the car. “Now get in the car and…”
I set my feet apart. “And if I don’t?”
His eyes narrowed. “Then I’ll make you take this ride in the trunk. Don’t make me forget who you are to me.”
That was rich coming from him. “You seem to have forgotten already.” I snapped back. “I’m going to ask again. Where is my daughter?”
“Safe, and I am going to take you to her if you behave.” He took a threatening step toward me, but I didn’t step back. He was almost twice my size, but I wouldn’t back down from a bully. Even if that bully was my brother.
“But if you don’t behave, Sophia, then you are never going to see that snivelling bastard ever again.”
I reeled back at the utter hatred in his voice. “People will come after me.”
Throwing back his head, he laughed. “No, they won’t. Come on, Sophia. No one is coming because no one cares about you and the brat. Do you think that Nat…”
He burst into more peals of laughter. “She can’t help you…”
“Matteo—" The words left my lips before I could think to bite them back.
I expected my brother to fly into a rage or laugh or do anything but give me a cold, pointed look. “I’d love to say I was counting on it because I would love to put a bullet between his eyes. But that will justhave to wait.” A cruel, cold smile spread across his face, making him look ghoulish. “He will find you, of course, but…well, Sophia, that won’t really matter to you by then.”
His hand closed around my elbow, crushing my flesh into my bones painfully. He dragged me toward the open door.
He was going to kill me. Kill us both. My own brother was going to kill us, and there was nothing I could do. I didn’t have a weapon, and not a single soul knew where I was because I had foolishly run out of the house without even a word to Nat.
“Matteo…he knows,” I mumbled.
“I know.” Gio shoved me into the car. “But he won’t get to you in time. Why did you have to do it, Sophia?” Why did you have to fall in love with him and ruin everything?”
The question was left unanswered as he slammed the door shut, narrowly missing my leg.
Desperately, I looked around the empty lot. I needed to believe that someone would come for me. That Matteo would, but he had been the one to walk away when he found out he was a father.
Could I really count on him?
Yes, a small voice whispered in my head. Yes, Matteo would come for us. I had to believe that. But how was he going to find us?
That’s when I saw it. The CCTV camera was half hidden high up on the warehouse wall. I couldn’t help it. I smiled. Cameras. That’s how he would find us. My brother wouldn’t know, but I did.
Almost every inch of the UK was covered by cameras.
