He leans me against the elevator wall and presses the button for the ground floor.
When the elevator doors shut, I close my eyes, and tears spill over. Now that the dam has opened, the waterworks pour, and by the time the elevator stops on the floor under it, I’m sobbing hysterically.
I destroyeda man in order to save my family. I pray Alessio moves on, and I hope Leo forgets me. He will always be in my heart. Such a wonderful and special boy.
The elevator doors close again after a housekeeper joins me. The man presses the fifth-floor button as he balances a stack of folded towels in his hands. A lollipop in his mouth catches my eye. You don’t often see grown men sucking on lollipops.
“Rough day, I’m guessing,” he comments quietly.
I don’t want to talk. I want my weighted blanket, and a hole where I can hide and feel sorry for myself. “Yes,” I say. “Good guess.”
“Thanks. I never miss.”
Despite my bad mood, I manage to give him a small smile. The man’s trying to be polite, maybe even put a smile on my face.
The elevator stops on his floor, and he exits. I expect the doors to shut, but a woman’s meaty hand stops it. When the doors part again, I recognize the tall woman who’s been terrorizing me, and the urge to wrap my hands around her neck strikes me.
I’ve never been a violent person, but this woman brings out a side of me that the devil might like. Maybe that’s just the side of me I need to get my family through this ordeal.
She jerks her head, and I follow her down the hallway. We walk a little ways away from the housekeeper with the towels. He disappears around the corner while we continue to the end of the hallway, to the door right near the exit.
She opens the door into a suite with a small living space and a bedroom on the left. Her husband’s inside, along with a man who guards the door. They take up familiar positions. The young man at the door. The woman dragging me inside while her husband waits at the desk.
But this time, I’m different. I have the information they want, and I’m angry. I make a fist, spin, and clock the woman in her face. Blood spurts from her nose and all over my blouse, and I leer at her. “Don’t touch me.”
Holding her nose, she swings. I’m faster and duck, so she throws her weight into nothing but air and falls over the back of the couch. She lands on the cushions, rolls, and flops onto the floor. On hands and knees between the couch and the table, she crawls so she can rise and come at me again.
Instead of being afraid and spilling out everything I know, I laugh. I laugh so hard that I start to cry. Then I laugh and cry all at the same time. I can’t stop either. I can’t stop, even though they hover over me, ordering me to shut up. I think I’m broken.
I’m finally broken.
I would have laughed and cried there forever if the youngest of the three hadn’t grabbed my hair and dragged me to the couch. He forces me to sit, and a few minutes later, provides me with a cold towel. I press it against my now-swollen fist while I listen to the couple argue in the spare room.
The guard is about six foot one, with dark hair and eyes, and he stares down at me.
“What are you looking at?” I sneer.
He spits at me.
I wipe my face with the towel, and when he returns to guard the exit, I lift my middle finger in his direction.
The sadist slams the door to the bedroom and sits behind the desk in the corner of the room. He wears sunglasses, which makes me think he’s still hiding his face from me.
Until he takes them off.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’ll kill me. The moment I hand over the information, they’ll end me.
“I want to write a letter to my family,” I say.
“Did you bring what I asked?” the sadist asks.
I grab the piece of plastic and the screwdriver from my pocket and throw them on the glass coffee table.
“Careful.” He jumps out of the chair, seemingly terrified his precious object might break.
“And what are you going to do if I’m not careful? Shoot me? Go ahead. I’m dead anyway. If not by your hand, then Alessio will surely end me. I don’t know how my life will end, but I want to write a letter to my family, and I need guarantees that my family won’t be harmed.”
“We made a deal. Your family will be fine. As for Alessio, his end is coming.”
