They hang up, and with trembling fingers, I compose the house number. Why the fuck have I never given her a cell phone? The only thing I can do is call the landline, hoping that Everest was right with his calculations, and that Noel isn’t there yet.
Pick up… pick up…I think in a silent prayer.
The call goes straight to voice mail.
Fuck.
I call the number again. It rings about five times, and I’m already expecting it to go straight to voicemail again when there’s a click, then a sleepy voice.
“Hello?”
Thank fuck.
“Darling,” I murmur urgently. “Hide.”
“What?”
“It was a trap. Noel is about to arrive. Hide!”
__
The trip should take thirty minutes, but in less than fifteen I’ve arrived, my car crunching up the gravelly driveway. I don’t even take the time to stop when I notice Stefano lying in the grass, his eyes staring upwards, unseeing. Better dead than a traitor. I guess the others have turned against me, and they’ll die for that. But right now, my thoughts are fixated on Seraphina.
I jump out, hoping I haven’t made too much noise driving up. The black Mercedes is already there and my heart sinks to my stomach, even though I’m not surprised.
I enter the house quietly, my gun cocked, my ears and eyes straining for any sign of him—any sign of her.
At last I hear something.
“Here I come! Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
The sing-songy voice, with the cruel undertones, makes my stomach lurch. But at least he hasn’t found her yet.There’s still hope.
And he doesn’t seem to have any idea that I’m here. I guess he’s so focused on her he didn’t hear the car drive up. I should have parked it further away, but the walk up would have been too long, too nerve-wracking. And these minutes I’ve saved by parking right out back may just allow me to save her.
Noel is on the top floor, searching through the master suite. Makes sense. I hope she wasn’t stupid enough to stay up there.
I tiptoe around the living room, glance in the kitchen, but there’s no sign of her. Then I remember the library, on the other side of the house. That was her favorite hiding place. Maybe I’ll find her…yes. There she is. Crouching in the children’s book aisle, her head resting on the dusty first-edition copy ofPeterPan.
Poor baby. My heart goes out to her. I creep past the other bookshelves and make my way to her so quietly that she doesn’t hear me. But I time things well. One of my hands goes over her mouth just as the other tilts her head back brusquely, so she has time to see me before she has time to cry out. Then I push her down to the floor and crush her under my own body.
“Don’t fucking move a muscle,” I growl in her ear, doing my best to scare her, because that’s the only way I can think of to make sure she obeys, “or I will punish you harder than you’ve ever been punished before. I will fucking beat the shit out of you, do you hear?”
She nods slightly, her eyes wide with fear. Fear of Noel, I wonder, or of me?
Whichever the case, I’m satisfied she will listen. I bury my face in her beautiful hair and drink her in, her scent, her body, everything. I will not live if she dies.
Tearing myself away from her, I grab my gun and cock it. Then I move slowly from the library and… fuck.
Noel really is smarter than I gave him credit for. Cold metal to the back of my head tells me he did in fact hear my car drive up to the house. And he’s been waiting.
He cocks his gun, his finger pressed on the trigger.
“Come out, now,pet!” he calls in a syrupy voice. “Or your boyfriend is dead!”
“She’s not here,” I snap.
He sniggers. “Sure, and I’m Julius Caesar. Go on, Seraphina, step out of your hiding place! Otherwise, I’ll kill your little boyfriend, and then I’ll find you anyway. Counting down from ten!”
