An unbearable feeling of dread fills my chest when he aims the gun back at her.
“Is this what you want, sweetheart? To die?”
“No, no! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything like that,” she sobs.
That cruel smile appears on his face again. I thought I had improved at being able to predict Marco, but his next move surprises me.
He turns his gun around and extends it out towards her.
I notice her shaking. She doesn’t reach for it, her desperate eyes flicking between Marco and I, unsure of what to do.
“Take the gun,” he hisses.
She does as he says, holding it in both of her hands on her lap.
“Now,” Marco says. “Either you or Alessandro are going to die tonight.”
She gasps and looks at me in fear. My gut feeling is that Marco is bluffing. We received her family’s first wire-transfer. And me? His threats are common, but he cares about my sister too much to kill me.
“You have three options, Sofia. Option one: kill yourself. Option two: kill Alessandro. Or option three: give running away a try, and I’ll have Alessandro hunt you down.”
“W-what?” she asks.
“I won’t repeat myself.”
Her scared, doe-like eyes find me again, and I have a morbid curiosity if she’s going to choose option two.
Sofia stands up on wobbly legs, kicking off her shoes. She keeps the gun poorly aimed at Marco and his men as she back-pedals towards the trail. I look at her hands—she doesn’t even know how to hold the damn thing. That’s a disgrace. Elena learned how to shoot a gun when she was twelve.
Once she rounds the first corner of the trail, I see her turn and sprint.
Marco turns to face me, looking pleased with himself. “Bring her back alive. If I ever see her happy again, you both will be moved to the dungeon where she will be endlessly tortured and you will watch.”
“Fuck. You.” I feel fury wash over me. And I’m failing to mask it so much that Marco looks apprehensive for a minute. I shouldn’thave let him see how much this affected me. It’s apparent to me that Sofia is becoming a weakness. And now Marco sees that too.
I take a step to go after her, but his hand lands on my shoulder. “Let’s make this interesting. Give her a few minutes.”
“She’s run marathons before.” I know this detail from when I stalked her Instagram.
“Well, maybe you should have considered that before taking her outside the walls of the castle.”
His hand squeezes my shoulder for who knows how long—time is warped from the rush of adrenaline.
Then the weight of his hand comes off.
“Go.”
Chapter 13
Sofia
Myadrenalinenolongermasks the pain in my feet as I continue to throw myself down this steep incline. I wish the terrain were like what I’m used to at home: plush grass or a pine-needle ridden trail. Dense forest to hide. Instead, I’m dodging larger rocks to land on smaller rocks, and there are barely any trees or bushes to conceal me. I’m simply going to have to be faster than Alessandro. I conceal my grunt as an unusually sharp one hits the arch of my foot.
I estimate that I’ve run a mile or so; it’s hard to tell because while I’m heading downhill, obviously being shoe-less and holding a heavy gun in my hand is slowing me down. But effort-wise, I feel like I’m at a 5k pace, so I still have some gas in my tank.
A grin forms on my face when I think of all the smoke breaks Alessandro takes. I bet he’s the type to ignore cardio in his routine, and if that’s true, then maybe I can actually get away.
Deciding I need to create a plan before I get too tired, I wonder where I can go if I make it out of this trail before he catches up to me. The police are not a smart choice—who knows what precincts they’ve paid off. Straight to a hospital could work… unless they end up calling the cops. I decide that I’ll wave down a stranger and say that I’m fleeing a first date gone horribly wrong, then ask to borrow a phone and call Dad.
