I can’t let that hopelessness touch me.Whatever their drama is, whatever this crime, I’ll get out of it.I have to.
He roughly spins me around so I face him now, instead of Alessia.Through the open car door, and past him, I see the exterior of an ugly motel.The motel room doors and windows all face the parking lot.
“You’re going to get out of the car and go straight to the room with me.”He yanks on my hand.“Both of you.”
I stumble when he pulls me out of the car.My legs are sore from sitting in that cramped position in the back of the car.
“Up,” he barks.“No funny business.”
I stare at the windows of the motel rooms.Why is nobody looking out?Surely one of those rooms houses a bored or nosy person who wants to take in the sights of the parking lot?
But there’s no one.And even if there was, I’m not sure this is the kind of place where suspicious behavior would be reported.
I can’t do this.I can’t let him push me into a hotel room and keep me there.Alessia shuffles along like her spirit is already broken.I guess I can understand—when you’ve been beaten so many times, it’s probably difficult to have any fight left.
But I can’t give up, not yet.Three feet from the motel room door, I wrench my arm from his grasp and bolt.
I’m not fast enough.His bruising grip comes down on my shoulder and he spins me around.Sharp pain explodes over my cheek and jaw as he backhands me.
I cry out, but he hits me again.
“There’s a family in the room next to ours.”He gets close to my face, his coffee breath filling my nostrils.“Another attempt to run, any sound you make to cry for help, and I will shoot the kids while the parents watch.Then I’ll shoot the parents.Do not make me harm that innocent family.”
I swallow, eyes watering with tears from the pain in my jaw, my heart cracking.Is this what it means to have your spirit broken, to be filled with so much fear, you can’t even move?
* * *
DAMIANO
My phone rings.It’s Kristoff, the guard on duty with Alessia.
“Is everything okay?”I ask.“Or is she fighting with you about packing?”
“Boss.”His voice is serious.“Ms.Romano sent me back to the apartment so she could attend to some personal business.It’s been forty minutes and she hasn’t returned.I went back down to look for her, and she’s no longer there.”
“Where did you leave her?”
“The parking garage.She wanted to have a conversation with another woman who’d just arrived.She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Was the other woman about five-five, with light brown hair?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck.Call Colton.Tell him to meet me in the guards’ station.”
“Sure thing,” Kristoff says.
I dial Madison while running to the elevator.No answer.I keep calling as the elevator takes me to the first floor, where our security feeds are located.There, I gesture at Fozz, our tech guy, to give me his seat.
He doesn’t ask questions, just jumps right up.
Madison still hasn’t answered her phone.
As I’m pulling up the feed from an hour ago, Seth bursts into the office.Fozz gives a start, frowning behind his giant gray beard.
“What the fuck?”Seth looks between us.“Kristoff said there’s an emergency?And you’re calling Madison’s phone, but she isn’t picking up because I found this on the fucking ground in the garage.She’s missing.”
He holds up a phone with a cracked screen.
