We turn and the car shoots forward.
“Hell fucking yeah, Kitten! We’re in the clear!”
I don’t lift my head. “How do you know they’re not coming for us?”
“Because if they’d seen, they’d already be shooting.”
I whimper into my legs.
It takes twenty minutes for Archie to convince me to sit up properly. When I do, he hands me a bag of Sour Patch Kids and a bottle of water. “Here. For shock.”
I chew through half the pack without tasting anything. My mind has a floaty, half-asleep feeling, like nothing is real. I could be in a car with a blond stranger, or I could be in my bedroom at Velvet House, or I could be dozing off in science period. Who knows?
“You feelin’ better?” Archie asks.
“I don’t know,” I say, squishing an orange Sour Patch between my fingers.
“That’s fair, but we’ve got about fifty miles between us and Zachery Parker. That seems like plenty of space to me.”
My tummy gives a happy wriggle. “What about Bill? Is he okay?”
“I don’t know. He won’t make contact for another day or so.”
I bite my tongue, but my unspoken words hang in the air between us.I hope Mr. Parker doesn’t go crazy and hurt him.
Archie coughs. “Anyway, now you’re talking again, you should know I’m still taking you to Morelli.”
Cold trickles down my body like icy water. I can see Eli in my mind, his handsome face contorted with rage as he orders me into the basement cage to suffer for the pain I caused. For my disobedience.
I imagine Adriano’s mouth twisting in hatred as he realizes I seduced him against his will, helping Doc to throw me into the cage, laughing as Doc’s barbed insults tear at me. The two of them would make sure I pay for what I did a thousand times over and Bobby, my gentle protector will let them. He will never again look at me like the precious thing he believed me to be.
I will truly be Velvet House’s prisoner.
And yet…
I would rather be at Velvet House than with Mr. Parker.
The thought is as true now as it was when it was a fantasy. They will hurt me, they will do everything they can to break me, but I will survive it. And no one else will be harmed because of me. I close my eyes, forcing my tears to run fresh paths down my cheeks.
“Okay,” I tell Archie. “Take me to Velvet House.”
“Right…” he shifts a little in his seat. “You wouldn’t… I mean, you don’t know where it is, do you?”
I gape at him. “You don’t know how to get to Velvet House?”
Archie scowls. “I just… I got a general idea, but I’ve never actually… I mean, the address ain’t on Google maps, is it?”
My heart contracts as I wonder if I can lie to Archie. Get him to take me to an airport or a train station and run away. But where would I go? I don’t have any money or my passport and if I managed to get home my stepmom would just hand me over to Mr. Parker again.
“Kitten?” Archie presses. “Help a white knight out here?”
I push my fingers into my ponytail and pull out the St. Christopher medallion I’ve been hiding in my hair. The one Zia Teresa gave me on my ruined wedding day. “I don’t know Velvet House’s address,” I say honestly. “I’m not great with directions.
Archie makes a grumpy sound. “You don’t have any idea where it is?”
“Albany,” I say promptly.
“That’s a big place, sweetness. Any specifics? Anything you’d recognize if you saw it again?”
