Not it.
Less than a minute later I get a new text.
PHIL:
Feeder 2 in 5 seconds.
I watch the screen, my body tense with worry and hope, and when the light doesn’t even flicker, I tell him that’s not it either.
PHIL:
Feeder 3 in 5 seconds.
The electricity goes out around us, plunging everything in darkness. The quiet feels impossibly loud. The couple of seconds it takes for my hotspot to kick in and restore the connection feels like a lifetime. My screen stays black, but I know it’s on because Savanna’s terrified scream fills the room we’re in. I’m not surprised that Cupid’s camera has a backup battery, and for once I’m grateful for his planning so I don’t lose this connection to her.
“Van, just a couple seconds more, baby,” I say while I text her dad to say we’ve got it. My heart breaks at the fear in her voicewhen she screams my name. “Goddammit,” I yell, so sick and tired of not being able to do anything.
The lights click back on as I’m pulling up schematics of zone 3. I glance at my laptop, making sure Savanna is okay. She’s huddled up in as tight of a ball as she can manage, head buried in her arms and crying loud enough for me to hear.
“Let’s find the basements,” my dad says, gently pulling my attention away from the thing that’s slowly killing me. “We’re close, Niki.”
I use the big monitor and replace the zone images with an even more detailed, zoomed-in one of the residential and commercial buildings in this area. It’s only a few blocks, but there are a ton of buildings crammed into each zone and narrowing it down is still going to take longer than I want it to.
Pulling up all the property and building records, I immediately discard the skyscrapers, luxury condos, and major commercial properties. Those will all be too heavily monitored and busy. Cupid needs privacy, so I focus on older brownstones, warehouses, anything with a documented cellar space. Soon, I have a list of twelve possible locations.
Switching to a satellite map, I point out the addresses to the others.
“This can’t be it,” Damien says, pointing to a building that’s located in between two businesses. One’s a take-out Chinese place that’s always busy, and the other is a coffee shop that stays open late. “Look at the security cameras.”
We all see the cameras that both businesses have. It’s a stupid location to pick, and Cupid’s not dumb. I cross it off the list and pull up the next one. We work our way through each property until we have three left. Each one could work, and I know in my gut that Savanna is in one of them.
“I’ll take the first,” my dad says, while I search for the owner of the second one.
After a few minutes of typing, he says, “One’s out. It’s a guy who owns several properties around the city. He guts them and then resells them.”
I read through the records on my screen while I say, “Check three just to be sure, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got it. The second one is owned by an LLC. It was bought five years ago, and the age of the building fits what we’re seeing on the video.”
While my dad searches the third one, I bring up the second address again. It’s the perfect spot. There’s a chainlink fence surrounding the small property with a padlock on it. It looks rundown, but not so decrepit it draws attention. It’s the kind of place you’d walk past and forget about as soon as it was no longer in view. It’s the perfect place to hide someone, and knowing the woman I love is chained up there has me getting up and grabbing my gun.
My dad pulls up the CCTV cameras on that street, and I’m not surprised to find there’s a huge blindspot along the back of the building.
“Well, that’s our entry point,” my Uncle Lev says. “That makes it nice and easy.”
While they discuss strategy, I zero in on the figure I see walking down the street. He’s wearing a baseball cap that’s pulled low, and he’s careful to keep his face angled away from each camera he passes.
“That’s him,” I say before darting my eyes to Savanna. She has no idea he’s walking towards her right now, no idea that fucking monster is going to be walking into her room in just a few minutes.
“Niki,” my dad starts to say when I grab my laptop and head for the door.
“Well, fuck,” I hear my Uncle Vitaly say from behind me. “Okay, family road trip. Let’s go kill this guy.”
Before I open the door, I look back at my family.
“No one touches Cupid but me.”
I don’t wait for them to agree. They all know this fucker is mine. He put his hands on Savanna, and I’m going to be the one to kill him for it.
Chapter 20
