"Your father."
A sound crawls out of my throat.
Demi continues, "He wouldn't give me a location or tell me where Red was taken or who else is involved. He swore he doesn't know the other details."
My vision blurs. I blink hard, and tears spill. My jaw locks. I drag a breath in through my nose, sharp and uneven.
Demi blurts out, "Nikolai said to have you go to Uncle Maksim."
"Maksim?"
"Yes. That's all he would say. But he said he can stop it if you get to him in time."
I gasp. My eyes flick to the mirror. I recognize the woman staring back. She looks wrecked. Unstable. Dangerous in the wrong way. She's the woman who appears when I'm spiraling.
Keep it together.
"I'm going," I say.
Demi replies, "Good. Text me when you get there."
I don't hang up. I put it on speaker and dial my dad.
It goes directly to voicemail.
My throat tightens until it aches. I call Mom.
She answers on the first ring. "Blue."
"Where is he"? I demand.
"Who?"
"Don't act like you don't know, Mom. Where did Dad take Red?"
She inhales sharply. Silence pops, then she asks with fear in her voice, "What are you talking about?"
My laugh comes out brittle and wrong. "You don't know?"
She assures, "No. But fill me in."
"You're sure you don't know?" I push, angry and scared, my tone louder.
"Your father doesn't tell me everything. You know that."
My fingers press into the bruise at my throat without thinking. Pain sparks and grounds me just enough to keep standing. I close my eyes, stating, "He's going to hurt him. Probably kill him."
"I'm coming over. Right now."
"Don't bother. I'm leaving," I reply.
"Where are you going?"
"To stop this," I say and hang up, rushing out of my apartment.
She tries to call me back, but I send her to voicemail. I jog down the hall, lunge out the parking garage door, and run to my car. I slide into my car and grip the steering wheel until my hands ache. Tunnel vision returns the same as when I'm spiraling. Somehow, I fight through that and my racing heart. My breath continues to come out in short bursts, and every exhale feels like pins scraping my lungs.
It takes me twenty minutes to get to Uncle Maksim's penthouse. I park in a loading zone, race through security, and type in my code in the elevator.
