Page 232 of Merciless Daddy

Angela nodded.

“Exactly.”

For the first time since the service door came down between Yelena and me, a path appeared.

Narrow.

Dangerous.

But real.

I looked at the map. Mill Basin. New Jersey. Two possible rooms where my little falcon might be held beneath cameras and men with guns.

“Call Dante Caruso,” I said. “Tell him I need to call in a favor.”

Chapter 18

Yelena

They washed the smoke out of my hair as if kidnapping could be made respectable with expensive shampoo.

Two women did it under armed supervision. Neither spoke to me. One tested the water against her wrist before guiding me into the shower. The other stood near the locked bathroom door with my discarded clothes sealed inside a clear evidence bag.

Not evidence for the police.

Evidence that I had entered Gianni’s custody wearing another man’s touch on my skin.

The water ran hot. I let it.

The sedative had left my muscles weak and my mouth coated in the taste of metal. Smoke still clung to my throat. I stood beneath the spray and watched grey water circle the drain.

No window. No vent large enough for a hand. Smooth stone walls. Steel fixtures fixed flush to the surface.

The mirror had been removed. I felt like I wasn’t even a person. No reflection, no sense of self. Nothing.

I counted seconds between the low vibrations beneath my feet. Eleven. Then twenty-three. Then eight. Cooling machinery, perhaps. Freight equipment. Something industrial and heavy.

One woman handed me soap.

I looked at her wrist. No watch. No jewelry. No key card.

“Where are we?”

She stared at the floor.

The guard by the door shifted his rifle.

“Quite the conversationalist,” I said.

Nobody answered.

They dressed me in pale silk afterward. A blouse with pearl buttons. A long skirt. Soft underthings. Flat shoes.

No zipper teeth. No underwire. No belt. Nothing I could break apart or turn into an edge.

Gianni had thought of everything. Almost everything, I told myself.

He had not thought of Sal. Or maybe he had, but he hadn’t reckoned with him.