Page 72 of Take Me Darkly

“D’accord,” Madeleine said simply.

I turned to Zeke. “I’ll take it from here.”

Zeke disappeared into the corridor, already on the phone. I looked back at the two women and considered my options.

“I’ll need to blindfold you for the drive,” I informed them. “It’s a precaution. The location of where I’m taking you needs to remain⁠—”

“Absolument pas!” Madeleine’s chin shot up, horror flashing across her face. She held up one hand, palm forward, as if physically stopping the idea from advancing further. “You cannot be serious. We are two women in a foreign city, and you are, with all due respect, Monsieur Romano, essentially a stranger. The suggestion that we get into a car and allow you to blindfold us is absurd.”

I looked at Caterina only to see she wore the same incredulous expression.

“No reasonable woman would agree to do that,” she added flatly.

My gaze shifted between the two women for a moment, running the risks. They weren’t wrong. If I were in their position, I wouldn’t agree to it either.

“Fine,” I said. “No blindfolds. But you must know that the location I’m taking you to is not public. There are people actively trying to find it, and if they succeed, Serena’s safety could be in jeopardy. Everything I ask of you exists for one reason, which is keeping her alive.”

I let that sit.

For the first time since she had walked in, Madeleine looked uncertain. Whatever she had expected from this meeting—indignation, theater, or a fight—it had not been this.

Caterina spoke first, her voice calm. “We’ll do what it takes to see Rena.”

Madeleine gave a single nod in agreement. “Lead the way, Monsieur Romano.”

I led them down to the private basement garage and loaded them into the back of the armored Volvo. I took an erratic, disorienting route through Manhattan—looping through Central Park, cutting east, doubling back through the theater district, and wasting fifty minutes in traffic to give Zeke and Myla enough time to lockdown Club O. If I couldn’t blindfold them, I could at least try to disorient them.

By the time I pulled into the rear service courtyard off the quiet side street, the building looked like what it had been for a century—an imposing, grey-stone former church, completely invisible to the pulsing city around it.

Madeleine looked at the building as she stepped out of the car, and I saw her cataloguing it with the practiced eye of a woman who had spent her life assessing things.

“You are hiding her in a church?”

“Something like that,” I murmured, deliberately evasive as I keyed the code into the lock on the private service entrance.

Caterina said nothing, but had a curious expression as she took in the building.

My phone buzzed in my hand.

Today, 12:59 PM

Zeke: Club has been cleared. Serena is in the apartment.

I pushed the heavy door open and held it for them.

“Welcome to my sanctuary, ladies. Try not to break anything.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Serena

* * *

I had just set my empty plate in the sink when I heard the deadbolt for the apartment door slide back with a heavy, metallic click.

I went still with the dish towel in my hand. I expected Anton to be working for another few hours, and Zeke never entered without texting me first. A violent spike of adrenaline hit my chest, my pulse hammering against my ribs. I hated living like this—constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, perpetually watching over my shoulder even within these walls.

I crossed the room slowly, watching the door swing inward.