Page 100

Bob lowers his head and picks up the pace. His urgency has fear striking me right in the heart. Where the hell is Sasha? Did he get lost on the way home? Did he even make it to Booker’s in the first place?

I keep pace with Bob, one ear on Matt to make sure he’s following, every one of my senses slowing and sharpening as I prepare myself for what I’m going to find. There’s a dark mass growing in my gut, and I think it might be fear, but I refuse to poke into it and find out. Because if I’m scared, something bad has happened. And I promised myself that nothing bad would ever happen again.

It can’t. It won’t.

Because I can’t survive that twice.

I knew that getting involved with Sasha would ruin me. I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-TWO

SASHA

My head is groggy. Something smells weird. I’m trying to open my eyes, but they don’t want to cooperate, and I know, deep down, that something isn’t good, but I can’t place why.

There’s a pain in my shoulders that takes me too long to realize is coming from the way they’re being pulled back. The way my wrists ache and I can’t pull them apart.

Slowly, my consciousness drips back to life. The way my face feels smooshed against something—the floor? The uncomfortable position I’m in and⁠—

Fuck. My hands are tied. Behind my back. With what could possibly be a zip tie with the way it’s cutting into my wrists.

I force my eyes open, hating how blurry everything is, and it takes way too long for me to focus. My vision dips in and out in a cloudy haze, and I’m trying not to panic over what could be happening, but I’m definitely panicking. My chest is tight, and I swear I could vomit at any second.

“He’s awake,” a low voice says.

The voice is familiar, but I’m too fucked in the head to place it. I try to turn toward the sound, but from the ground, I can’t do much, and whenever I move, the whole room moves with me.

“Give him a bit longer.”

Shit. That voice isn’t a mystery. It invades all of my nightmares, and I’d know him even if he was talking through water.

How the fuck did Antonio find me?

I’m scraping through my memories, trying to remember what happened, but nothing is coming back to me. All I can remember is Booker leaving, and that’s it. I was walking back to Lynx’s, wasn’t I? Did I make it there? I’m assuming not, or I wouldn’t be lying on some dirty fucking floor in some place I can’t name.

My mouth is so dry I can’t put words together, and with all the energy I have in my body, I roll to the side and finally bring them into focus.

Antonio and Jeffrey.

It’s just my luck that they’d catch up to me right before my exit plan was going to be put into place. The mechanic will be here any day now, then I would have had my car and the USB, and I could have been out of here.

Could have. Unfortunately, I know me, and I’m exactly as weak as Lynx says I am because I know I wouldn’t have left. Not until Lynx was sick of me.

Fuck. Lynx. He will have noticed I’m not back yet. Is he worried? Panicked? Relieved? I hate that I don’t know him well enough to be sure either way, but I’m leaning toward the first option. If there’s one thing Lynx values above everything, it’s his ability to protect people, and he can’t protect me if he doesn’t know where I am.

That’s when a dreadful thought hits. If something happens to me, Lynx will never forgive himself. He’ll see it as a failure, and while I know for a fact that it’s not up to Lynx to protect me, with all the trauma he’s been through, his logic doesn’t have to make sense. He’s convinced himself that he’s responsible for everyone, and that’s a lot to take on.

Especially when I’m part of everyone, and I’m the type of person who gets involved with genuinely bad people, then steals evidence of their bad doings. What the fuck was I thinking?

“So you found me,” I croak.

Antonio chuckles, standing from the chair he’s sitting in and pacing closer. “You always knew I would. Didn’t you, sweetheart?”

I’d spit at his feet if I had any moisture in my mouth.

“This has been a fun little game,” he tells me. “I’ve enjoyed it. You know how I enjoy our time together. But I’ve had enough now. Give me what’s mine, and I’ll let you go.”