“It doesn’t make sense right now, but it will. I have to go, but I’ll be back. Keep this,” she handed me my Glock.
“I could blow your brains out right now.”
“And then you’ll never see your daughter again because nobody in this place is ever going to go against Gregory.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Because one of those girls…” she paused, her eyes closing briefly, “… is my daughter.”
“Is this some kind of a trick? This place is probably wired, and there are cameras everywhere.” I looked around but couldn’t see anything, but that meant nothing.
“It’s a new facility. When you compromised the warehouse, they had no choice but to move everyone here. Gracie has been here from day one. She’s scared, but she knows you’re here.”
I could feel the tears threatening to fall. My baby was here, and I couldn’t get to her.
“What does he intend to do with her?”
“You’ll have to ask him once we’ve subdued him. It won’t be long now. Sit tight.”
It was easy for her to say. She wasn’t the one who was trapped in here. But I knew that wasn’t true. She, too, was a prisoner. They all were fighting for survival.
“Is Gracie going to be okay until then?” I hated the way my voice shook with uncertainty.
“She is, for now.”
“I mean, he hasn’t—” I couldn’t say the words, just thinking it made my stomach churn.
“She’s safe. You, on the other hand, are not. He’ll want to see you, and you’re going to have to play it cool for now, but I promise you, Alyssa, when we get a chance, we’re taking it. I’m Carmen, by the way, Carmen Jones, and for all intents and purposes, I am a nurse. I worked in another department in Fort Hill and paid your nurses to let me see you.”
She left as quickly as she’d arrived.
“Alyssa, Alyssa.” His voice caused my insides to clench. I opened my eyes, and the disgusting face of Gregory Evans was staring back at me. He had a self-satisfied smirk, and I would have liked nothing more than to have wiped it off his face. I tried to do just that, and I realized I was once again restrained.
“You’re a coward, Gregory. A coward.”
He laughed at me. “I didn’t expect this from you, you know. Always the humble, quiet one. I wondered what Malcolm ever saw in you. I told him to get rid of you a long time ago. He’d have been alive if he had listened to me. But my brother was always strange, wasn’t he?”
I frowned. “Yourbrother?”
“Yes, brother. You never did know why he was as close to me as he was, did you? Or why he lied for me, even to you.”
“How is that even possible?” Mal never mentioned he had a brother.
“Oh, do the math. Our father was an asshole, cheating on Mal’s mother for years. I was a product of one of those elicit affairs and lived out of town with my mom. Mal and I met when we were adults. I guess he never mentioned it because he was always envious of the relationship my father and I had. I was the son with potential, Mal was just trying to keep up with me. He’d do anything for Daddy’s approval.”
“You and Mal can both rot in hell for all I care, along with your excuse for a father.”
“My father had nothing to do with this. He handed over the reins to us a long time ago.”
“You’re all monsters,” I spat out.
“Be careful, princess. You don’t want to make me angry, now, do you?”
“Where is my daughter?”
“You have to give me something first. A fair trade.” I thought he meant the Glock. “You recorded something, and I don’t want it getting into the wrong hands.”
“Is that why you took her?”
