Chapter 46

CHAPTER 46

FIONN

The buzzing in my head grows.

Something’s fucking wrong. I called Amara to find out when she’s getting Fia, but she never answered, even after my texts.

Roy hasn’t, either.

“Did you call Roy again?” I ask one of our guys.

My brothers are at my house with me after we left our meeting early.

“He’s still not answering.”

FUCK!

I try her again, but the phone keeps going to voicemail.

“We’re tracking her, sir,” he tells me.

She has no idea that her wedding band has an embedded device that gives me her location.

“Hurry the hell up!” I pound a fist on the wall in the foyer.

If Roy is somehow involved, he’s dead.

“I just got the security cams from the restaurant.” Cillian marches up, holding his cell.

The video plays, and she’s there, rushing out into her car from the back.

Ice fills my veins.

She drove off. Is she running from me?

No. She wouldn’t do that. Things between us have been good, and she’d never go without Fia.

“The preschool just said she called to ask about Fia,” Tynan adds. “They told her Fia was picked up an hour ago by a Desdemona.”

“That bitch! I should’ve killed her when I had the chance.”

“We’re gonna find them both.” Tynan clasps a palm on my shoulder, and I nod, my entire body tight with rage.

“Sir, we know where she is.”

He shoots off the address. Some house in Boston.

“Call the pilot,” I tell him. “We’re going now.”

I start for the door, my brothers behind me. Adrenaline rushes into my veins. If something happens to my girls, the entire world will pay.

As soon as we’re each in our cars, driving to the air strip at one hundred miles an hour, I call Emily.

She answers immediately. “Uh, Fionn, is…is everything okay? Is Amara with you?”

The nervous tempo of her tone, the way she asks about my wife, I know instantly she knows something.

“Where the hell is she, and don’t you dare lie to me!”

Swerving past a vehicle on my left, I register her low cries.

“Emily, she could be dying! Fia’s missing too. What happened?!” I try to control my rage, but it’s impossible.

She should’ve come to me.

“Oh God,” she sobs. “She was so scared. She told me not to say anything.”

Fisting the wheel tighter, I grow damn impatient. “Tell me.”

“We went into the bathroom,” she sniffles. “And some woman—she wasn’t paying attention to who—dropped an envelope. Inside was a photo of Fia holding a teddy on a chair. They gave her an address.”

She tells it to me.

God damn it!

That’s where the tracker said Amara was.

Blood pumps louder in my head. “Anything else?”

“No,” she whimpers. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’ve gotta go.” I hang up the phone, racing faster.

Her mother and anyone else involved are going to pay.

Please, baby. I can’t lose you. Can’t lose either one of you.

AMARA

There’s a buzzing in my head, a pummeling heaviness I can’t shake.

I don’t know where I am.

My lashes flutter open, but only darkness surrounds me.

Panic hits all at once, and when I try to move, I realize I can’t. My hands, they’re…they’re tied behind my back.

“Mm!” I try to yell for help, but all that comes out is a groan.

My mind starts replaying whatever I can remember before now.

The house. I went into the house.

Why? Why did I…

Fia! Oh my God, my baby!

I shake my body, fighting the binds, my feet bound too. There’s something over my eyes, something that makes everything seem dark.

It reminds me of that dream. The one of me as a child.

Is this a dream?

No. It can’t be. I can sense the pain at my wrists, my lungs aching as I try to scream, but it’s just unintelligible mumbling.

“Let’s get this shit over with!” a man says, but my mind’s too loopy to make out his voice.

But in the back of my head, I think I’ve heard it before.

A woman snickers. “I’ve waited years for this moment. And you think I’m gonna blow it away because you’re impatient?”

Oh my God.

My breathing turns labored.

It can’t be. No. It…it can’t be.

Tears fill my eyes as I recognize both of them, hoping I’m wrong. That my head is making me imagine it all.

“Not happening, buddy.” She laughs. “If you don’t like it, just leave. I can do this on my own.”

“I don’t fucking trust you,” he spits out, and I choke on a cry.

Why are they doing this to me?

My body quivers, fear like I’ve never experienced taking hold. I don’t understand what’s happening.

“We’re both working for the same thing, aren’t we?” she continues. “I just want my time with her before we kill her. Okay?”

Kill? NO!

“Yeah, whatever. Make it fast.”

“Ah, I think she’s awake already.” Footsteps draw closer.

In seconds, she’s ripping off the blindfold, and my eyes blink against the bright lights, unable to see anything clearly at first.

“Shh, don’t cry,” Lilith says. “It’s gonna be okay.”

“Mm,” I shake my head, shuddering as I come face-to-face with both of them.

Julius glares, his face tight.

The dual betrayal hits me so hard; I snivel, unable to catch my breath.

He never wanted to know me, did he? It was a ploy. It had to be.

But for what? To hurt me? I don’t understand what’s going on.

Lilith drops her head to the side, a sympathetic look on her face as her mouth forms a thin line. But her eyes are bleak and cold, something I’ve never seen in my friend before.

“Now, if you promise to be a good little girl, I’ll remove your gag, okay?” She makes herself sound syrupy sweet, but in a deranged kind of way. Like one of those serial killers in movies that act all nice before they slice your throat.

My gut heaves.

Oh my God, Fia.

What have they done to her?

I start to fight my binds again, but she gives me a disapproving look.

“What did I say?” she scolds me like a parent would scold a child.

All I do is cry, panic pounding in my chest. Why is she doing this? Why is he? How do they know each other?

I’m gonna throw up.

“I’m going to give you one chance. If you fuck this up and decide to scream, I can’t promise he won’t kill you.” She kneels, a grin stretching as she whispers, “He has a gun.”

Her grimace makes every hair on the back of my neck stand up. How have I never realized she’s insane? Though there was never any indication.

I want to ask her why. What have I ever done to deserve this? What has Fia done?

She slowly rips the tape off, and I groan from the pain.

“Where is my daughter?” I whimper, emotions clogging my throat.

“She’s safe,” Julius grumbles. “My girlfriend has her. Once we’re done here, she’ll be returned.”

“Done here?” I look from him to her. “What does that mean? Do you really plan to kill me? Why?! What have I done to either one of you?”

He hits me with another glare, refusing to answer.

“Please, Lilith, why are you doing this to me? To Fia!” My sobbing grows. “She loves you. I love you. Why?”

Something dark passes in her features. “Oh, Amara, I really did like you. I just couldn’t handle them anymore, always going on and on about you.” She rolls her eyes. “I wanted to punish them, you know. I wanted to hurt them the way they’ve been hurting me.”

“Who?” My pulse skips every second beat, the pressure on my chest intensifying.

“Enough of this already!” Julius shouts, and in a split second, everything changes.

One moment, he’s holding a gun out to my head. The next, she whips out hers, shooting him right in the chest.

“Oh God!” I gasp as he falls to the ground, blood pooling around him while his chest rises and falls.

She marches up to him, a wide grin on her face. “I told you to be patient, didn’t I?” She shakes her head. “Silly boy. If you’d behaved long enough, I would’ve told you she wasn’t even your sister.”

“Wh-what?” I choke out, just barely. “What is happening?”

“Oh.” She grins, pivoting toward me. “Don’t worry about him. He wanted you dead. I helped you.”

She’s insane. I need to get to my daughter!

“Please, you have to get Fia! That’s all I care about.”

“Of course we will.” Her brows furrow, and she comes over to me, placing a hand on my forearm. “But now that he’s gone, we can finally have the chat I’ve been dying to have since the moment we met. Because, you see, I’ve waited so long for this.”

I blink past my tears, every inch of me buzzing with confusion and terror. “For what? Please tell me what’s going on.”

She plops down in front of me, crossing her legs. “I couldn’t believe it when I found you. All those years of hearing how special you were. How I was overshadowed by your disappearance, but there you were. I knew I had to know you. I had to hurt them for everything they had done.”

“Who, Lilith?” My question sticks in my throat, croaky and heavy. “Who hurt you?”

“Our parents, silly.”

All the blood drains from my veins, as though she’s sucked it out with three little words.

Our. Parents?

“N-n-n-no. I—I—I don’t understand. You’re my—” I choke on the rest of the sentence, my head spinning.

“Yes, I’m your sister. And I’m sorry to tell you this won’t be the reunion you’ve been waiting for.”