3. Kate

Iwake up, or at least I think I do. My head throbs and feels like it is stuffed with cotton. I”m disoriented and can”t form a coherent thought.

I sit up and sway a little bit as I press my hands next to me to keep from tipping over. I force my eyes to focus as I take in my situation.

The first thing that is clear to me is that I am no longer in the hotel room. Instead, I’m at a new location, one that might be described as warm and cozy except I don”t know where I am, who brought me here, and whether or not I”m in danger.

The walls are made up of pine planks, and across the room is a stone fireplace, where a fire burns, spreading warmth into the room. I”m sitting in a large bed wearing the same clothes I was in when I was kidnapped by Giovanni Fiori.

I feel a little gross to be in the same clothes, and at the same time, I”m relieved that I wasn”t stripped and put into new clothes.

I stand, wobble, and fall back onto the bed. I rub my neck where I feel the soreness. Memories flood back.

Someone had come into my hotel room. He cornered me in the bathroom. I felt a sting in my neck. I must have been drugged.

Panic rushes through me. I glance at my wrists and ankles. I’m not bound, but I have no illusions about my situation. Just because there is a nice fire and I’m not tied up, doesn’t mean I’m safe.

I force myself to stand, tentatively taking steps toward the door. The room starts to spin, and I drop to my knees. Sleep is calling me, but I can”t succumb. I need to find a way out of here. I need to find Liam. Does he know I’m missing?

On all fours, I crawl to the door.

When I reach it, I sit for a moment, again trying to clear the fog from my brain. I reach up, and it takes me a couple of tries to wrap my hand around the doorknob and turn it. I pull the door open, crawling out into a hallway.

I feel like I’m in a funhouse. The walls shimmer and wobble, making me feel nauseous. But I can’t stop. Determined, I crawl toward what I hope is a way out. Every now and then, I have to stop and reorient myself.

As I near the end of the hall, I come to the railing, looking out over a large living area with floor to ceiling windows. Through the windows I see snow and wonder where I am.

Clearly, I”m not back in Manhattan, which isn”t to say it doesn”t snow in the city, but looking outside, I see a vast wilderness. Am I back in Pennsylvania? Somewhere in New Jersey?

I remember that I need to get out of this place, and so I continue along the railing toward the landing of the stairs. It occurs to me that snow means it”s cold outside, and unless I can get transportation, it will be unwise to walk out of this place.

At the same time, if I”m going to die, I”d rather be in the cold and succumb to the sleep of hypothermia than whatever heinous acts my kidnappers might want to do to me.

I know that Giovanni Fiori is dead, but I also know he”s not the only man in the Mafia. Perhaps one of his other men captured me and I”ve been sold after all.

I”m just about to the landing when I hear a man say, ”What are you doing?” I know right away that it’s not Liam. But I don’t think he’s the man who kidnapped me, either.

I see a blur of a man coming up the stairs, and panic sweeps through me. I grip the post of the railing, trying to pull myself up to my feet so I can run. But each time I get my feet underneath me, my knees buckle and I collapse to the floor.

”Jesus, how much did he give you?” Strong arms pick me up, and in my mind, I”m hitting and scratching and telling him to let me go. But I can”t hear myself, and it”s almost as if my limbs aren”t attached to me.

Moments later, I”m laid back in bed.

”Is she alright?” a second man whose voice I don’t recognize asks.

”I don”t know. We should call Doc just in case. The Boss will kill us if anything happens to her.”

Boss? What boss? It can”t be Niko because he wouldn”t do this to me, or at least I don”t think he would. And Fiori is dead. The Abates, the first people to kidnap me, are dead as well. Is there some new player that I”m not aware of?

”Liam will come for me,” I say. Or at least I think I do. The pull of sleep is too strong, and I settle into the comfort of the bed as one of the men pulls the covers over me.

I shouldn”t give in to sleep. I need to fight, but I’m so tired. I can’t get my thoughts, much less my body, to obey. Surrendering to my situation, I fall into darkness.

Consciousness comes slowly. It’s like coming out of a mist. The first sense of clarity is that my head doesn’t hurt as badly and the weakness in my limbs is nearly gone. But the panic is still here.

I scan the room and see a man sitting in a chair by the fire, scrolling through his phone. He looks up. ”Good, you”re up.”

I study him, assessing whether I can reach the door before he can stop me. He”s large and young, maybe in his early twenties.

”Are you hungry?”

I shake my head.

”You can just go ahead and relax.”

I check my hands and legs and note that they are still untied. I”m surprised, considering I tried to escape earlier.

I don”t understand what”s going on.

And while a part of me wants to know why I’m here in case I”m safe, another part of me doesn”t want to know if I”m about to be sold to the highest bidder.

”Where am I?” I ask.

”The beautiful Adirondacks.”

I don”t know anybody from the Adirondacks. I can”t figure out why anyone in the Mafia would want me here.

”You”re safe, if that”s what you”re worried about.”

”I don”t feel safe.” I want to trust that I”m not in any immediate danger, but I don”t know that for sure. The only thing that I do know is that Liam will come and find me.

”Liam… my friend, he”s in the FBI. He’ll find me. He always does.” I try to make my expression confident, but the tears in my eyes betray that.

In his chair, the man shrugs and smiles. ”Yeah, I know. He”s on his way.”