Page 83 of Shattered Vows

I agree, but I ignore his comment for now. “Did anyone find Rapsody?”

His knuckles go white on the steering wheel, and that’s answer enough for me. “She wasn’t in her room. Everyone is searching. I told Nero to get with security and see what they can find out.”

“Drive faster.” I slam my hand on the small dash in front of me.

“I’m driving as fast as this fucking thing goes.”

“Faster!”

Sid looks at me as though I’m losing it but doesn’t say anything else.

It takes longer than I’d like to reach the manor, but when we do, Sid’s phone rings.

“Yeah?” he answers. “Who was the woman?”

“What? Tell me!” I practically roar, desperate for any information.

“Nero says security footage caught Rapsody running into the maze away from another woman.”

My stomach plummets. “What did the woman look like?”

He asks the question and waits for the answer, then looks at me as he relays the information. “Dark-brown curly hair, older.”

“Her mother.” I slam my hand on the dash. “Get over to the maze now.”

That’s how those fuckers in the shed knew about her. The three of them must be working together. But how?

Sid ends the call and hits the gas. I have to hang on so I don’t fly out of the vehicle.

“I can go in if you want. You know, if you don’t want to,” he says. “I’ll gladly take care of whoever’s threatening your woman.”

Sid might look like a gentleman in his ten-thousand-dollar suit straight from a trip to Saville Row, but he’s the epitome of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

“No one’s going in but me. Too many people, and it might spook her. Just wait at the exit in case I send Rapsody out ahead of me. If I do, keep her safe. Do not take your eyes off her until I know if anyone else poses a threat.”

He nods, but I see the way his eyes question whether I’ll be able to do this since the maze is involved.

But there’s no question. Because there’s not a chance I’ll let my dad take away the woman I love. And if I don’t go in that maze and get her because of what he did, that’s exactly what will happen.

Chapter

Thirty-Four

RAPSODY

Irush through the maze, having no idea where I’m going. The sun is beginning to set and there are no lights here. I can see fine now, but I worry about a half hour from now. Will the woman I thought was my mother pop out of one of the hedges and attack me? Am I even running away from her or am I running closer?

In the midst of my crisis, I think of Kol being trapped in here as a young boy and not knowing how to escape in the middle of the night.

Tears stream down my face as I run, unsure of which direction to go. Eventually I reach a large courtyard. There’s a flourishing red rose bush in the center and four concrete benches on each side of the square. This must be the middle of the maze.

I stop, listening for my mother, but I don’t hear anything. Four gaps in the hedges lead out of here and back into the maze. If I pick the right one, maybe I can find my way back out of the maze and into the manor to find help.

I nibble my bottom lip, unsure which one to choose. But I don’t have time to sit here waiting for my mother, or whoever that woman is, to show up. So I rush forward and pick the exit to my left, but just as I’m about to step over the threshold, my mother rounds the corner.

She still has the knife in her grip, and she lunges for me, grabbing my wrist. I yelp, now crying uncontrollably. I’m incapable of holding back my tears at the sight of this woman who raised me, knowing she’s lied to me my entire life, and now seems poised to hurt me.

“Why are you running away from me?” She bends my wrist at an unnatural angle, and I cry out in pain, dropping to the ground to prevent it from snapping.

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