Page 34 of Unholy Vows (Original Sin)

“Want me to get you something from the store?”

She thought for a moment. “Chips?”

“Okay, sure. Save my space,” I said to her, peering around.

The store was right there, and Lucy was waiting in line with about twenty other people. In plain sight seemed like the safest place to be right now.

I headed into the shop, the harsh overhead fluorescent lights reminding me of the hospital at night.

The hospital.My heart clenched thinking about it. I had been so close to finishing my degree. Within touching distance of my dreams. Now, they were ashes in the wind. If someone was looking for us, calling the hospital and trying to get my credits transferred would be a very stupid thing to do.

I grabbed a couple of bags of chips and some water bottles, paid cash, and headed outside. The line had moved up a little, and Lucy was nowhere to be seen. I stood outside and waited for her. After what seemed like ages, the door to the ladies’ room opened and someone came out. Someone who wasn’t my sister.

She wasn’t here. She wasn’t in line or in the restroom.

I stepped out of the line and spun around, searching for her.

“Lucy?” I called, worry threatening to steal my breath away. “Excuse me, did you see where my sister went? She was just in front of you in line?” I asked the older lady standing behind me.

“I’m sorry, I was checking my messages,” she said and waved her phone.

Okay, great. I stepped further from the line and spun around. Maybe she’d gone back to the bus? I started toward it, a sinking feeling in my gut. Of course she hadn’t. Why would she? She knew I’d panic when I couldn’t find her. Ignoring logic screaming at me that something was happening, I checked the bus. A few people had made it back to their seats now, but Lucy wasn’t one of them.

I got back off and jogged around the parking lot. At the far end, trucks were parked, and in the other direction was the highway, cars whizzing by.

There was the rest stop building, with its bright lights and people, the gas station, also full of bystanders, and then there was the area with the overnight trucks. The shadows between the hulking vehicles called to me. There was nowhere else to look.

A fine drizzle fell as I crossed the lot. The light from the gas station didn’t quite penetrate the darkness at the far corner of the lot, and I steeled myself to step into the shadows. I had to find Lucy. I strode in. It was quiet. The cab light glowed in a distant truck parked on the periphery and the driver fiddled with something on his steering wheel. The rest were dark, their drivers asleep for the night.

I moved up a long corridor formed by two trucks. It was quiet this far from everything else. So quiet, I made out the sound of footsteps first. They weren’t even trying to be stealthy. Someone walked parallel to me, their steps nearly in sync with mine. When I stopped, they didn’t.

I was frozen with fear in the middle of that dark walkway when he appeared at the top. Rounding the bend, he faced me and stopped. He was wearing a long black wool overcoat with the collar turned up. Tall and broad and utterly inescapable.

Renato De Sanctis. Of course it would be him. The demon from my nightmares and the man who I had promised to obey.

You knew he’d find you, didn’t you?

Yes.

“Run from me right now, and you’ll regret it,bambina.” Renato’s voice seemed to reach me clear as crystal, without him even raising it.

I shook my head, fear mixing with adrenaline. “I think I’ll regret going with you more.”

“You have no choice. Accept that now,” he said, advancing slowly toward me. He sauntered as though he had all the time in the world.

I shook my head again. A puppet on a last broken, desperate string. “I think I’ll regret not putting up a fight more,” I whispered.

Renato’s mouth quirked in a devastatingly handsome half-smile. “You can’t fight destiny, Charlotte. It’ll find you, every single time.I’llfind you, every single time.”

You can’t fight destiny.His words were so similar to the ones I’d thought to myself a thousand times before, it threw me for a second.

“I took the tracker out.”

“Of course, you did. But did you take out the men watching you?”

I backed away as he approached. “I’ll scream. The people from the bus will hear and come looking for me – the truck drivers, everyone.”

He shrugged. “Scream away. Scream to your heart’s content. Just know that I could kill every single person who dares to check on the sound…and no one could stop me from walking right out of here.” His dark eyes flickered back to mine. “I could have my men gun down every single person on the bus, and my lawyer would have me free by sunrise.”

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