Page 86 of Reclaiming Adelaide

“Twenty seconds.”

“Jake.” My gaze flicked wildly back and forth from the screen to Jake, my voice distorted with desperation.

He shook his head again. Could he really watch my parents die and not do anything to save them?

“Luca,” I said, giving up on Jake and going to the person who had all the power in this house. “Please.” I ripped my body from Max’s grip and kneeled down before Luca. “Open the door. I’ll do anything.” Luca turned his gaze from mine as though I’d never spoken.

“Charity… Nico. Help me.” Wet, hot tears streamed down my face, burning my eyes with their salty bitterness. “What if it wereyourparents?”

“Ten seconds.”

A torturous scream tore from my throat as I rushed to the door again, pounding my fists into the steel. “Please don’t kill them. I’m trying.” I sobbed.

“They can’t hear you,” Luca said.

“Five.”

“Ahh.” I kicked the door, my hands and feet working together to get a message across to them that this wasn’t my doing. They forced me in here, and I was at their devilish mercy.

“Four.”

“Jake!”

“Three.”

I rushed back to him and fisted his shirt. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just let me out.”

“I can’t do that, sweets. I’m sorry.”

“Two.”

Glancing back at the screen, the man lowered the phone and shook his head. “I didn’t want to have to do this,” he said.

Jake seized hold of me and buried my face in his chest as though he prepared for them to blow up the door and use his body as a shield.

“One.”

Two gunshot blasts, one right after the other, drew a startling anguished sob from my chest. My knees gave out, and I collapsed. Jake’s hold on me slipped as I folded in on myself, my sobbing dying in my throat, leaving my mouth gaping as the tears fell. The world stopped spinning, and a piece of my heart crumbled to ash. I sucked in air, croaking from the harsh intake.

My parents.

My flesh and blood.

Dead.

Because of me. Taken away before my eyes, without remorse from a monster who bore no consequences.

“I told you that if you reneged on our deal, I’d come down on you. Let this be your final warning. Find the hacker or your sister and Adelaide are next.”

What deal?

My ears rang with a high-pitched cadence as the silence in the room hovered over us like a weighted blanket. Only it didn’t offer comfort, just death and the stench of betrayal.

Something brushed against my shoulder. “Don’t touch me.Don’t.” My hands covered my ears as I rocked, tucking my knees up to my chest. “Don’t touch me,” I whispered with a desperate plea.

“They’re leaving.”

I pulled on my hair and slapped my face, sobbing, needing to feel the pain of something else other than the despair tearing at my chest.

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