If only she knew, I think sardonically.
“Bye,” I say, blowing her a kiss.
“Ciao.” She catches the kiss and makes a show of tucking it into her breast pocket before turning and dashing off, the heels of her thigh-high boots clicking against the cobblestones of the sidewalk.
Suddenly, there’s a prickly feeling at the back of my neck, and I whirl around, my eyes dashing around the street. But just like every other time for the past few days, there’s no one there.
A shiver rolls through me, and I dig my hand into my purse, my fingers brushing against the pepper spray tucked inside there.
I haven’t told Dad or even Kat about my gut feeling that I’m being followed because, for one, I may be wrong, and two, I don’t want to make them worried.
I’m sure the whole kidnapping incident has shaved ten years off my father’s life.
Heading down the sidewalk, I continue to scan the streets and alleys I walk past. I’m tense and jittery, and sweat beads down my spine.
Right as I begin to think I’m just being paranoid, I hear sharp footsteps behind me. I peek over my shoulder and see a tall figure decked out in all black with a hoodie shielding his face.
I increase my pace, and he does too. My hands are shaky as they wrap around the weapon in my purse. I haven’t run properly in months, and my stamina is shit, but I have to dig it out from under layers of grief if I’m to have any hope of getting out of this in one piece.
Just as I turn the corner to start running, a hand lashes out of the alley, and I’m yanked into its dark confines.
“Help—” A hand slaps over my mouth, and before I can dig out the pepper spray, both my wrists are grabbed, and I’m pushed face-first into the wall, the rough surface scraping painfully against my skin.
I let out a whimper as a small blade that doesn’t look any less deadly appears against my throat.
“Let’s not get any ideas, love,” a man croaks against my ear. “Make a sound, and I’ll carve up your pretty face.”
The hooded man joins us in the narrow space. “Where’s the van?”
“It’s parked just across the street.”
“Good. Let’s get out of here.”
Why does the man’s voice sound so familiar? But my heart is racing too fast with terror for me to be able to think straight.
The only thing I know for sure is that this isn’t Alessandro trying his hand at another kidnapping.
My last thought before something knocks into the side of my head and everything goes blank is that if I were still with him, this wouldn’t be happening.
I come to in a dark room that smells stale, and I immediately note two things. One, I’m tied up in a chair, and two, there’s water under my feet.
“She’s our best shot of getting to him,” a man growls nearby, and I cock my head, listening while my eyes adjust to the darkness.
“Do you think he’ll do it?”
Someone else scoffs. “Men like that live and die by their goddamn code of conduct.”
“He’ll be a fool to call our bluff.” The speaker sounds amused. “But we may have to give him a preview to encourage him to make the right decision.”
My head hurts, and I can feel blood trickling down the side of my face, but it’s not my imagination that one of the voices is very familiar.
“I really wished it didn’t come to this,” the voice I’m trying to place says before making a tsk sound.
The other man scoffs. “Whatever, man. You’re only acting squeamish cause that bitch?—”
There’s a loud groaning sound of a metal door opening, and it drowns out the rest of the man’s words. As my eyes start to adjust, I glance around curiously and realize I’m in an empty underground parking lot.
There’s a single naked bulb far ahead that’s flickering on and off and an abandoned trolley at one corner. My body trembles as terrifying thoughts of my fate down here flit through my head, each one more frightening than the last.