Page 108 of Hey, Daddy

My phone started to vibrate like crazy, and I pulled it away from my face to see a notification from my glucose monitor.

Low.

Dammit.

I pulled a Snickers out of my purse and ripped it open.

I took a bite as Shasha started talking.

“I’m guessing you’re calling me because you want me to ruin her life.” He chuckled.

“I think ruin would be too small of a word for what I want Julia to experience right about now,” I admitted.

I took a step toward the side of the building, and had just rounded the corner when a wave of worry hit me.

“I’ll get some eyes on her,” he said. “And I’ll find what she loves the most and take it.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but never got the chance.

I was so lost in thought and grief—my heart literally aching for what Haze and Desi had to go through—that I didn’t give the direction I was heading much thought.

Not until it was too late.

I stepped one foot around the corner and was caught.

Today I chose violence.

—Haze to Nastya

NASTYA

A hand covered my mouth, and I inhaled deeply.

That turned out to be my last thought for a very long time.

How did I know it was a long time?

Because when I next woke, the sun wasn’t nearly as bright.

I could tell that it was still up based on the way the sun shone through the windows that I was tied to a chair in front of.

I’d been awake for ten minutes, and I only knew that because, to steady my overreacting heart, I’d started counting.

I was at six hundred, and my heart rate was still galloping.

“What are we going to do?” I heard asked.

They—three people—had been talking in the other room for all ten of those minutes.

“We have to take her back!” The woman’s voice sounded desperate.

I liked her idea.

“We can’t take her back. If we take her back, my son goes down for kidnapping,” a man vehemently disagreed.

“Well, your son should’ve thought of that before he kidnapped my ex-husband’s new bitch!”

Ahhh.

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