Page 84 of The Carver

It was intentional.

I called Luca.

He picked up right away. “I haven’t received?—”

“I need to find Oscar now. Call in all our favors. I want Oscar, and I’ll pay ten million to the first person to tell me where the fuck he is.”

Luca hesitated. “What happened?—”

“He’s gonna kill Fleur if I don’t find her. Now do it.”

I barged into the house and found Adrien sitting on the coffee table—sobbing like a little girl. “They took her. They fucking took her?—”

I noticed the phone on the table next to him, the screen lit up with a video. I brought it to my face and saw Fleur lying in a coffin, her eyes closed like she was drugged. The camera had night vision, so I could see her in the pitch dark. There was no time to be emotional about what I saw, even though it fucking killed me. “She’s alive.” I’d seen enough dead people to know the difference. “And she’s still under.” She wouldn’t have to know that she was buried six feet underground. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Where—where?”

“Shut up and get in the car.” I headed back outside, and just before I got to the vehicle, Luca called. “Where is he?”

“I sent the information to everyone we know. Should have intel any second.”

I slammed the door then looked at the roof. The rain started to come down harder, sounding like hail. “Fuck.”

“What?”

“They buried Fleur in a coffin.”

Luca didn’t say anything, but that was because he understood that she had enough air to survive at least a day under normalconditions, but with rain like this, she would drown in a couple hours, maybe less, depending on the elevation and the soil composition.

“Get me Oscar, Luca.”

“You know I will.”

Chapter 16

Fleur

I woke up with a gasp.

Cold drops hit my face. I felt it around my feet, felt it underneath my back and neck.

I looked at the ceiling, which was just a few inches from my face—and saw the camera encased in a glass orb. It stared straight at me, the camera lens not moving from left to right, just still. “Holy shit.” Then I looked at the wood that surrounded me…and realized I was in a fucking coffin.

Rainwater was dripping through the cracks.

And starting to pool underneath me, a couple inches deep already.

It would keep rising.

And then I would drown in mud.

I started to pant in terror, started to panic, started to slam my hands against the lid of the coffin, but it was solid like concrete because I was buried in the ground. I screamed and started to cry when I realized I’d just let more water into my grave.

“This can’t be happening.”

Adrien let them do this to me.

He fucking let this happen.

---