Page 129 of Wicked Rivals

I stepped forward to pull away from the wall, but the cold metal stopped me short and jerked me back with clinking and rattling. The back of my head cracked against the stone, rustling more photos as I thumped against the wall.

The sick fuck had chained me to his Benedetta gallery.

His gaze moved up and down my body as he continued patting himself on the back.

“Let's see if your lover is as smart as you think he is. What do you say? Can he follow the clues to find you before it’s too late?”

“What do you mean, it’s too late?” I asked.

My eyelids fluttered as I struggled against not only the chains, but also my quickly draining strength.

“Too late for what?” I repeated, now slurring consistently.

“Well, for starters, Valerie, you won’t be able to put pressure on that wound anymore.”

He slid his fingers beneath my sweater and violently ripped at it. The sleeve split, tearing away from where it had stuck to the bullet wound.

I bit back a scream, still not willing to give him the satisfaction of my pain even as I broke into a cold sweat. Hot blood ran down my arm, splattering against my hip.

He tapped his stupid fucking chin without realizing he smeared my blood on his stubble.

“You’ve already lost a lot of blood. And judging by how much you’re still bleeding, I’ll give it an hour. Maybe a few more minutes because it's so cold in here and that might slow it down a bit. Do you think he’ll get here before you die?”

A dark laugh escaped me.

“Doesn’t matter if I’m dead or alive. He's going to kill you.”

“He won’t catch me. But hey, you know what? Since I’m such a nice guy, I’ll give him a fighting chance.”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone, and showed me the picture he took earlier at the school.

Me, on the floor, glaring at him from a pool of my blood.

“I’m going to print this as a little gift for him. Put it somewhere fun. The courier will have to fetch it first, then deliver it. That could take up to an hour, depending on traffic, I guess.”

He shrugged and smiled like the evil man he was.

“So Valerie, is there enough time for him to find you?”

CHAPTER 28

STEFANO

I stared down at the security guard, hoping the lazy asshole didn’t piss himself again.

“This was forty fucking minutes ago. There’s no way he left this school without being caught on at least one camera. You’re going to find every second of that footage. Now.”

The man nodded, trembling as he righted his chair and went to work logging the video timestamps.

When he found the footage, we watched Luka drag Val into a service elevator tucked between the maintenance rooms. Then they went down another staircase to the faculty parking garage beneath the school building.

In each frame, Val looked weaker than in the one before, her feet scraping the concrete, her skin so pale. Blood dripped from her arm, leaving a dotted line in their wake.

Her blood loss concerned me. It couldn’t be sustained.

“Find the feed for the exterior camera and show me in which direction he drove away.”

As the guard worked on finding the street footage, I grabbed my phone and called Bruce.

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