Page 80 of When Sinners Fall
“Where does she go for coffee?”
“Usually Barricio’s café over the road.”
My phone’s out and I’m calling her as I start walking out of the office. No answer. So I try again, and then back that up with a message. Ten minutes later and I’ve been to the coffee shop, found nothing more than I did in her office, and got back in my car.
Panic starts swarming through me. Real fucking panic like I have when something’s all kinds of wrong. I stare at the steering wheel, not knowing what the fuck to do or where the hell she is. It’s seven thirty atnight, and as far as the world knows, she’s been missing since eleven this morning.
I look back at my phone, willing it to ring.
It doesn’t.
The amount of force I shove at the steering wheel damn near knocks it off its column, so I start slamming my fist onto the roof instead. It goes on until I get my breathing in check, and then I’m screeching down the road to go to the few places I can think of.
She’s not back at mine when I get there, nor is she at her old place when I get there either.
I slam the door to the Mustang and get my phone out again, trying one last time for an answer. Nothing. And this time, I mean nothing. It goes straight to voicemail as if it’s been switched off or died. “FUCK!”
Fury and panic start fusing together. I’m shaking as I try containing it. Everything that happened before with Mariana is swarming through me, and this time it's amplified past sense or logic. This is real fucking fear. Fear for her safety. Fear for her life. Fear for every goddamn second that I don’t know where she is. My head’s a rage of chaos and vengeance, all of it sending dread over every inch of me. We had a week or so of getting there. A week of quiet and bedding in. And now what? She’s been taken as some fucking revenge plot?
Driving gets me nowhere. I scour the roads. Check out old haunts and people who might know this kind of evil. No one talks about anything other than them not knowing anything. I’m so fucking infuriated by nearlynine at night that I’m damn close to crashing this car into a wall. Can’t help her like that, though.
Can’t protect or defend her if I’m dead.
I’m inputting Abel’s number and heading for his place before I’ve got hold of anything in my head. He answers, listens to my tirade about where the hell she is, and says to meet him at his place. I’m just driving after that, part of me trying not to think about what might be happening to her. Could be anything, I guess. That’s where my hope is, but in this world – inmyworld –anythingmeans shit no one wants to think about. It doesn’t mean her taking a break by herself, and it doesn’t mean her having a fucking spa day either. It means pain and threats and someone using her to get to me.
I slam the steering wheel again, battering the roof again after that to try calming my head down. Doesn’t work, and by the time I arrive at his driveway, blood is dripping from my knuckles and the haze I live in when I kill has come falling down over me. A few fucking weeks of bedding in. That’s all we got before my world invaded hers.
He opens the door and looks at me. “Dante. Calm down.”
I’m in his face before he even tries that shit with me. “Calm down? Calm down? She's gone, and you're saying that! Fuck you.” I storm down the stairs to his lounge. The table in front of me gets thrown up in the air, glass smashing as it comes down on the floor. And then the chairs get tossed at his goddamn walls as well.
He backs up a few steps and holds his hands up. “This won’t help unless we know it’s needed.”
I’m in real close again before he knows what to do with me. “Needed?” I glare and push him out of the way. “Itisfucking needed. She hasn’t run. She’s been taken, because of you and me and this whole goddamn world we’re in.” I pace away from him to climb fucking stairs again, wrenching at the door so I can get the hell out of here and search for her. “One fucking woman, Abel. One decent one. That’s all I wanted, and look what happens when I try.”
“I know who she's with, Dante.”
My head swings back to look at him, more fury building. “You know?”
“Yes.” I’m moving at him before he finishes the damn word.
“Goddamn son of a motherfuckin’ bitch.” My hands connect with his suit, power sending him back towards a wall. “You better tell me right fucking now before I gut you for daring to play this shit with me.”
His hands go out to the side, eyes square with mine. “This wasn't your fault. Calm down, Dante.” Memories slingshot into my mind. Memories of him trying to calm me down over the phone after the night Mariana was taken - to make me see sense. I’m not in the mood for calm or sense.
“Don't try that bullshit on me. Where the hell is she?”
“Nicolas Ortega has her. I don’t know where.”
Everything in me stops as my brain tries finding some reasoning in that. “Why?”
“I’m not sure yet. He’s calling me back." He keeps his eyes fixed on me, then sneers and looks down at my hands. "You should let me go before I make you.”
I keep staring at his face, looking for any kind of deceit that might be hiding in there. This could be him playing, trying to separate me and Wren because he doesn't agree with us. “If you're fucking with me, this brotherhood is over, Abel.”
His eyes harden, growing anger forcing them there. “I'm not. Let go.”
So I do let go of him and back up a few steps.
