Page 19 of Adored By Them
“You lost Dani at the club during her bachelorette party,” I add.“We shouldn’t have forgiven you then.”
“Why my father put you in charge of the wedding security, I’ll never understand.I know why—your mother.”Edmund sighs.“But I don’t get it.Never will.”
“Just now, you killed the one guy who we knew had info about Dani’s kidnapping.”I heft the crowbar up and down.Sergey and his men watch, silent, as I step closer to Caleb.“Scollins wasn’t even armed.As soon as we figured out he helped Dani’s kidnappers, you killed him.”
Sergey takes a few steps so he’s standing next to me.He reaches for the crowbar.I hand it to him.“Where did the Vorsongs take my granddaughter?”
One blistering fast hit to the gut with the crowbar, and Caleb is blubbering.
“The Vorsongs should be reaching out soon, okay?”He coughs, sobs past the blood dripping from his nose.“They made a deal, they wanted to get her, use her to make the Aseyevs and Laytons clear out.They should’ve been in touch already?—”
“Where is she?”Edmund bellows.
“Let me live, Edmund, please,” Caleb says.
“It isn’t up to Edmund.”Sergey’s voice is sharp.He adds something harsh in Russian.“You’re in my garage, you shitstain.Where are they holding her?”
“Some warehouse.It’s in the Bellefleur.I can take you there?—”
“No.”Sergey stares hard at Caleb, at his bleeding face.“You will tell us.Then I will decide your fate.”
* * *
Danica
“How can I trust you?”I ask Kellen.“Um, no offense…”
He makes a show of looking around the creepy room.“Who else are you going to trust?”
Fair point.Still, I don’t know.What if I go for that utility knife and it’s all some elaborate setup?I don’t know what Kellen could be trying to get me to do, though.
“When you get out,” he goes on, “tell the police everything I’m telling you.I need to take down the Vorsongs once and for all.”
So that’s the catch—that’s what he wants from me.He wants his revenge on the Vorsongs, even if it’s after his death.
“Okay.”I nod.“I’ll tell them whatever you want.”
He takes me through several details about the heroin shipment the Vorsongs are bringing in.I repeat everything after him, committing it to memory.
Once he’s satisfied, he gives me a wink and starts yelling.“Uriel!Hey, asshole!I need the bathroom.”
Nothing happens.
Kellen doesn’t seem deterred.“Uriel!Fuck-face!I’m going to shit all over your pretty chair!”To me, he adds in a quiet voice, “He won’t have gone far.He’ll hear me eventually.”
I wait, breath held, listening for footsteps.I both want Uriel to show up, and I don’t.He’s scary.I’m worried Kellen and I will mess up the utility knife plan somehow, that we’ll lose our one chance to get out of this mess.
I’m worried about trying to get Kellen out when he really seems to believe he won’t make it.I refuse to accept that he’s going to die in here.No way.Not if I can do something about it.
“I guess some shit could really improve this installment,” Kellen shouts.
Footsteps.I meet Kellen’s eye and whisper, “He’s coming.”
The door slams open and Uriel stands there.He’s in black jeans and a black t-shirt, and his usual half-smile is missing, replaced by a terrifying frown.I thought his emotionless eyes were scary, but this new anger mixed with that uncaring, cold stare is even worse.
“You will not soil my tableau.”Uriel marches around behind Kellen’s chair and starts untying him.“I will kill you before I allow it.”
Kellen rolls his eyes at me.
