Page 18 of Venomous Vows

Nothing except a white envelope on the floor that I just happened to step on with my bare feet.

My blood runs cold in my veins and I lean over to pluck it off the floor. I step back inside my apartment and relock the doors while aimlessly dropping the umbrella to the floor.

I can’t get it open fast enough.

In fact, I retrieve a paper cut as I pry open the flap and tug out the piece of paper inside.

And then I read the sloppy handwritten note that was delivered so desperately late at night.

Time’s ticking, big sister.

We’re counting down the days before things get bloody.

You have a week from today.

Hot tears brim and fall from my eyes as I cover my lips to keep the broken sob from whimpering through the air.

They’ve waited too long and they’re getting impatient.

I’m not doing enough and it’s taking too long.

Forcing my feet to move, I somehow find my cell phone and dial Zane’s phone number. He’s more than likely sleeping and I’m about to wake him up, but I selfishly need help and emotional support right now and he’s the only one who’d understand.

The only one who could talk some sense into Adrian and tell him how insane his plan is. He could pick anyone else but me to produce an heir. It’s not feasible, smart, or intriguing at all.

“Hello?” a groggy and half-awake Zane greets me on the other line and I almost break down in tears.

“Zane, they left a note,” I begin to rattle off. “They said I had a week before they’d make this bloody. They’re going to hurt her if we don’t get to her in time.”

“Elena?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I quickly confirm. “It’s me. I need your help. I need you to convince Adrian to do it without his crazy-ass marriage plans.”

“Where are you?” He still sounds half out of it, and I can hear his brain trying to catch up to the story.

“Home. I was up, eating a snack and then someone knocked on the door.”

“Don’t answer it,” Zane clips back, appearing to be more awake now.

“I already did. I found the note. Zane, they are going tokillmy sister if I don’t find a way to bring her back home or give them a million dollars.”

“You know what’ll happen if we bring her back home. So the million-dollar option is out. Adrian is never going to hand that amount of money over to anyone.”

“Then how would he get her back home? Are you going to put an inside guy in there or?—”

“You gotta agree to Adrian’s terms,” Zane remarks flatly and it feels like a slap to the proverbial face.

He can’t mean that.

Ifanyoneknows the animosity that lived between Adrian and me, we’d be the last people they’d put together.

“It’d be another bloodbath,” I retort sharply, feeling a twinge of hopelessness filter through me and the idea that this could work.

That anyone could save my sister.

I have no other choice than to possibly go to the cops and hope they don’t blow their own cover to obtain her back.

“Elena, it’s Marcella.”

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