Series: Penny Dee
Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
She’s the closest thing I’ve had to a sister since I lost my real one, and I pulled away from her because I didn’t trust the choices she was making, or the way she was shutting me out while pretending everything was fine.
I told myself I was protecting myself from watching her make a mess I didn’t want to be a part of.
But now she’s gone.
None of the shit she did stops being true, but it just doesn’t matter more than finding her alive.
The guilt is suffocating. I never should have let the distance between Nessa and me grow.
My phone buzzes on the nightstand. Hoping it’s Silas, I grab it. But the number on the screen isn’t Silas’s, and I don’t recognize it.
I open the message, and my blood freezes.
It’s a video, and the thumbnail alone is enough to make my heart stop. It’s a dimly lit room with concrete walls and a single overhead lightbulb casting a ribbon of white light over a figure in a chair.
Nessa.
With a shaking finger, I press play.
The video is grainy but clear enough for me to see my best friend is bound to a chair. There’s a gag in her mouth, and her face is streaked with mascara and tears.
A hand removes the gag from her mouth.
“Say something to the camera,” a voice says off-screen. It’s male and Russian, and I know exactly who it is.
Konstantin Lomonov.
Nessa glares in the direction of the voice.
“Go fuck yourself.” She spits the words like venom.
There’s a pause, and then the sound of a sharp and brutal slap. Nessa’s head snaps to the side. My hand flies to my mouth.
I’m going to kill him.
I’m going to find him and blow his head off.
I force myself to keep watching.
Nessa straightens defiantly. She turns back to the camera. Blood drips from her lip, and her eyes blaze with anger.
The voice speaks again. “Tell Antonia she has twenty-four hours.”
Nessa swallows hard, and suddenly, the video ends.
I stare at the screen, and my pulse roars in my ears.
Konstantin has found me. And he’s taken Nessa to force me to come to him.
My phone vibrates with another message.
Come alone, or this ends badly for your friend.
A violent wave of fear crashes over me from the top of my head right down to my toes.
They’re going to kill her.
No, if you tell Silas, they will kill her and him.
But if you give him what he wants, Nessa might have a chance.
This is nothing about trusting Silas, but having known all along that I need to fight this battle on my own. Silas has become part of my family as well, and I can’t endanger those who he cares about most either.
I lean over and press my lips to Larissa’s forehead.
“I’m going to bring your mommy home,” I whisper. “I promise.”
I pull the bedroom door closed behind me and walk quietly down the hallway so none of the security team hears me.
From the landing, I see the kitchen light is on and hear someone moving around in there. As I get closer, I smell the comforting aroma of baking, and when I round the corner into the kitchen, I find an older woman pulling a tray of something golden and fragrant out of the oven.
She looks up and smiles when she sees me.
This has to be Lotti, Silas’s housekeeper.
It’s good she’s here. She can watch Larissa while I…
“You must be Leonore,” she says.
She looks kind and grandmotherly with wise eyes and a steadiness about her that tells me she’s no fool.
“And you must be Lotti.”
“The one and only.” She points at one of the barstools at the kitchen island. “Now sit and let me fix you a tea for your nerves. Silas filled me in about your friend missing, and I suspect you’re feeling anxious.”
The ease with which she speaks about the matter unnerves me. Then again, if she’s been serving his family for some time now, I imagine she’s quite used to situations such as these. That makes one of us.
“Oh, I was—”
“Just about to sit down,” she says with a stern smile and gives me a knowing glance. Part of me wonders if she sees through me, as if she knew exactly what I was about to do. Run out of here with the gun Silas left me with the determination of pressing it to Konstantin’s head and pulling the trigger.
But before I can do any of that, I need to make sure Larissa is being left in safe hands, so I sit down at the kitchen island.
“Gia is with Alexis in the guest room at the moment. I think when Larissa wakes up, she and Alexis will become good friends.” I know she means it in a soothing manner, but nothing right now will soften the edges of my nerves.
“I’m sorry, I’m a bit of a wreck,” I say when she places a cup of tea in front of me. It smells like flowers and honey, and when I take a sip, I welcome the warmth that bridles with my boiling blood.