"So you want a day at the nursing home then?" he scoffs.
I try to yank my arm away, and he stops me again.
"Fine, fine," he grumbles. "I'm listening."
"My piano," I tell him. "I'm going to play on the piano. And I'm going to sing. That's it. My songs. My choice. My control."
"Then what do you even need me for?"
"You get to publicize it. I know how much you love that media attention. I’m sure that hasn’t changed."
"Why would you do this?" he asks. "Why even bother?"
"Because, Luke. I know this may be a difficult concept for you to understand, but once upon a time, I loved music. I loved to sing. And then everything got messed up. I just want closure. One last show. A show where I can put it all out there. Then I can be done. I can move forward. For good."
He mumbles under his breath again before releasing me.
"I'll see what I can do."
And in Luke speak that's a yes. I smile and pat him on the arm. He winces.
"Your boyfriend won't be coming around for this," he says.
My eyes burn as I swallow and avoid his gaze.
"Don't worry. He won't be."
Chapter Forty-One
Cold metal tapsthe base of my skull, stirring me from my delirious slumber.
It is familiar, this feeling. The heaviness in my body. The barrel of a gun rapping against my head. But it is the smell of earth that I remember most.
The urge to wretch is strong, and I am still hungover from whatever it is I ingested. When my eyes finally open, everything is blurred.
The room is dark and small. Cold. Underground. I'm trying to piece it all together. Trying to make sense of it.
I see Bella's face in my mind. Her screams. Her fear. A surge of adrenaline has me attempting to launch myself upright, but I am swiftly rejected by the confines of my restraints.
"Easy there, tiger.”
The voice is muffled, but familiar. The build of the man is too when he comes into view. And then I remember.
Bella's father. His house. The whiskey. This man is the one. The one who took me from my Bella. I try to lunge at him. To kill him. But my movements are still sluggish. My body is still weak. And I am still chained.
"There's no need for dramatics.”
It’s his shoes that I notice first. The same shoes I have seen a hundred times before. Shoes that have graced my own home. Shoes that belong to the man I trusted with my life.
With Bella's life.
When he sees the stark conclusion on my face, he removes the mask and retrieves an apple from his pocket.
"Sorry old pal," River says. "Just the way these things go sometimes, isn't it?"
I look up at him. My oldest friend. My only friend. I thought I had known betrayal before. I thought that nothing could be worse than what Ray Rossi did to me.
But I was wrong.