“We’ll call her when we’re on the way, okay?” she says. “My battery’s about to die.”
“O-okay,” Sophie says uncertainly, and Leila waves, hangs up, and puts her phone face down on the table.
My world feels like it’s tilted on its axis, like it’s been flattened into a disc and I’m about to fall off the edge. The people I love the most: Winona, Sophie, even Onix, gathered in one place. And Brandon…well. Sophie’s state told me everything I needed to know.
“Is he dead?” I ask.
Leila takes a sip of her tea and nods.
“Two days ago,” she supplies. “Don’t worry. We’re planning a good send-off.”
I keep waiting for a miracle. For me to gain the ability to travel backward in time to the day a cheerful Leila first appeared in ourcath lab, call up her boss, and demand she be sent elsewhere to terrorize someone else. Or, if this was meant to be our fate all along, for Julian to burst through these doors, finish Robbie off John Wick style, and force Leila to deliver my family back to me.
But instead I’m here, hopeless as a gecko in a sticky trap, and Brandon is dead, and I hardly have the space to mourn because his ex-wife and kid might be next.
“They don’t know anything.” No amount of strength can keep my voice from trembling, and for once, I don’t care that Leila can see that I’m scared. “Winona and Sophie. I haven’t told them a thing.”
“I know that. They’re obviously just bait,” Leila says, bemused. “Look, I’ll keep this simple for you. Winona and Sophie don’t have to die. They’re sweethearts, as you know, and they think that I’ve rented a cute little cabin out of town to bond over shared loss. So let’s make this easy. You get in the car with Robbie, and we do a nice little exchange. Your bestie and her daughter get to go free. And you…?” A tear drifts down my cheek, and Leila reaches across the table to catch it on her thumb. She looks down at the liquid as if it fascinates her, then sucks it into her mouth. “Well, you know.”
I die.For some reason, this knowledge doesn’t strike the fear it had minutes before. After all, I should be dead already. These few extra days were simply borrowed time.
“I’ll come with you,” I gasp. “I’ll come, so please—”
“Wonderful,” Leila interrupts. She springs to her feet. “Let’s get you ready to go.”
The first thing Leila has me do is strip naked. In the name of my dignity, she makes Robbie wait outside the door but checks me overwith the clinical attention of a devoted dermatologist searching for a cancerous spot. My necklace is the first thing to go, flung carelessly onto my bed, but she doesn’t think to comment on my nails, and I have to school my face to keep my triumph from being seen.
The change of clothes she brings for me is a size too big. I’ve lost weight since we’ve last seen each other, a consequence of my bouts of Julian-induced withdrawals. The material of the pullover she’s given me is luxuriously soft; a peek at the label reveals it to be 100 percent cashmere. It goes on like a prison jumpsuit.
They lead me wordlessly away from Ritika’s supine body, through the kitchen door, onto the veranda, and to the edge of the woods, Leila skipping in front, Robbie lugging menacingly behind. I follow her like a ghost, because I will be one soon. I know what comes next, after allowing myself to be moved to a secondary location. I’ve readThe Gift of Fearcover to cover, watched enough true crime documentaries to recognize that I am walking into my casket.
I wonder how long it will take for Julian to come looking for me. If he’ll realize he’s been fooled and will make it home fast enough to get Ritika help. If he’ll ever forgive me for going willingly.
We get to a clearing, where a small hatchback is waiting, and Robbie steps in close behind me.
“Hey, so,” Leila says, producing a strip of fabric from her pocket. “We can’t have you know where we’re going. And I’ll be having some conversations that I’m not sure you should be privy to.”
Numb, I bend to let Leila tie my blindfold. She winds it over my eyes, then squeezes the knot tight.
I suspect what happens next and close my eyes to steel myself against the accelerated whoosh of my heartbeat. They won’t kill me here. Leila wouldn’t go through all the trouble of putting on these theatrics just to off me on the edge of the woods.
“You’re going to knock me out, right?” I say to the darkness. “Go ahead. Do it. But if I may, go for under my chin, or temple. I’ll actually lose consciousness that way.”
Robbie doesn’t respond. I haven’t heard him speak once, but his breath rattles behind me. I’m about to suggest they invest in chloroform like old-timey cartoon villains when suddenly a dizzying, smarting pain echoes between my ears.
Robbie has chosen temple after all.
Thirty-Two
Sean.
Sean. What happened? Where are you?
I’m standing in our white room again. My head throbs something fierce. I’ve been hit, I remember. By what, I’m not sure, except that it was heavy and metal and left my ears ringing like a struck bell. An aluminum baseball bat? A shovel? The butt of a gun? I can hear Julian, but when I look out into the distance all I see is endless nothing.
She hurt you, his voice echoes.
“Julian?” I call out. My teeth chatter; I’m so scared. “Jules, I’m sorry. You have to go back. Ritika’s hurt. And I left her. I had no choice; I had to go with them. She has Winona and Sophie, and I couldn’t…she’s going to kill me, but it’s the only way—”