Page 147 of Dust to Dust

“It is not.” When I opened my mouth to protest, Brooke squeezed my hand. “Because of Quinn, you were kidnapped and emotionally abused. Consider it like severance pay or parting gift.”

“He doesn’t owe me money for my kidnapping.”

“He will for your future therapy bills.”

At that moment, all the stress of keeping Mikita’s secret finally snapped within me. I knew I had to tell someone, or it was going to drive me crazy. “Pull over!” I demanded.

“Excuse me?”

My frantic glance took in the businesses around us. “I want Taco Bell.”

“Ew, seriously?”

“Yes. Pull over. Now!”

After flicking a quick look in the rearview mirror, Brooke then whipped the car across the lane and careened into the parking lot of Taco Bell. Once the car came to a stop, I reached over to Brooke and grabbed her phone. After I tossed it in the backseat, I put my finger over my lips.

“Isla, what are you–”

I shook my head wildly back and forth. Finally, Brooke nodded her head. Then I jerked my thumb for us to get out of the car. I left my phone as well.

Brooke willingly followed me. I pulled her inside the building and over to a secluded booth. There was no way in hell Mikita could’ve possibly bugged a random Taco Bell.

She grabbed my hands in hers. “Isla, you’re scaring me. What’s going on? Are our phones and the car bugged or something?”

“I don’t know.”

“Does this have something to do with the money Quinn sent?”

“No. It’s nothing like that.”

“Then tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“You can’t breathe a word of what I’m about to tell you.”

“I promise.”

“I didn’t leave Quinn because I wanted to.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“It was Mikita’s plan. He wanted to punish Quinn, and he felt making me leave Quinn would hurt him worse than killing me.”

“Jesus,” Brooke muttered.

“I know.”

“But why didn’t you just lie to him and tell him you’d break up.”

“Because he threatened that he would retaliate against you and Henry.”

Brooke gasped in horror. “He did?”

“Yes. It was his form of fucked up psychological torture.”

“How did he threaten me?”

Bile rose in my throat as Mikita’s twisted threat flashed before my eyes. “It’s not important.”

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