Page 116 of Heartless Game

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

“Don’t hang up,” he said. “Your mother wants to talk to you.”

At least that meant she was alive.

“Tovah,” she said, sounding desperate. “Don’t listen to him. Get out, get somewhere safe. Don’t come—” her words cut off on a scream.

A scream that continued. And continued.

“There you go. She’s alive and…well, maybe not well. But alive. For now,” Abe said when he got back on the phone. I could still hear her screaming. Every part of my body rejected this reality, what was happening. Her screams shattered my heart, which raced as I tried to figure out what to do.

“Don’t you dare hurt her. Stop it,” I seethed into the phone.

“That’s really up to you, Ms. Lewis. See, I once had a second in command who mattered a great deal to me. I found him dead the same night my wife was killed. And his wife and stepdaughter? Nowhere in sight. I’ve been searching for both of you for some time now. It was quite fortunate that my son was the one to find you. When he had my daughter look into you, she called a PI, who then reported it to me.”

“Get to the point,” I growled. I could still hear my mother screaming, the sound so high-pitched and desperate.

He sighed. “Always in such a hurry, your generation. I’ll tell you what—come to the compound and I’ll stop hurting your mother.”

“And you’ll let her go?” I asked. I was already throwing clothes on and grabbing my bag.

“Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s your best option, isn’t it? It should take four hours to get from Gehenom to our part of Brooklyn, four and a half if there’s bad traffic. Five hours, and she’ll be dead.”

Oh god, that was barely enough time. I wanted to hurl.

“Oh, and Tovah?” he added, as if it was an afterthought. “Don’t tell my son, or Iwillkill her now. After all, it’ll spoil the surprise.” His voice going hard, he said. “You have five hours. Don’t be late.”

He hung up. I fought not to hurl at the thought of my mother’s suffering. I didn’t have goddamned time to puke. I needed to get the hell out of here and find a car and?—

I immediately called Sebastian. “I need your car,” I told him the second he picked up.

“Why?” he asked, alert and concerned.

“Because Abe Silver has my mom.”

“Fuck.”

I didn’t bother to agree. “I need your car.”

“It’s yours,” he said immediately. “Where are you?”

I gave him Isaac’s address.

“I’ll be there in five minutes. But Tovah, I’m coming with you.”

“No, you aren’t,” I told him firmly. “I don’t know what he’ll do if I show up with backup. It’s better if I go alone.”

“Absolutely not,” he began, but I cut him off.

“Sebastian, she wasscreamingin pain. He was hurting her. The man is a sociopath, and I’m not taking that risk.”

“And what’s to say either of you get out of there alive?”

I exhaled. “Nothing. But she won’t survive if I don’t go.”

“Got it. On my way,” he said, and hung up.

Rushing downstairs, I grabbed my shoes, lacing them up, and ran outside, just as Sebastian pulled to a stop in his Maserati. Running down the steps to the driveway, I opened the driver’s side door.

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