Page 66 of Vendetta

“And Keith is okay with this? With the two of us?” I ask, hopeful.

“Are you really asking me that? No, he's not okay with this but it's not the Stone Age. What can he do?”

I can think of many things he could do, and most of them include decapitation and castration.

His hand lands on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. “We'll find her. If she gives them any trouble she gave you, she's still holding up.”

I smile to myself, knowing he's right. “Yeah, she is. Do we have any idea where she is? Anything at all?”

“No, Devon,” he says, his voice turning stern. “Even if we did, you willnotget involved, not with that shoulder and being a walking target at this point. Besides, Keith is on it. He'll find her.”

I open my mouth to argue, but his phone rings and he pulls it out of his pocket, frowning. My eyes are glued to it as he brings it to his ear. It's a short conversation of a couple of yeses and a no, and then it ends.

“How did you find me?” I ask him when he hangs up, hoping he tells me what I want to hear.

“A woman called the police, saying she heard a gunshot.”

She called the cops? She was probably thinking I was safer with them than with my own family.

“It wasn't her,” he says sadly. “The phone call came from a payphone nearby.”

“And my phone, did you find it?”Say no,I plead in my head. She's smart enough to have taken it with her, or at least done something to leave a trace.

“Yeah,” he says, destroying that last shred of hope I had. “We found your phone in your car.” He takes it out of his pocket and hands it over to me. It'smyphone, notthephone.

Hope flares once again. I let out a weary sigh, and then grab the pill bottle from the nightstand, making a show of taking one, then another. “Will you let me know if you have any news?” I ask him, a plan already forming in my head.

“I will. And call Hayley; she’s been calling non-stop. We didn’t let her in here—it’s best she doesn’t know everything.”

Patting me once more on my good shoulder, he nods, and then leaves the room. I spit out the pills and grab for the phone, searching through the phone book for a number.

“Didn't expect to hear from you again,” a voice says on the other side of the line.

“I promise it's the last time you’ll hear from me. I need you to write down a number and find out its last location.”

I figure the phone has turned off by now but as long as there's a possibility she had the phone on her when she was taken, I can find her, whether they let me or not.

LEIGHTON

Stevie punches me across my probably swollen face, back in the same room I was before.

“Fucking bitch,” he yells, wiping the spit off his chin. I don’t have it in me to move or resist. Everything hurts. “That was my flesh and blood you killed.”

He didn’t tie me to the chair, or anything. He’s been hitting me, landing punches everywhere for the last hour.

I’m glad I killed the bastard. He deserved to die. I tell him so. Another punch, so hard my vision blurs for a moment. My heavy lids are barely staying up. I feel like I’m about to pass out any second.

George comes in, carrying a bag in his hand. "Boss said to sedate her."

Sedate me? Fuck, no. I didn’t hold on for so long only for them to drug me. If I'm out, there's no way I can get out of this place. I shake my head violently, and start thrashing against the chair.

Stevie’s hands grip my shoulders tightly, holding me in place. It fucking hurts but I don't give him the satisfaction of knowing that. He brings a knife to my neck, and leans into my personal space, his foul breath fanning across my cheek. “Stop it or I'll kill you. I am so fucking close to just ripping you all apart,” he says.

I slump in defeat, just hoping he doesn’t keep punching me. I don’t doubt his words for a second.

“Bosssaid not to touch me,” I say, enunciating the word, but it comes out mumbled. “When Devon finds out what you did?—”

“Of course, Devon,” he mocks me. “Your Romeo is dead, he won’t save you this time.Youkilled him.”

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