Page 184 of Porcelain Lies

Buildings blur past as we drive, the city giving way to industrial wasteland.

I frown as I realize that I don’t recognize anything around us. “Where are we going?” I say to the guy in the driver’s seat. “This isn’t the way home.”

Home?

Is that really how I think of that place?

He doesn’t respond, so I lean forward and tap him on the shoulder. “Where are you taking me?” I demand. “Did Aleksei tell you to bring me out here?”

“Quiet!” he barks. He flicks a hard glare at me in the rearview mirror, and I shrink back against the seat. A warehouse-looking building looms ahead, its windows dark and threatening. A sickening feeling of dread starts to form in the pit of my belly.

“Get out,” one man commands as we stop.

My legs shake as I comply. Did Aleksei arrange this? Did he find out that I know he organized the hit against my father? Is this how he silences those who know too much?

Oh God… He wouldn’t!

I reach into the car to get my purse, but the short guy snatches it away.

“You won’t be needing that where you’re going,” he says, then puts a hand into it and extracts my phone. “Or this either.” I suck in a sharp breath as he throws it on the floor and stomps on it with the heel of his shoe. Glass shatters and crunches under his foot.

“Wait! You can’t—”

The guy behind me shoves me between my shoulder blades, and I stagger forward, realizing with horror that he just jabbed me with the barrel of a gun.

“Please!” I choke out, struggling to regain my balance. It’s grown darker, and I’m struggling to see my way clearly.

This is wrong. All wrong.

The entrance is directly ahead, tall and ominous.

The warehouse door creaks open, and I hesitate, my legs refusing to move forward. Another shove has me stumbling through the doorway.

I’m swallowed into the shadows.

Chapter Fifty-Four

Stella

The door closes behind me and I’m nudged forward.

I clutch the rusty railing that leads up a staircase, the flaking metal biting into my palm as I force myself to move. Each step feels heavier than the last, terror pooling in my stomach like lead. My breathing is so loud it seems to echo off the concrete walls.

The air smells of mildew and damp stone, suffocating in its closeness, but I focus on moving, acutely aware of the thugs behind me. My legs tremble, but it’s not from climbing.

At the top of the staircase, a door shifts on its hinges, a low, guttural moan that tells me it hasn’t been used in years. This place is probably abandoned. Unlikely to have anyone stumble in and find me here. Rescue me from whatever fate Aleksei has in store.

Surely, he wouldn’t! I just can’t believe he’d do anything to hurt me.

Why not?

He murdered Dad.

My breath stalls, caught somewhere in my throat, as two figures materialize from the shadows.

“Aleksei?” I choke out, praying that I’ll be able to reason with him somehow. I squint into the darkness.At first, it’s just the shapes, but then the dim, flickering fluorescent light reveals them.

And it’s not Aleksei. It’s…

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