Page 61 of To Love a Monster
“And falling for the girl?”He clicks his tongue.“That was your real mistake.You know better.You’ve seen it a hundred times.It’s always the ones who care that lose their grip first.”He glances back at Lila’s limp body like it’s a broken doll on the floor.Like it means nothing.
“I noticed my phone felt ...off,” Carl says, still staring dead into the vent camera.He steps closer, the shadows cutting sharper across his face as the light from the kitchen flickers behind him.
“Too much lag, too clean a signal.Someone had their claws in it.”His lips curl.“At first, I thought it was the network.Then I remembered who’s been sniffing around.”He taps the side of his head like it’s a game of charades, like the answer was obvious all along.“Clever trick, Nikolai.Almost worked.Almost, but not quite.”
He leans in now, closer to the lens until the sharp edge of his features distort slightly with the proximity, his eyes like razors.“So I thought ...why not give you a show?”
His grin widens but it doesn’t reach his eyes.“She’s sweet, your girl.Mouthy, but sweet.You know the type.Fire in the eyes, tremble in the hands.” He straightens, rolling his shoulders like he’s shedding the weight of performance.
“You got sloppy,” he adds, the venom in his voice now smooth.“You let your ego write checks you couldn’t cash.Let your feelings get involved.”He sneers.“And look where that got you.Watching.Completely helpless, just like her.”
He taps a finger against his chin.“Got to admit, I was a little pissed you got the first few rounds with her.But that’s all right.I don’t mind waiting my turn.”He straightens again, cracking his neck like he’s shaking off something beneath the skin.
“I’ll be sure to give her a proper sendoff before the auction.After all, I worked too hard to let her go without a taste, and the first buyer’s already circling.He’s got a thing for damaged ones.Says it makes them easier to train.So, really, I don’t think he minds if I put her through a bit of training.”He steps back, just far enough to let the shadows eat the edges of his face.
“If you want to say goodbye...”he says, voice dropping, “you know where to come.”He pauses, then adds, almost gleefully, “Same spot we left Jake bleeding out.”His eyes flick sideways, toward something offscreen.His jaw tenses and he turns away but stops and looks back over his shoulder one last time.
“Oh,” he says, and this time his smile is pure malice.“Annalise sends her regards.”Then the screen goes black and everything inside me detonates.For a second I just stare at the phone.The silence it leaves behind is louder than the video.My reflection stares back at me in the black glass and something in my chest snaps, clean and final.I grip the phone tight until the plastic gives.Until the screen fractures like bone under pressure.
My knees hit the floor hard.The air leaves my lungs, but I don’t make a sound.The scream lives somewhere deep, far below speech, building like fire in a sealed room, blistering under my ribs and threatening to burst from my spine.
The cabin blurs around the edges and I press my forehead to the floorboards, my fingers curling into fists so tight I swear I feel blood rise beneath the nails.
He took her, he fucking touched her, and he made sure I watched.
I will get her back, and when I do?I’ll make sure he dies begging.The scream rips out from my throat before I can stop it.Raw and unfiltered, a sound I didn’t even know I was capable of making.It tears through me as I slam my fist into the floorboards, once, twice, a third time, until my knuckles split and the blood smears red against the grain.
I can’t stay here, can’t break.Not now, not when she’s still out there.I drag in a breath, my fist still planted on the floor, trembling.My vision blurs from the deep feeling of failure.
I fucked up.I underestimated him and I let her down.But this isn’t over.
I will burn through every mile, every building, every body that stands in my way.I’ll set the entire world on fucking fire city by city until I find her.I reach for the phone with bloodied fingers and call Matteo.He answers on the first ring, his voice laced with anxiety. “Where is she?”
“They took her,” I choke.My voice doesn’t sound like it belongs to me.It's like it’s been dragged across gravel and broken glass.“It was Carl.He took her and left a message.He,fuck, he looped the cameras linked to my device.She was alone.I wasn’t fast enough.”
There’s a pause on the line, a silence thick enough to drown in.Then Matteo’s voice cuts through, steady and controlled. “How bad is it?”
“It’s bad, Matteo.Really fucking bad.”I grit out, my jaw aching from how tightly it’s clenched.“He’s planning to move her and sell her to a buyer.There’s one waiting for her.And he made sure I saw it all.He trapped her, knocked her out.”
“You’re spiraling, you’re of no use to her if you let your emotions get the best of you.”Matteo snaps.“Breathe.Now tell me what he said.All of it.”
I do.Every word.“He knew I cloned his phone.Said it felt off, said he figured someone was piggybacking his signal and decided to have some fun with it.He jammed the network and blocked the feed, made sure I couldn’t see anything until it was too late.”My hand curls tighter around the cracked edge of the phone.“He talked like he’d already won.Said he’d give her a proper sendoff before she’s sold.”
There’s a beat of silence and my voice drops lower as I speak again.“And then he looked straight into the vent cam.Told me if I want to say goodbye I know where to find them.”I swallow hard.My hand shakes.“It’s the same place Jake was killed.I’m going to get her back, Matteo.”I say.“Whatever it takes.Even if I have to walk through hell to do it, even if I don’t walk back out.”
“Nikolai—” Matteo starts, his voice warning but I just talk over him.
“I mean it.”My voice is steel now.“Whatever Carl thinks he started tonight?I’m going to finish it.With my hands, with his blood.”
Matteo exhales sharply, “Then pull yourself together,” he snaps.“Because she doesn’t need your rage, she needs your precision.”I bite down hard enough I taste copper.“Now listen to me,” Matteo says.His voice sharpens, commanding and focused.“I’ve got eyes on something.A lead, I’m working on it as we speak..”
My heart kicks.“What kind of lead?”
“Just trust me,” he snaps.“I’ve got a plan, but you need to wait.”
“Wait?”My voice breaks on the word.“She’s out there.Alone, bleeding, probably worse, and you want me to fuckingwait?”
“Twenty minutes,” Matteo says.“That’s all I ask for.I’m sending backup, the gear’s en route and there’s a tactical team on standby.But you need.To.Hold.”I don’t answer at first, I’m already moving, grabbing my coat off the floor where I dropped it, keys clenched tight in one hand, phone pressed to my ear with the other.
