Page 62 of To Love a Monster
“You say you give a damn,” I mutter as I throw open the cabin door.
“What did you just say to me?”The night air hits like ice and I cross the porch in three strides, boots slamming against the wood.“If it were someone you truly cared about, you wouldn’t be telling me to fucking wait.”I shove the car door open, drop into the driver’s seat, and jam the key into the ignition.“You’d already be kicking down doors.”
Matteo’s voice drops low, razor-edged.“Don’t you fucking go there,” he says as the engine growls to life.I throw it into gear, one hand still gripping the phone.
“You know what can happen in twenty minutes, Matteo.”I lean forward, knuckles bone-white on the dash.“You know exactly how long that is in the wrong hands.She doesn’t have twenty minutes.”
“And you walking in blind and alone does what?”he fires back.“You think they won’t expect that?You show up alone, they kill you.Then what?She’s gone for good and you’re just another fucking body on the floor.”
“She’s there because of me.”I shout, my voice breaking.“Because I let her walk into this thinking I would protect her and I didn’t!”
“Nikolai—” He starts but I don’t let him finish.
“I’m not asking, Matteo.I’m telling you that Iamgoing there.Backup or no backup.”There’s a breath on the line.
“I’m ordering you to stand down,” Matteo snaps.“You wait for the call.You wait for the team.This is my daughter’s life.I am giving you an order.”
I slam my fist into the dash.“Fuck you and your order.”And I end the call.
****
The parking lot isempty and the old hardware store looms ahead with its paint peeling like scabbed-over skin.The windows are closed and it seems like there’s not a single soul on the property but me.
It’s clearly a trap, and every part of me knows it.Feelsit.But if she’s in there, if there’s even just a small chance that she’s in there, then I’m walking in without hesitation.I just hope Matteo sends people in before it’s too late.
I kill the engine and leave the key in the ignition.I scan the lot but there’s no movement.No guards, no cars, just the wind dragging dust in lazy spirals across the concrete.Then I see it, the silhouette on the roof.The floodlight flickers once and casts just enough of a glow to make out the outline of a figure slumped and bound in a chair.The shape’s too far to make out features but my gut twists hard enough to bruise.
Before I can move, my phone buzzes.The wordsUnknown numberflashes across the screen and I answer without hesitation.“Where is she?”I say and my heart clenches as screaming floods the line.High pitched and raw.The kind of sound that cuts right into my heart and makes my skin tingle.Because even though it’s distorted through the static, I can hear it’s Lila.
“Easy, darling,” a woman’s voice coos on the other end, crisp and cold.“We wouldn’t want you breaking before he gets a proper last look at you.”
My pulse spikes as I recognize the voice on the other line.One I thought I’d never hear again.“Annalise.”
“Nikolai,” she purrs.“I was starting to think you wouldn’t show, my love.”She chuckles, “But you’re late.And she’s running out of time.Tick-tock, tick-tock.”
“If you touch her,” my voice breaks, raw with fury, “I swear to God, Annalise—”
“Oh, sweetheart,” she says, her voice slicing through the line like a knife, “If I really wanted to hurt her, you’d already be scraping what’s left off the floor.”The smile in her voice sharpens.“She’d be a memory, nothing but a pesky red stain jumbled among mangled flesh and bone.And you know it.”
My grip tightens around the phone, rage clawing at the back of my throat, feral and useless.Above me, the figure on the roof remains still.
My heart thunders in my chest, a brutal rhythm of rage and dread.“You always did love playing the hero, didn’t you?”Annalise murmurs, almost fondly.“Like a knight in bloodstained armor.But I know better, I know what you are.What you’ve done.What you’recapableof.”
I say nothing, just focusing on breathing as she carries on.“I remember the real Nikolai.The one who left bodies in his wake like meaningless breadcrumbs.”
I close my eyes, jaw clenched so tight I feel it crack.“You don’t know who I am anymore.”
“Oh, but I do.”Her tone lifts, sharp as a blade.“You’re still the same monster.You’ve just found a prettier cage to rattle in.But if you really want your little pet?”A soft laugh slithers down the line.“Then come get her.”
I glance at the clock.Matteo’s team is still minutes out.Too long for me to wait.
“I’m coming,” I say, voice low and steady.
