Page 43 of Come Alive
Isobella.
He hadn’t seen her in years, but she was unmistakable. And she was here…tied to a chair.
Horror struck him in the gut as he tried to remember how to breathe.
“Dad?” Isobella spoke, solidifying everything he already knew.
“Isobella?” James attempted to escape his restraints, but the two masked men squeezed tighter onto him, nearly cutting off the circulation in each of his arms.
I have to save her. I have to save her. I have to save her.
Isobella was here, in the flesh. Yara had been telling the truth. His entire focus was on his daughter. On how she was clearly in distress, a prisoner here. But he still couldn’t understand what was going on. Just that he needed to save her. He continued to struggle against the men holding him but it was no use.
And then Isobella’s eyes welled with tears, and his heart broke all over again. She was his baby who he rocked to sleep in his arms. She was his little girl he comforted after scraping her knee. She was his teenager he hugged and supported after a tough day at school.
His daughter.
“Finally, together at last. Are those tears of joy? I can’t believe your sweet mother isn’t here for the reunion.” Steve snapped his fingers, and James dragged his eyes from Isobella to the man before him. “When she drunkenly told me what she had done? Igrew curious. How could I use this secret? Because that’s what it was—a dangerous and powerful secret. I think I did the best I could with it. But imagine my surprise when I sent James to lure Yara back to me, and instead? Hefallsfor her. Hefucksher. He—”
Confusion spiked in James’s temple, what did Yara have to do with any of this?
“Stop it!”
James’s heart beat into his ears, pounding painfully. He hadn’t seen her before, but there she was, tucked away behind Isobella on the ground against the far wall.
Yara.
She was bruised, her hair chopped raggedly, her face gaunt. Her legs and arms chained to the wall. Depression and crippling fear wound their way around his lungs squeezing them in a tight vice. His lips pressed in a tight line as he tried to make sense of everything going on.
James flinched as across from Yara the wall opened up, leaving a glass pane he could see through.
Isobella’s mother was on the other side of the glass. She looked so eerily similar to the last time he looked at her, except there was the unmistakable trace of wrinkles etching around her lips as she pursed them. The woman was clearly unhappy to be there, waving her hands about. But James didn’t care about her. Steve washerhusband.
In this instant, he wanted more than anything to run to her, to throttle her and demand answers.
Why was Isobella’s stepfather keeping her here like this? Why had she taken their daughter and run? Why had she married this monster?
It was clear she couldn’t see them, though, as she kept twisting and swiveling her head erratically. She didn’t focus in any direction as she continued her meltdown.
“Well, this hasn’t been quite as amusing as I wanted it to be. Maybe it’s time to spice up the party. Isobella. Who do you love better? Your mom or your dad? We always have a favorite, don’t we?”
James kept his attention on the woman through the glass. It was easier to focus on than Yara or Isobella. The sight of them had nearly broken him. But his ex? It was ramping back up his indignation.
Nobody spoke, but even still, Steve continued, “That’s what I thought. I don’t blame you, your mother is rather difficult.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
James jolted as he watched bullets land in his ex. He couldn’t see who had pulled the trigger, but could clearly discern the blood as it expanded out across her chest and stomach.
James spoke sharply, “Isobella, do not look. You don’t need to see it.”
He swallowed down bile and fear.
He flicked his eyes to Yara, catching her gaze.
I’m sorry,she mouthed.
“Yara?” Isobella asked softly.
