Page 139 of Chaotic Curse
Belinda has to be the priority.
I leave her bedroom.A moment later, Vinnie follows.
“Are you okay?”he asks.
Tears threaten.How can I possibly be okay?Someone is stalking me.I think I’ve figured out who it is.I’m in love, but Hawk is ghosting me.The federal government has decided I’m not in danger in Colombia, and Belinda… My Belinda is gone.Sweet Belinda, who’s already been through so much.
“No.”I glance at the packet in his hand.“But I will be.Later.”
“We’ll fight this,” he says.“I promise.”
“I know.”I lift my chin toward Belinda’s doorway.“Right now—Belinda.”
He nods.“Right now—Belinda.”
We rejoin the officers.Ruiz is looking at the printer in Belinda’s room without touching it.“Does she print often?”
“Homework.Piano music,” Raven says, voice thin.
“We’ll ask our tech to pull the print log,” he says.“If that’s okay.”
“Please,” Raven says.
I hover in the doorway.The room looks wrong because it’s too neat.Bed made.Pillow square.
“Did you call Gwen’s parents?”I ask, brittle.
“Not yet,” Ruiz says.“We’ll get there.”
I nod.Wrap my arms around myself to hold me in.
Out front, headlights wash the living room.Another patrol car.The house fills with more careful footsteps, more radios whispering.Ruiz takes statements again, tightens the net in ways I can’t see.McClain checks the side gate and the patch of dirt where neighborhood kids cut through sometimes.Vinnie pulls school contacts.Raven texts Gwen’s mom’s number to Officer Ruiz.
I pace.I stop.I pace again.I touch nothing.
And I think.Hard.
The note is typed.The tone is off.The timing is uncanny.He wanted me to understand the chocolate.He wanted me to think of him.He wanted to remind me that the kitchen taught me things at a price—and he can set the price again.
He took a child.
Every cell in me goes cold and sharp.
I picture the pantry.The molinillo.The way the chocolate bloomed.The way his voice softened when the drink was perfect.The way it hardened when I hesitated.
You want me, Chef?Then you get me.But you donotget her.
I text Hawk again, fingers flying.
Emergency x2.Belinda missing.DHS is revoking my temporary protected status.Call me now!
I wait.
Stare at my screen.
No dots.
“Ms.Agudelo?”Officer Ruiz says, startling me from behind.
