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“Take it,” he encourages. “You can give it back when you get done talking to your mother.”
I accept the coin. “Thank you.”
“Put it in your pocket,” he says, already driving again. “The pocket is the lucky stop for the lucky coin.”
I do as he’s suggested and say a little prayer when I haven’t prayed in a good long while. Right now, it feels like it’s been too long. Joey pulls us to the curb, and I draw in a breath. “I’ll be back in a few.”
“Make sure you are. If we don’t hear from you in twenty minutes, I’m coming up. I’m texting you my number. You have to communicate.”
“I will,” I say yet again, but this time to Joey, not Damion.
I exit the car, and nerves jump around inside me, warning bells going off for no good reason.
Everything is fine.
I’ll talk to my mother and be out of here in minutes. Well, maybe minutes. If she has a sobbing fit, a lot longer. I walk inside the building, and in a minute I’m in the empty elevator car, punching the button. My mind replays the call I’d shared with my mother earlier.
“I think we should talk.”
“Okay,” she’d said. “I can meet you at my apartment.”
It hits me now that the tone read like she wasn’t at her own place. She must be staying at West Senior’s house, and that does not sit well. She is deeply woven into the web of his deceit. I reach my mother’s door and ring the bell, and then ring it again. When she doesn’t answer, I dial her cell. She picks up on the first ring.
“Sorry, honey. I came to that little coffee shop a few blocks away that Anna and I come to sometimes.” Anna being a friend of hers from some high-society club. “Can you come here? We can have a coffee.”
I breathe out and remind myself my mother really loves that place and often drags me there, so this is not unusual. It just doesn’t sit right at present, but it hits me that maybe, just maybe, she fears there are cameras in the apartment. Maybe she is looking for privacy? This idea takes root, and I rush toward the elevator. Once I’m inside, I text Joey: She’s at the coffee shop three blocks down. It’s called “Mama’s Coffee,” and I’ll ping my location when I arrive.
The doors to the car shut, and I punch the lower level. The car starts to move, and Joey tries to call me. I try to answer, but can’t hear him. “I’m in the elevator. I’ll call you back.” I disconnect, and the elevator halts and then starts going up. My brows furrow, and I punch the lower level, but to no avail. I clearly have to go all the way up before I can go back down. I lean against the wall to wait it out, and Joey calls again, but I still can’t hear him. I text him: The elevator went up instead of down. I’m still in the car. The coffee shop entrance is in the back alley. I’ll exit to the back of the building.
The elevator halts, and I stick my phone in my purse and punch the down button over and over, but the doors to the car open anyway. That’s when a man wearing all black and a mask appears and then stalks toward me. I back up as far as I can, but there is nowhere to go. He grabs me, and fear lodges my scream in my throat. I feel a needle in my neck, and then everything goes dark.
Part Two
Chapter Twelve
Damion
In a moment, life as we know it can be turned upside down, our world can be shattered into a million pieces.
This is my moment.
“What do you mean Alana’s missing?” I ask, feeling as if I’m trapped in a hole and the rest of the world is outside, the voices around me muffled. But in truth, I’m sitting in the back of a surveillance SUV outside Alana’s mother’s place. Adam’s behind the wheel and Blake and Savage are sitting across from me.
Blake holds up his hand and says, “It’s going to be okay. I have men everywhere. She got onto the elevator, and she never got off.”
For a beat that turns into two, I just sit there, trying to process what I’m being told, trying to dig myself out of that hole. “Holy fuck,” I curse, running a hand through my hair. “How did she not get off?”
“She called Joey as she was stepping onto the elevator car and told him that her mother wanted her to join her at a coffee shop. She told him to meet her at the back door on the street and then the connection went dead.”
I draw in a deep breath, tamping down the mix of anger and adrenaline surging through me. I have to stay calm and clear-headed. That’s how I get Alana back, not by freaking the hell out. “Could she have been faster than him? Did she leave before he got there?”
His expression is grim. “Adam was already at the backdoor, and she never exited the building.”
“What about camera footage?”
“The camera feed went dark the minute she got on the elevator to head downstairs. We know she traveled up instead of down. We don’t know if she punched the wrong button or if the system was in override, at least not yet. We’re searching the building.”
“Do we call the police?”
