Page 75 of My Ghost

Her face pales under the grime.“There are two of them, the older one and the young one.”

“Have you seen more?”

She shakes her head again.

Desperation gnaws at me.I scoot to rest my back against the wall and hug my legs, hoping against hope that Matteo will find me.He will find me.Unless…unless he already knows where I am, because he orchestrated this, a small voice whispers in my head.

No!Pull yourself together, Erin.He can’t be involved, he is looking for you.He will come for you.

My thoughts spiral and I need to get a grip.

I look back at Lydia, who has taken the same position as when I was shoved into the room.

“Were… are there others like us?”I whisper, too scared to hear the reply.

She nods slowly, gaze far away.“There were three others before you, but they didn’t stay long, they took them away in a span of a few days.”

Nausea starts to roil in my gut.“How long have you been here?”

“I…am not sure,” she whispers.“I lost count after eighteen days.It could be a month.Even more.”She is sobbing now, the sheer terror in her voice gripping my heart in a vise.

Shit.I have to stay strong for both of us.

“Lydia, listen, someone will come for us.They are looking.We just need to buy time and stay alive.And if we get a chance to run, we run.All right?”

She nods.

“Matteo will find us,” I say, more to myself than to her.

“Matteo”— her head snaps around— “as in Matteo Di Rossi?”

That gets my attention.“You…know him?”

“I work for him.”

“Me too, Data Science department,” I offer, mind spinning.

“I’m…was working as a hostess, as is my partner Jade.”

Jade.I look at her in shock.Is this a coincidence?

“Jade?The club?”

She nods.

“That’s…insane.”My head is spinning.“What is going on here?Do you know why you were taken?”

“I’m not sure, but the only reason I can think of is overhearing something outside The Bastion.He…the younger man was there, talking on his phone about meeting the person on the phone and the next thing I remember is waking up in a car trunk.I don’t know what they’re going to do but I overheard them arguing about keeping me as leverage or something.They always say that I am goods when they talk about me.”Tears stream down her face.

I take her hand again and squeeze.“Jade and Matteo”—I know I shouldn’t give her false hope, but she should know—“they are doing all they can to find you.In fact I’m—was—her new neighbor and I’ve talked to her.She’s never given up.”

She gives a small helpless smile.

“Matteo will come, he is the best for finding people, you’ll see.”I finish with more confidence than I feel.

She nods and looks at me through her tears as if I had a key to get out.My stomach drops.The truth is that I have no key, no plan, no clue how we will make it out of here.

But I am hoping like hell that Matteo is looking for us.