Page 134 of Ballrooms & Blackmail

I get my knees under me, struggle to my feet. “Because I’m going to kill you.”

He rears back and hits me himself.

Pain explodes across my cheek.

Blood fills my mouth.

But I keep my feet, step toward him.

Another blow—this one to the back of my skull—turns my vision blurry.

The room tilts.

My knees give way and I hit the floor again, rage and fear and agony rippling through my body.

Sergio crouches beside me, his mouth close to my ear, his words cold and quiet and cruel. “Don’t worry, brother.” He laughs. “We’ll remind you who you are.”

That monster inside me rears its ugly head.

Because that’s exactly what I’m most afraid of.

Then his fist comes down again and the world goes black.

Forty

River

Something is wrong.

I know it before anyone says the words.

Before the pancakes fully settle in my stomach.

Before Pascal calls and tells me Thorn’s car was found in front of his office building. Empty.

Before Attie arrives with a somber expression on her face and news that the meeting place for the so-called board meeting has changed.

Before Thorn doesn’t come home.

His coffee cup is still in the sink. His laptop sits on the kitchen island. His jacket is hanging over the back of a chair.

He just popped out to take a meeting and pick up some things at his office, which is literally right around the corner. He promised to be careful. Kissed me and said he would be right back.

It was a normal morning.

And now…this?

Sitting at the kitchen table, my stomach churning, waiting, hoping, praying for him to come home.

Desperate for it to be a horrible mistake.

Pascal’s phone rings, and he answers the call, his voice calm and controlled. But every line of his body is filled with tension as he listens and speaks and then, eventually, hangs up.

His eyes go to Attie’s and they communicate silently for a long moment.

Too long.

“Pascal,” I whisper.