Page 94 of Unlock My Heart

The putrid smell of trash fills my nostrils.

Am I dead?

What Ringer did to me splits into my mind like a baseball bat busting open a piñata.

“No,” I whimper.

“Sienna, my God, what happened to you?” A familiar voice says as I’m being pulled out of the dumpster.

It takes effort, but my right eye opens. My left eye can’t.

Michele’s blurry face comes into focus. “Jade, help me get her into the car and take her to the doctor,” he orders.

A pitiful moan escapes me as I’m placed inside the back of a vehicle, Jade sliding in beside me.

“Sweetie, it’s going to be okay,” she says, both of us knowing it’s a damn lie.

Sienna

The present

I wake with a start, yanking the pillow over my tear-soaked face. Not the nightmares starting back up!

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

A low growl has me yanking the pillow away from my face to find Lacey watching me.

I freeze as she plops her huge head on my chest. “I don’t know how you got in here, but please don’t eat me.”

She whines, and I dare to give her a scratch behind the ear. She doesn’t snap my hand off, and I take that as a good sign.

“Up,” I tell her, patting the spot beside me, and she leaps on the bed, sitting beside me. “Do you have a snuggle command? Not that I need a snuggle. Let’s not let that rumor get out there.” I run my hand along the fur on her back, feeling much calmer than when I woke up. “But just so you know, this doesn’t mean we’re friends,” I warn her. “I’ve been burned so badly I can’t let anyone in, and that includes hellhounds.”

Lacey doesn’t comment, but of course she doesn’t: she’s a dog. Despite this, I continue the one-sided conversation. “It’s my first day going back to school, and things aren’t off to a great start. Could you pass as my emotional support dog?”

She makes a chuffing sound.

“Yeah, probably not. You look too terrifying, no offense.” I let out a long sigh. “Better terrifying than beautiful. You know where beauty got me? Nowhere, being a nobody, shuffled around the Calvani game board.”

The dog looks confused.

“‘Family above all else.’”

Lacey doesn’t get it, but that’s okay. Eighteen-year-old me didn’t get it, either.

“I need to get ready for class. Come.” She hops down and sits by the bathroom door, waiting for her next command. “Lacey, I haven’t decided if I want you to maul Fabien when he’s released from prison.” I cock my head. “But I’ll keep you posted.”

After a shower, I stand in my underwear as I rifle through my closet. Unzipping the evening gown bag, I retrieve my old boots that I was able to keep hidden from Michele.

I take a seat on the bench, lacing them up and rising. Checking myself out in the mirror, I don’t recognize the woman looking back at me. I wasn’t being melodramatic with Fabien: eighteen-year-old Sienna died in that dumpster.

My fingers trace the hem of a slinky dress, but Madam Sienna is no longer in existence, either. Not with my little black book missing. Three guesses who swiped it, and the first two don’t count.

If I’m neither soft-hearted Sienna nor cold-hearted Madam Sienna, who the hell does that leave me as?

It’s an unsettling feeling to realize I don’t know.

With a frustrated growl, I kick off the boots in the back of the closet, choosing jeans, a boring T-shirt, and sneakers.