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"Y-You bastard," I croak. "I'll kill you."

The bald man smirks. "Will you?" He crouches down and his thighs double in size. "You are… the Jack, right? I hear stories about you. Cannot say I am impressed."

"Boss!" a distant voice calls. "We gotta go!"

"Not without the woman!" the bald man yells back so loudly that my ears pop.

"Can't get her," calls another faint voice. "Car's fucked. She's trapped!"

"Fine." The bald man grins down at me with a smile absent a few teeth. "I will come back for her."

All I can do is glare up at him as he pats my cheeks and stands.

"Let's go. And you…" The man reaches for something out of view and tosses it down at me, but in the rain and the wind, it takes a few seconds for it to actually land.

By the time it does, the man is gone and the roar of car engines floods the air, only to fade as they race away into the night.

I shake my head, wrestling against the dizziness coursing through me, and fixate on the piece of paper that lands in a pool of blood just near my head.

It's an invitation.

To the Popov gala.

26

SABINA

"Idon't understand. Why won't you let me see him?"

Everything since the crash has been a blur. A terrible, overwhelming blur. One minute, we were driving through the streets of New York. The next minute, I was coming to in an ambulance surrounded by strangers who just kept telling me over and over that there had been an accident.

No one would tell me anything, and given Mario's threat, I had to assume that these people were not safe to be around. Until they dumped me at the Empire State Building and Valentina appeared at my side with her arm in a sling and half of her face covered in a thousand tiny scratches.

"Cassian is getting treated," Valentina assures me softly, but her words do nothing to calm the feverish pace of my heart.

"Treated? Is he alright? You have to tell me what's going on! No one in the ambulance told me anything. They just dumped me here and… look at you! Where is Illyana?"

"Sabina." Her tone sharpens. "I understand that you're panicked and in pain. But we need to get you seen before we deal with anything like that."

"No!" I shove myself in front of Valentina as she tries to exit the elevator. "Where is my daughter?"

She meets my eyes but before she can speak, a deep voice rumbles from behind me. "Sabina?"

I spin on the spot and stare up at a tall, broad man with short, black hair and sparkling gray eyes. The familiarity of his face cuts through the panicked confusion fogging my mind and I stare up at him, open-mouthed.

"I'm Bradley," he says quietly. "Do you remember me?"

I nod slowly. All the names Cassian had given me, and I hadn't quite connected the dots between the man he was talking about and the man who only came to my restaurant to eat me out of garlic bread.

"I need you to get seen by a doctor," Bradley continues. "I understand they tended to you in the ambulance, but I would feel much better if one of our doctors looked you over properly. Cassian is currently with our medical team and Valentina will be heading there too, won't you?" He looks over my shoulder and seems to like whatever response she gives him because he smiles. "Now, I'm telling you this only so that you will go and see the doctor. We are looking for your daughter, okay?"

I knew it.

As soon as I woke up in the ambulance, I knew something terrible had happened.

Illyana is gone.

Someone must have taken her.