I pull my phone out of my pocket and glance at the screen. “Does anyone have any reception?”
Chiara and Cassius check, but they’ve got nothing, the same as me. I go over to Chiara and put my hands on her shoulders. Tears are flowing freely down my face.
“Princess, look at me.”
“I should have known something was wrong with Mom. I didn’t see it until my birthday. I could have—”
“Hey. Stop that. Cassius and I are going to get you and the baby out of here safely, but I need you to take a few deep breaths. Nothing that piece of shit said is worth the oxygen he fucking steals to say it.” I take her face in my hands. “Okay?”
More tears trickle down her face and she whispers thickly, “I’m so sorry I brought you here.”
I shake my head. “I needed to find this place, and you found it for me, princess.”
Chiara takes a deep breath, and then another.
“Good girl. Everything’s going to be fine.”
Cassius is still throwing his body against the door. Meanwhile, I search the room for any other way to escape. Trapdoors. Manholes in the ceiling. There’s fucking nothing.
“Can you guys smell smoke?” Chiara asks.
Cassius stops kicking the door and I inhale deeply. There is something smoky about the air all of a sudden. And is that a faint crackling I can hear?
Cassius and I exchange glances. A locked basement in a burning house. Even if the fire doesn’t reach us, we’re fucking toast as soon as all the oxygen is sucked out of here by the flames.
I push the table beneath the vent in the wall and climb up on top of it. I’ve got one sliver of a bar and I try calling Salvatore, but the call keeps dropping out. I type a text and send it to the group chat instead.
Message sending failed.
Message sending failed.
Message sending failed.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I growl, and beat the wall with my fist.
I remember Chiara’s terrified face the day she found out she was pregnant and realized that from now on, the four of us would do whatever it takes to keep her and the baby safe, even if that meant dying for them. Cassius and I are facing the possibility that we won’t get the privilege of sacrificing ourselves.
We’re all trapped. We’ll all die together.
Chiara has her arms wrapped around her belly and she’s gazing up at me with a face so pale and scared that my heart is on the verge of shattering into pieces.
“We’re going to get you out of here, princess,” I tell her, with more bravado than I feel.
I just don’t know fucking how.
20
Salvatore
“Wow, this place is crazy. Like a nuclear bunker or something,” Rosaline says as she steps out of the white SUV and gazes around the basement of Lorenzo’s compound.
At Chiara’s request, I’ve brought Nicole, Rosaline, Candace, and Sophia to the compound. Vinicius pulls into the garage behind us with Mrs. De Luca in his Lamborghini and we all head upstairs. Chiara insisted that she be brought here, too.
“It’s a bit like a prison, but it’s safe,” Nicole assures the other girls and takes her mother’s hand.
Of all of them, Mrs. De Luca is being the most difficult. Her expression is impatient as she exclaims, “But I still don’t understand what we’re doing here!”
Neither do I, but I’ve seen enough dead women to last me a lifetime. If Mrs. De Luca tries to leave before we know it’s safe, I have no qualms about locking her up.
Vinicius and I get them settled in the lounge and then stand together in the kitchen trying to keep calm.
“Do you think Chiara has figured out who the Black Orchid Killer is?” Vinicius wonders.
“Chiara said before that she might have met the killer without knowing it. I haven’t seen her turn so pale since she found out she was pregnant.”
There’s nothing we can do but sit and wait. I receive a text forty minutes later from Cassius with their location and the message, Just to keep you in the loop. At least we know where they are.
Half an hour goes by. And then another half an hour. I try calling all their phones but the calls aren’t going through.
“Something doesn’t feel right. I think one of us should go out there,” Vinicius says.
Just then our phones light up with a text message from Lorenzo.
With Chiara and Cassius locked in basement, 42 Lakeside Drive, 35 miles north of Coldlake. House on fire. Call 911. De Luca is the BOK. He’s going to try and kill his family.
I read the message out loud. “Holy shit.”
Vinicius comes to his senses first. “You go to the De Luca home and see if he turns up there. I’ll call 911 and drive out to the lake house.”
Sweat breaks out on my brow. Vinicius has the fastest car and he drives like the devil, but it will still take him thirty minutes to get out there, and meanwhile, Chiara and our baby are trapped in a burning basement.
I turn toward the lounge to tell Chiara’s friends that they need to stay here, only to see Nicole standing in the doorway.
“Did you say 42 Lakeside Drive? That’s my family’s summer house. What’s going on?”
I stare at her blankly for a few seconds. Your father is a sadistic serial killer and he’s put the people I love most and my unborn child in danger.
I force myself to keep my shit together. “Chiara’s at your lake house but she wants you and your mom to stay here. Vinicius is going to get Chiara and the others and I have to go out. You’re all safe here, I promise.”
I don’t wait to see whether she believes me. I bolt for Cassius’ car and start heading across Coldlake. It’s peak hour and there’s so much goddamn traffic. The Black Orchid Killer has eluded us for nine years. My hands sweat on the steering wheel as I picture him slipping through our fingers once again.
When I reach De Luca’s home, all is quiet. I park further down the street and walk back, breaking into the house through the ground floor study window.
So, this is what my sister’s killer’s home looks like. Cream carpet. A water tumbler full of pens standing on a computer desk. I walk through to the lounge and study all the family photos that looked so innocent just a few days ago. Now I know what he is, there’s something off about De Luca’s smile in all the happy lake house, beach house, and theme park photos. His smiles look forced and his eyes are dead, but I would never have noticed if I wasn’t looking for it. No one would ever have noticed. He came home after torturing my sister and his family hugged and kissed him. Mrs. De Luca put a plate of meatloaf in front of him and after dinner, he went upstairs and read his daughter a bedtime story.
I want to rip all these photos from the walls and crush them under my heels while I scream at the top of my lungs.
I have a gun, but I could use some backup so I text Acid. Can you spare Alecta and another hunter? I’m at the De Luca residence waiting for the BOK to show up. It’s De Luca.