“Good work, Ry,” I whisper and push a little harder.
As soon as we’re out of sight, Kade jumps into the truck and starts it up. I jump in the other door and hope like hell Riley is just behind me.
A few seconds later he’s jumping into the truck and slamming the door closed.
“Let’s go!” he shouts.
Kade takes off down the road, the old truck grumbling at the speed. Leaning forward, he looks past me to Riley and restarts our prior conversation. “So are the Candellas like a crime family too?”
“I don’t know much about them.” Riley shrugs, unlocking his screen and going back into search mode.
“If we’re speculating that they’re taking things into their own hands, then we can assume they are.”
I rake my fingers through my hair. “So how’s that helping us? It still doesn’t tell us where she is.”
“Well, think about the crime movies we’ve seen. If you were them, what would you do with Chris?” Kade stares into the darkness while we all go quiet.
Neither of them have the courage to say it, so eventually I croak out what we’re all thinking. “I’d kill her and hide the body.”
“Where?” Riley whispers.
And then his phone starts ringing.
Staring at the number with a wrinkled frown, he cautiously answers it. “Hello?”
“Riley!”
My heart lurches into my throat as I hear the muffled sound of Chris’s voice. Snatching the phone out of Riley’s hand, I set it to speaker. “Chris, it’s me. Are you okay?”
She whimpers and pulls in a shaky breath. “They’re trying to kill me.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. Some dock. There’s a cargo ship and containers. It’s not a huge place. There’s this old warehouse and I’m hiding in the office.” Her voice is rushed, panicky.
I look to Riley for answers. His face is bunched with concentration as he obviously runs through the geography of the area. “I need my phone.” He snatches it back, keeping Chris on speaker while he pulls up a map.
“Can you see any signs or names around you?” he asks.
“Um…” She sniffs and pulls in another shaky breath. “Wait.”
I hold my breath and think I hear the shuffling of papers, and then Chris’s punchy voice is back.
“There’s a bill for Dynamis Shipping Yard on the desk.”
Riley punches in the name while I assure Chris that we’re coming for her. “We’ll find you. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I know, I just—” Her words are cut off by the sound of a gunshot. Her gut-wrenching scream blinds me and then the line goes dead.
“Chris?” I shout at the phone.
Riley grips the hardware and gives me a pained look before whispering, “Keep heading north, Kade. Turn left at the first intersection.”
Kade nods, his jaw locking as he pushes his foot to the floor.
Leaning forward, I hold my head and start begging. “Drive like the fucking wind, man. Please.”
#37:
A Life For A Life
Christiana
I crash behind the desk, cowering as another bullet hits the glass behind me. It punctures a hole through the window, cracks instantly forming. If the person shoots again, I’m going to be covered in shards. Crawling across to the wall, I scramble into the darkest corner and hunt for an escape. The framed picture above me smashes as another bullet fires inside. I scream and cover my head. Glass rains down around me, nicking my bare arms and catching in my hair.
“Shit,” I whimper and scramble to the opposite edge of the room.
The door bangs open, a pane of glass wobbling and shattering at my feet. I pull my legs away, pressing my back against the wall as Robbie’s sister steps into the room. Her heels crunch over glass. She walks in and spots me on the ground. Swiveling to face me, her upper lip curls with disgust as she aims the gun at my head.
“A life for a life,” she mutters.
I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the blackness.
Robbie’s twitching foot flashes through my mind. A dark look from the devil as he crouches over him. Then it’s all wiped away by Trey’s sweet smile, the touch of his fingers on my face, the way he tastes on my lips.
“Chris,” he whispers.
If it’s the last sound in my head before I die, I don’t mind so much. He’s overtaken my heart; it makes sense that he’s filling my head when I take my final breath.
A squeal of tires makes my eyes pop open.
I’m looking straight down the barrel of a gun.
And then a shot is fired.
I think it’s hers.
I flinch, expecting pain…darkness…light. Whatever’s supposed to happen after death.
But instead the gun falls away and her body drops to the ground. Her head lolls to the side, staring straight at me with a chilling, lifeless gaze.
Blood oozes from a wound in her forehead.
I cover my mouth with my hand, my entire body convulsing. I can’t take my eyes off her inert face.
“Christiana?”
I freeze.
“Christiana!”
Dad?