I scrambled toward it, even as I felt her claw at my back, her nails raking down my skin so hard, I knew she drew blood. Then my hair. She pulled so hard, but with a rage I didn’t know I had in me, I screamed and shoved her with all my might.
As I straightened with the gun in my hand, I turned to find her sprawled across the floor, hair askew and throat bright red, holding her dislocated shoulder. I pointed the gun at her and fear widened her eyes.
“Move.” I gestured to the bed. “Now!”
Whimpering in agony, Caitlyn crawled over to the bed and turned to face me. Her tear-streaked face made her seem like the victim.
“Code to the door or I’ll blow your brains out.”
“P-please, don’t leave me in here.”
“It’s only until the cops arrive. Code. Now. Or I will shoot you and tell everyone it was self-defense, and they’ll believe me since you fucking kidnapped me!”
She flinched and then nodded, crying hard. “0508.”
My birthday.
Sick to my stomach, I walked backward out of the unit, gun on her the whole time as I input the code to close the doors and step back like she had.
“Please, Ari. Please!” she wailed pitifully.
Tears thickened my throat. I didn’t know if they were for her, for how lost she was. I think they were for her. She was so lost, and I wasn’t. And I hated her. But I also felt unbearably sad for her too.
Tears flowing down my face, I turned and ran toward the exit. I had to find North. I had to let him know I was okay.
Bursting out of the doors, I squinted against the bright sunlight, the afternoon heat that told me it had definitely been more than twenty-four hours since Caitlyn took me.
I scanned the empty lot before me.
Hurrying out onto the blistering pavement, I tried to think. Think. Think. Think. There had to be a business around here with actual people in it.
“You know, you really should have run.”
At the sound of Caitlyn’s voice, I turned slowly around but with the gun raised. To my horror, Caitlyn stood before me with a gun gripped in her hand.
She stared at me like I was the most disappointing person she’d ever encountered. “There’s a safety in each of the storage facilities so people don’t get locked in. A keypad. It was hidden by a pile of boxes. I mean, you wouldn’t have gotten out because you didn’t know the code until today. But I got out.”
“And there was another gun in the room?” I asked, my knees shaking as I forced my hand not to. I didn’t want her to see my fear. And to think just seconds before, I’d actually felt sorry for her.
Caitlyn smirked. “There’s a hole in the floor beneath the bed. You wouldn’t have found it.” Her smile fell. “I can’t live in a world where you don’t want to be with me, Ari.”
“Caitlyn—”
“It’s Ariella.” She narrowed her eyes. “And I misspoke: You can’t live in a world where you don’t want to be with me.”
Forty-Two
NORTH
The last traffic camera to pick up Aria’s rental was in Little Tokyo.
We’d arrived half an hour ago and had been driving around, searching for the car registered in Caitlyn’s name. No luck so far. But my gut … my gut told me to keep looking.
“Let’s do another circle,” I said from the back seat.
Suddenly, Walker’s phone rang. “Ironside,” he answered immediately, and I leaned in to listen.
“And we’re just learning this now? Fuck. Got it.” He hung up and turned to Jack, one of Wesley’s guys. He drove while Walker sat up front in the passenger seat. “Caitlyn Branch is really called Daniella Smith. There’s a storage unit under her name in Little Tokyo.” He glanced down at his phone. “Take the next left.”
Jack floored it as my pulse raced.
Perhaps part of me thought it was a long shot, wishful thinking, that we might be days trying to find where Caitlyn—Daniella—had taken Aria. Yet as I sat forward, hands braced on Walker’s and Jack’s seats, searching the street ahead, I couldn’t fucking believe what I saw in the distance.
“That’s her!” I’d know her anywhere. “Is she—”
“Holding a gun.” Walker unbuckled his seat belt and whipped out his own gun. “And so is Caitlyn. Sit back!” He barked at me as he wound down his window. “Jack.”
Jack, to my shock, slowed as we approached, but before any of us could do anything, Caitlyn’s body jerked, the gun falling from her hands as she flew off her feet and hit the dirt.
Aria had shot her.
It seemed to happen in slow motion.
Until Jack hit the brakes and Walker jumped out with the rest of the security team and surrounded Caitlyn.
“Aria.” Relief made me almost unable to move, my limbs so heavy with it. But then she turned to squint at the SUV, as if looking for me.
I jumped out of the vehicle, my heart threatening to bang out of my chest as Aria’s face crumpled at the sight of me. The gun fell from her hand, clattering to the ground, and she swayed like she might pass out.
Then I had her in my arms, my embrace probably too tight, but she clung to me, hands pulling desperately at my shirt. “I’ve got you, gorgeous. I’ve got you.”
Her sobs shuddered through my body, and I tried to take it all, tears wetting my eyes as I pressed a hard kiss to her head. “I’ve got you,” I whispered over and over again, maybe to reassure me even more than to reassure her. “I won’t let you go. I’m here.”
The sound of sirens grew louder, approaching from a distance. But I kept my back to Caitlyn and Wesley’s men.
“Did I kill her?” she whispered, trembling so hard I feared she might shatter completely.
I glanced over my shoulder and met Walker’s gaze.
“She’s alive. Shoulder wound,” he reassured.
“No. She’ll live.”
Aria sagged in my arms but seemed to plead, “She was going to kill me. I had to.”
“I know. Hush.” I held her tighter. “You’re so brave. I’m so proud of you. And I’ve got you now. I’m here,” I repeated thickly. “Always here.”
Forty-Three
ARIA
Two Months Later
Ardnoch, Scotland
“You will be fine, sì?” Mamma held me at arm’s length, her beautiful eyes filled with concern as she catalogued my every feature.
An SUV waited in the driveway of the beach house to take Mamma to the airport. While Allegra had left a few weeks ago to set up her new apartment in Providence, just a few minutes’ walk from RISD, Mamma had stuck around longer than usual.
As ready as I was for her to leave, I’d attempted over the last few months to be patient with her. What happened to me had disturbed my parents more than I could have imagined. Dad stayed a few extra weeks in Scotland just to make sure I was recovering. Allegra insisted I take Zoom meetings with her therapist, which I did for her sake.
Now Mamma was finally heading back to LA to her own life.
“I’ll take good care of her,” North vowed as he slid an arm around my shoulders to draw me into his side.
Mamma nodded. “I know, I know. But what about when you are working?”