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“Well she's not out here, where else could she be?!” Frantically, my mother turned and screamed at Franco. “Emery might still be inside! Call the fire department!”

“I'm going back in to look for her!” Stumbling forward, I clutched my head, trying to focus my vision.

“No, Porter! You can't!” my mother screamed, lashing out and snagging my arm to stop me.

“She's not in there,” Franco said, his tone dry and emotionless.

Flicking my eyes over my shoulder, I watched him as his hands twisted back and forth against the steering wheel, his gaze locked on the house.

My mother stopped moving, her eyes zeroing in on her husband. “How would you know that?” she asked, warily concerned at how he sounded so sure.

“She's just not.” Lifting his eyes to mine, I was met with a dead, cold stare.

“How. Would. You. Know. That?” Her voice was direct and firm. “Franco, answer me.” Scanning his face, she looked panicked and afraid of what he would say next.

Hanging his head, he rested his forehead on the steering wheel. “Because that wasn't his plan.”

“What the hell does that mean?!” My mother went into a rage, throwing her arms around as she spoke. “What do you know about this?! What did you do?!”

Shrugging his shoulders, he kept his face down. “I gave him what he wanted, but it doesn't look like they did what they said they would.”

“You—you did this?” Her jaw hung open as her arms fell weightlessly by her sides. “You gave them our son?”

“Your son.They already took mine, remember?”

Pressing my palm into the hood of the car, I stumbled over to his door. I didn't care that it felt like my chest was going to explode while I suffocated inside, this man had betrayed his family—he had betrayed my mother.

Reaching in through the window, I curled my fingers around the collar of his shirt and yanked him halfway out the opening. Pulling my fist back, I let it go, hitting him square in the jaw.

“Where is she?!” I barked, ready to hit him again. Even if he gave me the answer I was looking for, I wasn't sure I'd be able to control my anger anyway and stop myself from beating the shit out of him. I could feel my veins as they thickened and my heart as it turned to concrete.

“I don't know.”

Crack!

“Where did they take her?!”

“I don't know, Porter!”

Thud!

“Tell me what you did! Who did you talk to?!”

“Who do you think?” Chuckling lightly, he licked the blood off his lips. “I wanted this done for good, Porter, I wanted it to really be over. So I gave them the only thing they wanted to begin with. I gave them you!”

Smack! Crack!

Hitting him over and over, my knuckles turned raw, but I didn't care. I had to find her, I had to get her back. Emery was the only thing that mattered to me. And now she was in the hands of a vile, evil creature who would destroy her very existence.

“Tell me everything, I want to know what the fuck you said.” My voice was deep and hollow. I already hated this man, now I wanted to kill him myself.

“It's not that complicated, it's pretty simple actually. I went to Marcos, he was ready to kill me where I stood, and I thought he was going to. But when I told him I had what he wanted, and that you had a really pretty girl with you too, he was more than interested to hear me out. I told him where he'd find you, and I expected to come home today to find you both gone. Then your mother and I could have gone back to living our normal lives. It was supposed to be over.”

“Normal lives?! Are you fucking kidding me, Franco?!” My mother squealed as she threw herself forward, pushing me to the side, and pinching his cheeks in her hand. “How could you do this?!”

“I just wanted everything to go back to the way it was, that was it. I didn't know how to do it any other way!”

Throwing his face, my mother raked her fingers through her hair and snapped a hand to her hip as she stalked in a tight circle. “I can't believe you, I can't believe you'd do this to us.”