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The world stops. I can't breathe, can't think. My vision tunnels as rage builds inside me like a volcano, pressure mounting until I might explode.

"Sam? You there? What's happening?"

I hurl the phone across the room. It shatters against the wall, pieces scattering like confetti. My desk flips with one violent push, papers and my laptop crashing to the floor. The bourbondecanter follows, glass exploding, amber liquid spreading across the hardwood like blood.

"FUCK!" I slam my fist through the drywall, again and again, until my knuckles bleed and splinter with white dust. Picture frames crash down. Books sweep off shelves. The room becomes a hurricane, with me at its center.

The door bursts open. Adrian rushes in, eyes wide with alarm.

"Sam, stop!" He grabs me, but I shove him away with enough force to make him stumble.

"They have her." My voice breaks, fracturing like everything else around me. "They fucking have her."

My legs give out. I sink to the floor amid the wreckage of my office, my chest heaving. Tears burn in my eyes. I haven't cried since my mother died, haven't allowed myself that weakness.

"They'll kill her. They'll hurt her first, then they'll kill her." My voice trembles, barely able to speak clearly.

Visions of my mother's death flash through my mind like a sick montage. I can see her lying there, bleeding out in that ugly shack, her eyes vacant, accusing. History’s repeating itself in the cruelest way.

"We'll get her back," Adrian says, but he spends his days behind a desk, using the law to protect us. He doesn't have the firsthand experience with the Serpents that I do. He hasn't seen what they're capable of.

"How?" I look up, my vision blurred through unshed tears. "Roman's dead. I sent him to protect her, and now he's dead, and they have her."

"We'll find her," he tries to reassure me, his voice steady when mine is anything but.

"It's my fault." The words taste like ash. "I did this. I brought her into this. I should have known better."

"Sam." Adrian cuts through my spiral. "Focus. Olivia needs you thinking clearly, not drowning in guilt."

He's right. I take a deep breath, wiping my face with the back of my bloodied hand.

"They want me to suffer," I say, clarity finally breaking through the fog of rage. "He won't kill her right away."

Adrian nods. "That gives us time."

I stand up, purpose replacing panic. "I know where they'll take her."

"The old warehouse?" he asks, eyebrows raised, already reaching for his phone.

"No. Somewhere more personal." I reach for my gun, checking the chamber with practiced ease. "Get the cars ready. Call everyone. They took what's mine. I'm taking her back."

FORTY-FOUR

Olivia

There's a throbbing ache radiating through my head when I blink my eyes open. I groan, trying to lift my hands to my temples, but they don't obey. I wiggle them, feeling something chafing against the raw skin and keeping them anchored behind my back. The metallic taste of blood lingers in my mouth, and it takes me a moment to remember what happened as I attempt to focus, to make sense of my surroundings through swollen eyes.

I snuck out. The bar. Roman.

A sob lodges itself in my throat. I watched him die. Guilt claws at me. I was angry with him when I left Sam's house. He was just following his boss’s orders, but I was ignoring him, annoyed that he was keeping me trapped in that house. And if I would’ve listened to him…maybe he would still be alive.

"Look who's finally awake." Axel's voice cuts through my disorientation. He squats in front of me, tobacco-stained teeth visible in his twisted smile. "Costello's little pet."

I'm in a small room that smells of mildew and stagnant water. Moonlight filters through cracks in the weatheredwooden walls, casting eerie shadows across the floor. Somewhere outside, water laps against a shore.

Fear grips my chest as I look at Axel. I've been kidnapped by this psychopath.What is he going to do to me?

I try to speak, but my throat feels like sandpaper. I manage to croak, "Why?"