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I did something then that I’d never thought I’d ever do, I spat in his face. I hated it but I knew that I’d get a reaction from him. I watched as the blood dripped down his face and onto his t-shirt.

He came at me, throwing me down onto the floor. I tried to break my fall with my hand but I couldn’t get it out in time and my back slammed off the floor with a hard crack.

The bottom of his boot came down on my ribs and I squealed. He always went for the same place. He stomped his boot down a second time and I screamed from the pain, knowing straight away that he’d cracked several ribs.

“No! Stop!” I heard Ava shout, the shock of her shouting caused me to look over to her. I shouldn’t have, I knew never to take my attention away from Max, not when he was like this.

“Why!” he yelled, so loud that my ears popped. “Why do you make me like this!”

“I don’t make you like anything,” I said turning back to him. “It’s all you. You’re an evil bastard and I’m so glad that Eli is away from you!”

His eyes turned black while his face went bright red. Reaching down, he gripped me by my throat and lifted me up off the floor.

My head spun and I knew that I would pass out any second but just as I was starting to lose consciousness, I felt his fist slam down onto my face.

“Stop,” a gruff voice said from the doorway.

Max stopped, just like that, no argument. His hand stayed around my throat, the only thing holding me up right now.

“Boss wants to see her.”

And with that, Max grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the room. My last view of Ava was of her sat in the corner holding herself tight. I just hoped that I would be coming back because she needed me.

Four days. Ninety-six hours. Five thousand, seven hundred and sixty minutes.

That’s how long Kay had been missing for and we were at a complete dead end. None of the leads that we actually had, had brought anything up. To top that off, we hadn’t had any fresh new leads.

She’d been taken in broad daylight and not one person had seen a thing. How could they not have seen anything? It just wasn’t possible, she was out in the open, not behind a wall or in the darkness of the night.

It was clear that someone had seen something, but were keeping their mouths shut. It was all too suspicious. There was something more going on here.

We’d tried to keep things as normal as possible at home and we’d even told Eli that Kay was staying with Miss Maggie. It was Miss Maggie’s idea to tell him that Kay was looking after her because she wasn’t well. I didn’t want to lie to Eli but I had no choice. The alternative was devastating and I wouldn’t subject him to that, I’d shield him from it for as long as I possibly could.

We’d tried to keep everything else as normal as possible, he continued to go to preschool, having Corey here helped because he was occupied in getting to know his uncle and telling everyone who Corey was.

Having taken a quick power nap, all I’d allowed myself to have since Kay had been taken, I walked back into the warehouse and into the center of things.

“Anything?” I asked Charlie. He’d stayed here with me but we had a constant flow of other people coming and going.

“Nothing.” He shook his head and stretched his arms up in the air.

“Damn it!” Slamming my hands on the table, I bent over. I couldn’t take this much longer. I owned this fucking company and I couldn’t even find the one person who meant the wo

rld to me.

“I know a guy,” Corey said from the opposite side of the table.

I moved my eyes to him, seeing the guilty look on his face. “What?”

He looked down at the table where he was drawing circles with his finger. “I err…I know this guy.” I stood up straight, frowning at him. “He might be able to help us find Kay.”

I stared at him, sure that I had fire shooting out of my eyes. Why was he only telling us this now?

“And why the fuck didn’t you mention this before?” I growled.

“Fuck.” He looked at me, his eyes blazing. “It’s complicated, he’s not even meant to be alive.”

“What?” I stepped forward, none of the shit that he was saying made any sense.