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The knife clatters to the floor beside the bed.

My pulse explodes in my ears.

“You bitch!” he roars.

He launches himself at me—not with the cold, controlled cruelty from earlier, but something worse. Unhinged. Wild. Like the mask finally slipped and all that’s left is rage.

“You ruined my fucking life!” he screams, fists slamming down into the mattress beside me, barely missing my side. “You humiliated me. My family blames me! Said I should’ve handled you. That I let a good-for-nothing girl ruin their name!”

“You did that yourself!” I shout, twisting against the zip ties, my wrists burning. “You made your own choices. You were cruel. Lazy. You lost everything!”

He grabs my shoulders and shakes me, spittle flying as he growls, “I gave you everything, and you left like I was nothing! Like I didn’t matter!”

“You don’t!” I scream. “You never did!”

That breaks him. His fist swings wide and lands across my cheekbone, hot white pain flaring behind my eye. My head snaps sideways, stars bursting in my vision.

I gasp. Grit my teeth.

Stay awake.

Stay present.

He hits me again, roaring, “You think you’re better than me?! You think you can talk to me like that?!”

I taste blood in my mouth. Another strike—my ribs this time. I cry out, pain splintering through my side.

“You belonged to me, Laney!” he growls. “You were mine! You don’t walk away from that!”

I choke on the pain. My body screams. My head feels like it’s floating above me.

But somewhere in the storm, I cling to a single thread.

He’s coming.

Eddie’s coming.

If I can just hold on a little longer… if I can just stay awake… stay conscious… then everything he’s doing right now will be his last mistake.

Randy’s panting now, hair hanging in his eyes, chest rising and falling in ragged bursts.

“Why couldn’t you just love me?” he snarls, breath hot against my ear.

And even now, even here—my voice is hoarse but solid. “Because you don’t know how.”

39.Eddie

The secondI see the hotel, my stomach drops. It’s sleek, modern, and glass-fronted. Too clean. Too quiet. Four hundred rooms. Hundreds of doors. Any one of them could be holding her. And I don’t have time to knock politely. I park the SUV half-cocked by the curb and throw the door open, Nico already sliding out beside me.

The sun is rising now, casting pale gold through the mirrored glass. It’s calm. Serene.

Fake.

We push through the lobby doors. A young woman behind the desk blinks up at us, her smile freezing the moment she recognizes me.

“Oh my God, are you—?”

“Where’s your security office?” I snap. “I need access to the CCTV. Now.”