Page 105 of Arranged Control

I keep forgetting what she is.

That woman might be my mother, but she’s also a ruthless, brutal murderer.

She sent me Alex’s head in a box.

Now she’s sending more body parts.

“She texted me,” I whisper.

He goes very still. “What did you say?”

“Last night. Just one message. She said,Have you figured out who I am yet?And nothing else.”

“Let me see.”

I take out my phone, but I don’t hand it over. “And you should know…” I trail off, feeling so sick I might throw up on the floor.

He lets out a long sigh. “You responded.”

“I just said,You’re my mother. Like ten minutes ago.”

“Oh, Alina.”

“I know. I know! It was stupid.”

“Show me.”

I unlock my phone and turn it to him. He scrutinizes the message and types the number into his device before sending it off to someone. “I’ll see what my people can find out about this number.”

“You think it’ll lead to her?”

“I doubt it. She’s good at this. But we have to try.”

“I’m sorry, Seamus. It was stupid. I don’t know why I sent that message. I just thought?—”

He pulls me against him. His arms wrap around me protectively. “You shouldn’t have replied, you’re right, but you didn’t cause her to send me that hand.”

I look up at him, heart quickly pattering up into my throat. “How can you be sure?”

“The timing doesn’t work. When you replied, I was already on my way here, and she’d dropped the hand off already. The hand isn’t your fault.”

That makes me feel somewhat better. The guilt’s been there, heavy and thick in my guts, threatening to choke me. Even though I know it isn’t my fault. My mother’s the one causing these deaths. But somehow, they’re linked back to me through her sick, twisted brain.

“What are we going to do?”

“First, you’re going to close the shop. Where’s Kira?”

“On her lunch break.”

“Call her. Tell her to go home. Don’t scare her, but tell her the shop’s staying closed for a bit.”

“Okay, I can do that.” I follow his instructions. Kira answers and sounds pretty confused, but I do my best to make her understand that it’s not urgent, but we can’t open for a bit.

“You sure you’re okay?” she asks, sounding really nervous. “This is weird.”

“Everything’s fine. It’s just a precaution, okay?”

“I trust you, but please don’t disappear on me.”