Page 117 of Ashes

I turned my attention back to Mateo, only to find himbranding the dooming silver object again. I watched as he flicked the ignition, with determination this time, and I braced for the inevitable.

He dropped the flame into the puddle in front of him and it raged to life in a matter of seconds. The flames were immediate and I watched in panic as they hopped from pool to pool.

Barrera was long gone while Mateo was still watching, horrified at how fast the fire was eating away at the room, surrounding us.

“No,” he roared. “Fuck!”

I fought against my restraints while the fire roared brighter and hotter as it chipped at the distance separating us.

The scene unfolding in front of my eyes was nothing short of hell.

“Help,” I cried out as loud as I could, hoping someone, anyone would hear me, knowing Mateo wouldn’t come to my rescue. But my cry vanished with the sound of the fire, its flames billowing up and filling the room quickly.

I tried to breathe against the burning air, against the crushing fear that was threatening to overtake me as I rocked back and forth in my chair. I tugged my wrists to the side, hoping the rope would snap.

“Help,” I yelled again, but despair wrapped around my middle, squeezing when only crackling wood and blinding smoke answered back.

I took a difficult deep breath and mustered any ounce ofstrength my body had left and slammed against the back of my chair. After a few tries, it fell to the floor and my face slammed against the concrete.

My head pounded in pain from the contact, darkness threatening to cloud my vision. I tried to fight it, but the blinding headache and the blood trickling down my face made it hard to believe that I would get out of here alive.

My stomach sank at the thought that I wished I had told Jamal that I loved him at least once. Because as I watched Mateo back away from the flames approaching him and abruptly turn, running through the barrels and attempting to flee from the growing blaze, I knew I’d never see my husband again.

My vision faded and I heard a large explosion ring in the air.

CHAPTER 32

JAMAL

THIRTY MINUTES EARLIER

I stood frozen,my limbs anchored by the weight of my guilt. I’d only heard her voice for a few seconds, but it was enough to solidify the dread in my gut that had been cementing there for the last three days.

She sounded horrible and all I wanted was to reach into the phone to comfort her, to tell her that I would come for her.

The fear of losing her was ferociously burning inside me every second she wasn’t in my arms and I wanted to tear my own heart out just to soothe it from the constant aching it was under.

Click.

“Mateo?” I shouted at the silence.

Oh, le putain debâtard.

He hung up on me.

It dawned on me that I’d finally gotten the answer I’d been desperately searching for, but the only thing my mind could focus on was getting my wife back.

My fingers gripped my phone so tightly as I moved it away from my ear that it groaned from the pressure.

I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm so that I could have a clear mind to find Sienna, but my blood pulsed with anger. The need to scour the earth to find Mateo and murder him ever so slowly was stronger than ever.

I growled and slammed my fisted hands against the hard surface of my desk, making it rattle.

I tried taking another deep breath to compose myself, but I struggled to breathe. The vice grip I’d felt around my lungs ever since her disappearance hadn’t given me any second of respite.

I’d never felt this hopeless. And I hated it. Hated that I had no idea what was happening to my wife. What they were doing or had done to her in the last sixty-eight hours she’d been gone.

And I was the reason for it.