Page 85 of Tormented Diamonds

I dare a cop to pull me over. I’ll send us both to Hell before my fucking foot comes off this pedal. I’ll be damned if I’ll let Declan Flynn turn Becca’s nightmare into a reality.

He doesn’t get to win this time.

But as more calls go unanswered, a dread settles deep in my stomach. One that darkens my thoughts with Becca’s own words.

“He never held my life over my dad’s head, Gianni. He held my innocence.”

Then, it hits me. East I-78 leads toward Newark Bay … and Elizabeth Marine Terminal.

Flynn has no intention of killing her. He’s closing the circle.

Chapter Twenty-Four

BECCA

The first thing I notice is the smell—musty, damp, and stale, all three a frightening reminder of…

I squeeze my eyes closed even tighter, the memory of waking up to concrete walls weighing heavier than the stench. But then, I hear the steady hum of the engine. I feel the rough carpet under my cheek.

My eyes feel heavy and gritty. I struggle to open them, only to be met with more darkness. I swallow, fighting the wave of nausea creeping up my throat. Every part of me aches—my stomach, my muscles, my head…

Oh, God, my head.

I wince. It feels like an ice pick being drilled into my temple. I go to cradle my hand over it, then freeze. My hands won’t move because my wrists are tied. I kick my feet, but my ankles don’t move either.

Shit.

I scream, but it’s immediately swallowed by the roar of an engine. “Don’t panic,” I tell myself, but it’s too late. The more the haze dissipates, the clearer and more bleak things become.

I’m bound in the trunk of a car.

I dig through my cluttered mind for any fragment of a memory. I remember arguing with the two FBI agents. They tried to get me to turn against Gianni, so I walked out, and…

I saw him.

My monster.

My nightmare.

My mother’s killer was waiting for me.

Everything about that moment comes rushing back. My eyes go wide because even in the pitch darkness, I know what’s happening. I know how this ends.

But then I hear Gianni’s voice in my head.

“Concentrate and find your center. Survivors fight, Becca. Victims fall.”

It’d be so easy to slip behind that glass frame again, but too many have lost their lives protecting mine for me to just give up.

Blinking back my tears, I fight against my restraints to no avail. Whatever I’m bound with isn’t coming loose on sheer will alone. Desperate, I drag my arms across every available inch of the trunk, blindly searching for anything I can use to cut through it.

“Fuck!” I clench my teeth around the curse as a piece of metal slices into my forearm.

Of course. Getting tetanus before being murdered makes perfect sense.

I still as blood rolls off my wrist. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.

Slowly and gingerly, I pat my bound wrists in the general area, sucking in another curse as the samepiece of jagged metal stabs the back of my hand. From what I can tell, it’s a broken part of the framework.