Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
"They have Anya and Montana," I said.
"What?" she replied. "You told me the room was blast-proof. They couldn’t get in. What happened?”
“They got Montana. They must have threatened to kill her. Anya opened the door for them.”
“But Montana was supposed to be at the ranch. Our men told her to go there and stay there.”
“Well, she didn’t listen.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“Nothing. For the moment. There is nothing you can do,” I told her. I was so frustrated I was barely able to get the words out.
“All right.”
“I’ll call you when I need you. Hang on, there is something you can do. Go and see Montana's father. Make sure you explain to him the nature of the kidnap. Convince him not to involve the police because it will severely jeopardize their chances of survival.”
“Got it.”
I ended the call and saw that I had a voice message from an unknown phone. I played the message
Anya's voice came on,
"Dad," she said, and I could still hear the tremble in her voice. "I hope you're okay. We’re ... " she paused. "We’re alright. I hope Mommy is okay too. Please take care of yourself. And I'm sorry I disobeyed you."
That apology broke my heart. Every time she apologized to me, it broke my heart. She had more empathy and understanding than she should be expected to have for her age. The way she extended it completely and willingly to me made me even more determined to do what needed to be done.
It was clear to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that my old plan was too kind. It gave the benefit of the doubt to Paganini. He would lose his money, but he would keep his life. I saw now that the only way I was ever going to be free of him was if I took his life.
There was no other way.
Chapter 54
Montana
“I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself.”
I remained silent because now, more than ever before, I understood that Anya's well-being was in my hands. The best method might be to cooperate with them, but I kept my eyes shut and tried to recover my mental clarity so that I could seize any opportunity to escape that came by. For the moment complete submission was the only thing that was going to work in our favor.
They kept us around the dining table. I opened my eyes to look at Anya and I couldn’t believe it was only a short time ago we had sat at this very table with light hearts and peace. Now we were basically hostages to gruesome men. Our lives were on the line, and there were dead bodies in the house with us. It was incredibly terrifying, but this was not the time to indulge in my emotions, so I took a deep breath and focused. The men seemed especially angry because of their dead companions. I soon learned from their conversations that it was a man named Luca.
Because we were a clueless child and a troublesome female, they didn’t censor themselves as they spoke angrily to each other. I figured out from their conversations they must be Mafia or something and they wanted this man Luca to do something for them. As their conversation went on I suddenly realized that Luca was Cole!
Luca was Cole?
I turned to look at Anya in astonishment. If Luca was Cole, then Anya must be the girl they called Bianca.
“Bianca,” I whispered.
Immediately the child turned her head.
Yes, that was her name.
“Shut the fuck up,” one of the men snarled.
I looked away quickly.
Jesus! Everything was a lie. All of it. But finally, it all made sense. The designer shoes, the stupid beat-up car, his effortless sophistication, the high specification panic room that must have easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build.
Cole, or rather Luca, was running away from these people, but they wanted him back. They needed him back for some reason. He was valuable to them. They had gone to all this trouble to come looking for him in a tiny town like Bison Ridge. I remembered Cole, well Luca, telling me he was good with numbers. The way he instantly remembered my number, without even repeating it back to me, even though I had called it out only once in a crowded, noisy schoolyard.
One of the men made a sudden noise and my eyes swung over to him.
We were seated now, and not dead … yet.
But that was probably only because they were waiting for instructions.
Anya had been forced to record the voice note to her father, and they were no doubt going to use that to manipulate him. Maybe they planned to kill him after he gave them whatever they wanted from him, especially since he killed two of their guys. I was sure this was going to be the case, and so it dawned on me more than ever that keeping Anya safe and escaping could be the only thing that could save us all.