Chapter 32 Chapter 32
The call came at three in the morning. My burner phone buzzed under my pillow and I grabbed it with shaking hands. Unknown number. My stomach dropped before I even answered.
"Hello?" I whispered.
"Lisa." The voice was smooth. Cold. Familiar. Victor. "I have something that belongs to you."
My blood turned to ice. "What are you talking about?"
"Your friend Mia. Pretty girl. Shame she got mixed up in all this." I heard rustling in the background. Then Mia's voice, muffled and terrified. "Lisa? Lisa, help me."
"Do not hurt her," I said. My voice cracked. "Please. She has nothing to do with this."
"That is where you are wrong." Victor's tone was casual. Like we were discussing the weather. "She has everything to do with this. Because you care about her. And that makes her valuable."
"What do you want?"
"You. Alone. Come to the old cement factory on Riverside Drive. You have two hours. If you bring Damien or any of his men, I will send your friend back to you in pieces."
The line went dead. I sat there staring at the phone and feeling my world collapse. Mia was innocent. She had done nothing except be my friend. And now she was going to die because of me.
I could not tell Damien. If I told him, he would use Mia as bait. He would set a trap and people would die and Mia would be caught in the crossfire. I had seen what happened when Damien played war games. I had seen Maria's body. I had seen the warehouse burn. I could not let that happen to Mia.
I got dressed in the dark. Black jeans. Dark sweater. Sneakers that would not make noise. I pulled my hair back and checked the window. Two guards stood below on their usual patrol. I waited until they turned the corner, then climbed out onto the fire escape.
The metal was cold under my hands. The night air bit at my skin. I climbed down slowly and dropped into the garden. My ankle twisted when I landed but I bit back the pain and kept moving. The west gate was locked but I had watched the guards long enough to know their pattern. Thirty seconds between passes. I waited, then ran.
The streets were empty at this hour. Streetlights cast long shadows across the pavement. I kept to the dark spaces and moved fast. My phone buzzed in my pocket. Damien. I ignored it. It buzzed again. And again. He knew I was gone.
I flagged down a taxi three blocks from the mansion. The driver looked at me like I was crazy but he took my money and drove. "Riverside Drive," I said. "The old cement factory."
He glanced at me in the mirror. "That is not a safe area, miss."
"I know."
He did not ask more questions. We drove in silence through streets that got darker and emptier the farther we went. The factory came into view like a dead thing rising from the ground. Broken windows. Crumbling walls. Graffiti covering every surface. The taxi stopped half a block away.
"I cannot go closer," the driver said.
I paid him and got out. He drove away fast and left me standing alone in the dark. The factory loomed ahead like a mouth waiting to swallow me whole. I walked toward it with my heart pounding so hard I thought it would break through my ribs.
The front entrance was a gaping hole where a door used to be. I stepped inside and smelled rust and decay. Water dripped somewhere in the distance. My footsteps echoed on the concrete floor. "Hello?" I called out. My voice sounded small. Scared.
"Upstairs." Victor's voice came from above. "Second floor. Come alone or she dies."
I found the stairs and climbed. Each step felt heavier than the last. The second floor opened into a wide space with broken machinery scattered around like corpses. And in the center, tied to a metal chair, was Mia.
She looked at me with wide, terrified eyes. Tears streaked her face. Tape covered her mouth. And strapped to her chest was something that made my legs go weak. A bomb. Red numbers counted down on a small screen. Fifty-eight minutes. Fifty-seven. Fifty-six.
"Mia," I whispered. I started toward her but a hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around.
Victor stood there smiling. He was older than I expected. Maybe fifty. Gray hair slicked back. Expensive suit. He looked like a businessman, not a killer. "Lisa," he said warmly. "So glad you could make it."
I jerked away from him. "Let her go."
"In time. First, we need to have a conversation."
"About what?"
"About Damien. About the flash drive you stole from his office. About how you are going to help me destroy him."
My stomach turned. "I do not have a flash drive."
Victor laughed. "Please. Do not insult my intelligence. I know you took it. I know what is on it. Financial records. Contacts. Evidence of every crime Damien has committed in the last five years. That flash drive could end him. And you are going to give it to me."
"And if I do not?"
He gestured to Mia. "Then your friend becomes very small, very fast."
I looked at Mia and saw pure terror in her eyes. The bomb counted down. Fifty-two minutes. I had hidden the flash drive under the floorboard in my room. Even if I wanted to give it to Victor, I could not get it in time. "I do not have it with me," I said.
"Then you better start running." Victor checked his watch. "Because in fifty-one minutes, this whole building goes up. And your friend goes with it."
"You are insane."
"I am practical. Damien took something from me. So I am taking something from him. You." He walked around me slowly. "The difference is, I am giving you a choice. Bring me that flash drive and I will give you the code to stop the bomb. Simple transaction."
"I cannot get back to the mansion in fifty minutes."
"Then I suggest you hurry."
I looked at Mia again. She was shaking. Crying. Trying to scream through the tape. My mind raced. If I ran now, I might make it back to the mansion. I might get the flash drive. But Damien's men would stop me. And even if I got past them, I would never make it back in time.
Victor's phone buzzed. He pulled it out and his smile widened. "Well, well," he said. "Looks like Damien knows where you are. My contact just sent me a very interesting message."
My blood went cold. "What contact?"
Victor turned his phone toward me. The message was short. Clear. Devastating.
"She is at the cement factory. Mia is there too. Use the girl as leverage."
The sender was Marcus.