Chapter 193
Nancy's POV
I watched her face go white, watched the way she yanked that little girl closer, and felt nothing but cold satisfaction.
For a moment, I just enjoyed the fear in her eyes. Then I snapped my fingers.
Sharp. Deliberate. A signal I'd rehearsed a hundred times. And just like that, they appeared. Three men, built like brick walls, cutting through the crowd like they owned the place.
They moved fast. Professional.
"Wait—" Elena started, her voice cracking as she instinctively shielded Lila behind her.
She didn't get to finish.
The first guy grabbed her arm, hauled her up so hard she stumbled. Her purse fell, contents scattering across the dirty station floor.
Lila screamed—this piercing sound that cut through all the noise. "MOMMY! MOMMY!" Her small fists beat against Elena's legs as she tried to cling to her mother.
"Don't hurt her," Elena gasped, clawing at the guy's grip with her free hand while trying to keep Lila close. "Please—don't hurt my daughter—"
"Shut up," the first man said. Flat. Businesslike. He wrapped an arm around Elena's waist, lifted her clean off the ground while she fought him like a wildcat.
The second man reached for Lila, who immediately started kicking and screaming louder. "NO! NO! I WANT MY MOMMY!" Tears streamed down her face as she tried to run, but he scooped her up easily.
I stepped closer, adjusting my coat. "Careful with the girl," I told the man holding Lila, who was now sobbing hysterically. "We need her awake. For now."
Elena's head whipped toward me, eyes wide with rage and terror. Her hair had come loose from its ponytail, wild around her flushed face. "You can't—"
"Can't what?" I tilted my head. "Can't take you somewhere private? Can't finish what I started four years ago?" I smiled. "Oh, Elena. I absolutely can."
The third man had a black van waiting. Nothing special—the kind you see everywhere and forget immediately.
As they dragged her toward it, Elena's phone started ringing in her jacket pocket. The sound seemed to snap her back to reality.
"My phone," she said desperately, trying to twist toward the sound. "Julian—he'll be looking for us—"
The first man reached into her pocket, pulled out the iPhone, and without hesitation, hurled it against the concrete wall of the station. It shattered with a satisfying crack, pieces of glass and metal scattering.
Elena's face crumpled as she watched her lifeline destroyed. "No," she whispered, the fight going out of her for a moment. "No, no, no..."
They shoved Elena in first, zip-tied her hands while I climbed in after her. Lila was still screaming, her small voice hoarse now. "I WANT DADDY! I WANT DADDY!" She kept reaching for Elena with desperate little hands.
"Shh, baby," Elena whispered, her voice breaking as she tried to lean toward her daughter despite the restraints. "It's okay, Lila. Mommy's here. Daddy will find us."
Lila's sobs turned into hiccupping whimpers. Her face was red and blotchy, snot running down her nose. "Mommy scared," she whispered.
"I know, sweetheart. I know." Elena's voice was steady, but I could see the terror in her eyes as she looked at her daughter. "Just stay close to Mommy, okay?"
The second man whispered something low and threatening that made Lila go very, very still. Her eyes went wide with fear, and she pressed herself against the van wall, trembling.
The van lurched forward, and I settled across from Elena, crossing my legs. She was breathing hard, hair a mess, a thin line of blood trickling from where her lip had split when they grabbed her. Her eyes kept darting between me and her daughter, calculating, planning.
"Where are you taking us?" she demanded, trying to keep her voice steady for Lila's sake.
"Somewhere quiet," I said. "Somewhere we won't be interrupted."
Elena's jaw tightened. "Julian will find us. He'll tear this city apart looking—"
"With what?" I laughed, gesturing to where her phone had been. "Your phone's in pieces. No GPS. No way to track you. And by the time he realizes you're missing, we'll be long gone."
I watched the hope drain from her face, watched her shoulders sag just slightly before she forced them straight again. She was trying so hard to be brave for her daughter.
---
Forty minutes of Elena alternating between begging and threatening. Promising Julian would find us, that I'd never get away with this. Every few minutes, she'd whisper soft reassurances to Lila, who had curled into a ball and was sucking her thumb—something Elena mentioned she hadn't done in over a year.
I let her talk. Didn't matter.
When we stopped, I stepped out and looked up at the house. Perfect—an old estate outside the city, abandoned for years and rotting. The kind of place where screaming was just wind through broken windows.
They dragged Elena inside first, her feet scraping against cracked marble. She kept looking back at Lila, who was now completely silent, her eyes huge and glassy with shock.
"It's okay, baby," Elena kept saying, even as they hauled her up the stairs. "Mommy's okay. We're going to be okay."
But I could see the desperation in her voice, the way her hands shook even bound behind her back.
I followed, heels clicking as I surveyed the space.
"Upstairs," I said, pointing to the staircase. "Master bedroom. Best soundproofing."
One of them nodded and hauled Elena up. She fought every step, but it was useless. By the time they threw her into the empty room—nothing but a single chair in the center—she was gasping, wrists raw from the zip ties.
They tied her to the chair. Left Lila unconscious in the corner from whatever they'd given her during the ride up. Elena's eyes went straight to her daughter, and I watched her defiance crack completely.
"Lila?" she called softly, straining against the ropes. "Lila, baby, can you hear Mommy?"
No response. Lila was breathing, but completely limp.
"What did you give her?" Elena's voice rose to near hysteria. "What did you do to my daughter?"