•
He wanted to die.
A quick, easy death if possible.
But him dying today wouldn't turn back time, unfortunately. Dying in the hands of some paranoid, filthy rich scumbag wouldn't undo everything.
Théo swore in his head. It wouldn't undo the unspeakable horrors he let happen to the love of his life.
Just the thought of that evil bastard touching Veronica with his bare hands was enough to make his blood churn with the damning urge to kill. Slit the bastard's throat. Shoot them all dead.
Théo sat still, his entire torso still duct-taped to the chair. He let his aching head hang low while he pretended to be unconscious.
One of the masked men was still in the room, pacing by the door with a handgun strapped to his hip.
Minutes earlier • 1. Agree to the guy's deal. 2. Help convince Théo to talk. 3. Beg for their freedom and convince Rafa that she wouldn't talk to the cops. 4. Get Théo to the ER before she buys the plane tickets. 5. Go see Kyle in the hospital. It sounded like a doable plan. Highly risky, but still doable. Their ticket out of here required her to be smart. Act fast but smart. To think on her feet but also to quickly recall what were at stake. If it meant she had to play mind games with their captor, then she would do what it takes to get her and Théo out of this country alive. She had already agreed to Raffaele's proposition. He said he wanted her to help him convince Théo that he had to talk and give him the answers he needed. She didn't know jack
• Ruptured brain aneurysm. It was what killed her best friend. Poor Kyle... So young. So full of potential. Lost in a blink. He was gone. Just like that. The shock didn't run out. Unless she saw him with her own eyes that moment his time of death was officially announced, she might never fully accept the painful reality that his life was over. Veronica let herself melt onto the cold floor while her head was trying to figure out a way to make her deal with the current circumstances. Her chest still felt painful and heavy with guilt, disbelief, and a fair amount of self-hatred. Fresh tears wouldn't stop coming out
•The earsplitting noises of actual gunshots destroying the front of the house left her feeling like the entire two-storey home was going to cave in on them.Her heart almost jumped into her throat when one of Rafa's guys took a bullet to his chest and ended up bleeding on the kitchen floor.Darn it! It meant the armed criminals outside were making their way to the left side of the house, where she and Rafa stood by while he waited for their ride."Call an ambulance! Just call the cops!" she pleaded while Rafa gripped her by the arm to keep her behind him, seemingly shielding her again from incoming gunfire. Veronica glanced to the injured guy being towed away from the windows by another masked man."The driver's gonna get us out of here. We'll run past the yard through that small gate, then get in the backseat." Rafa pointed to the edge of the tall, all-white
• Rome, Italy • A long, boring, back pain-triggering flight back to America was what she thought would be wasting her entire day when she got out of bed this morning. Veronica could only scowl at what fate had in store for her and her ex. It felt like it was the longest morning of her life. She couldn't even tell the time. After stealthily handing her phone to Théo, she pretended to be busy inspecting Rafa's gunshot wound while leaning over his upper body, her right knee pressing against the backseat cushion. She was intentionally blocking Rafa's view of Théo to obscure Théo's first attempts at contacting the authorities with an SOS call, or some texts to his friends here in Italy. She, on the other hand, didn't even know the emergency number here in Italy. "Cazzo... Non mi hanno mai sparato." Rafa grunted and tensed his shoulders and arms. H
• Being held hostage at gunpoint again while his ex-girlfriend was being escorted into another car just left him imagining the worst case scenario. His brain very much stayed in overdrive; he couldn't help it. But at least Veronica wasn't beside him right now, scared shitless and about to have her brain obliterated, just scattered all over expensive Bermuda grass. Théo kept his breathing steady despite the spine-chilling imagery stuck in his head. Now his fingers were intertwined while he held his arms up, his sweaty palms touching the back of his head. The prick was no longer pressing the mouth of his gun onto his face, casually threatening to shoot into his brain. But not knowing where Veronica would be taken only terrified him as much. Despite his anger, Théo knew he shouldn't show absolute indignation. He actually had to make the guy think t
•"Someone pregnant"?What? Was he talking about Veronica? Or just bullshitting him again?Was the guy simply trying to rile him up till he flipped the lid? To see him go ballistic on his criminal ass? Probably. Then the prick would have a good reason to use his gun.Théo glared at the guy, frowning at the lies and the prick's poor attempt at stroking his own ego. But what if Raffaele wasn't bluffing? It was the second time today that he hinted at Veronica being pregnant. Why?For fun? To watch him squirm? To watch him hate himself even more?"She's been begging me all morning. Something about her bandmate being in the hospital." Raffaele glanced down at his bullet wound and kept his loaded gun resting on his left thigh. "Guy just died. I heard. Thedrummer just called her," he
•He was free to go? Just like that?The guy was probably just playing mind games with him again. But when Raffaele simply left the study room without another word, Théo was convinced he now had a shot at freedom.He would escape this place alive no matter what dangers awaited him outside. He still had a job to do, and he still needed to find Veronica. Théo backed away from the door and ignored the aching muscles in his limbs.Now that he was completely alone in the room, Théo sat behind Hugo Valtieri's desk and subtly put his arm under the hardwood. He extracted the listening device he stealthily installed a week ago after he tricked Ana.He sighed and got up from the swivel chair as he tried not to glance up at the CCTV camera. He had to talk to her and apologize before he had to go back to France. Hopefully he would be able to check up on her a
•Worthless piece of shit.As painful as it was, Théo couldn't think of a better way to describe how he felt right now. He could easily be the most worthless, selfish human being to ever exist.In her eyes, he might be that useless and self-centered. Especially after he just hung up on her when she couldn't stop crying over the phone. She didn't explain why she let herself get pregnant. She didn't tell him he was the father, either, which could only mean...it was Kyle's baby.Why else would she just leave him here in Rome without telling him her real situation? Maybe Veronica thought he wouldn't understand her decision. Théo tried to ring the payphone number again.To no avail. "Pute. Idiote," he reiterated to himself, his chest aching badly again. He stopped trying to call her back when he realized how stupid he was for hanging up on he