Remy ignored him and went to shake the woman. “Carla, where is she?” he repeated.
The woman awoke from her stupor and looked around in confusion, then muttered, “Fuck off!” before reaching for one of the discarded needles on the floor.
“Hey, get the fuck out of here,” the man snapped. “I ain’t finished yet!” When he reached for Remy, I grabbed his arm and twisted it. The man cried out and stumbled backward. As soon as I released him, he yelled, “Next one’s free, bitch!”
Carla waved the angry man off. As he left the room, she sat up and began rifling through the little table next to the dirty mattress that was probably supposed to pass as a bed.
“Carla, where is she?” Remy demanded. He snagged a little baggie off the table before Carla could grab it.
“Hey!” she whined. Not caring about her state of undress, she tried to stand, but her knees wouldn’t hold her. She collapsed on the floor.
“You want this?” Remy said, holding the drugs in front of her face. “You tell me where she is first.”
Carla put her head in her hand and waved her free fingers at nothing in particular.
“Carla,” Remy began, but I grabbed his arm when a strange sound caught my attention.
A sound that didn’t belong in that terrible place.
“Luca, what—”
“Shhh, listen,” I said.
We both fell silent. Sure enough, about fifteen seconds later, I heard it again. I was moving instantly because I knew in my heart of hearts that the sound was the reason we were there.
I hurried out of the room and began throwing open doors.
My suspicions were confirmed when Remy frantically called out, “Violet!”
She was behind the third door I opened, and I was equally horrified and relieved. “Here!” I called to Remy even as I stepped into the room and slowly approached the wide-eyed toddler who was standing barefoot in a trash-filled room, holding on to the edge of a table covered in drug paraphernalia. But I had eyes only for the uncapped syringe she was holding in her hand, the needle dangerously close to her eye.
Chapter Three
Remy
The rush from Carla’s nausea-inducing room to the room Luca disappeared into felt like the longest seconds of my life. A million things went through my mind at what I’d see when I entered that room. But seeing the beautiful little girl clad only in a diaper standing among discarded needles, rotting food, and used condoms made me both want to throw up and cry in relief at the same time.
Then I saw the needle in her hand.
When Violet saw me, the two-year-old’s scrunched-up face relaxed and she let out a little toothy grin as she began waving her arms. Luca used that moment to scoop her up and take the needle from her hand at the same time. The second Luca picked her up, Violet began screaming like a she-devil and holding her arms out for me.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” I crooned as I moved into the room. Luca quickly handed her off to me. A strange half-sob, half-laugh escaped my throat as I hugged the baby against my chest. She began patting my cheeks.
“Me-me,” Violet repeated over and over again.
I ignored the need to collapse right there on the floor and just cuddle the little girl. But as it was, I couldn’t make myself move. It was like my body was racked with one tremor after another and I was afraid even the smallest move would have me exploding.
Exploding with what, though?
“Remy…”
I heard my name repeated a couple more times, but I didn’t actually react until I felt something warm touching the back of my hand.
And it wasn’t Violet’s squirmy little body, either.
“Remy, baby, look at me.”
The endearment had me looking at Luca in surprise. He’d moved closer to me at some point… close enough that Violet had gone silent and was watching him with her big, wary eyes.
“Remy, is she the one you were looking for?” Luca asked. I heard the words but was having trouble making sense of them.
What the hell was happening to me? Why did I suddenly feel cold all over?
Heat sparked along my cheek. The stark contrast to how the rest of me felt had me whimpering.
What the fuck? I didn’t whimper. I didn’t respond to cheesy terms of endearment like baby.
And I sure as hell didn’t freeze up.
I acted.
I moved.
Those reminders had me opening my mouth to tell Luca to get his hand off my cheek, but all that came out was this weak little whisper that sounded a lot like his name.
“It’s okay, Remy, she’s safe,” Luca responded. I watched in a daze as he pulled his gun from his back and stuck it in his waistband, then shrugged off his long jacket and folded it in half and began wrapping it around Violet. I knew I should help him tuck it around the child, but it felt like I was drowning and I was afraid to open my mouth.