33
Olivia
The apartment is dark. The curtains are closed, and I’ve yet to draw them. I don’t want to seek sunlight or warmth. Any sort of happiness isn’t for me.
Ryder showed up unannounced.
Is Jace checking up on me?
There’d be no other reason for one of his guards to visit me.
The place is a mess. I’ve been living out of my duffel bag. What’s the point of unpacking it when I plan on leaving?
I lounge around in a pair of dark blue cargo pants and a long-sleeve t-shirt. I aim for comfort, but I don’t feel the least bit content or relaxed.
There’s a sharp knock at the door.
Is it Jace’s men checking up on me again?
I wander through the darkened apartment. The lights are off, but it’s morning. I could open a curtain for sunlight, but I don’t.
“Just a second,” I mutter to the person on the opposite side of the door. I make my way across the apartment, stumbling over my own feet but catching myself just before I hit the wooden door.
I curse under my breath and flip the lock, opening the door.
It’s the last person in the world I want to see.
Luka Caruso.
I force the door shut, but he shoves his steel-toed boot inside, keeping the door ajar. He pushes me backward, knocking me to the ground.
I scramble to my feet, prepared to run to the bedroom, slam the door, and crawl through the fire escape exit.
But he has other ideas, and they don’t involve my escape.
Luka grabs me by the hair and yanks me nice and close to his face. “Where’s the baby?” He leers at me and drags me through the apartment, room by room.
“She’s not here,” I say.
Hasn’t he figured it out by now?
Astrid was never mine.
I have no intention of telling Luka anything. I may despise what Jace did, but there’s a darkness growing deep inside of me toward Luka.
Hatred.
It burns like a furnace on a deep winter’s eve.
Scorching.
“Don Barone is a monster, keeping his child from her mother. I guess he was done with you after the baby was born,” Luka says.
His breath stinks of onions and stale coffee.
My stomach roils at the stench. “Get off me!” I yank to pull away, but his fingers are still fisted in my long locks, and he isn’t letting go.
“I made you an offer,” Luka says. “You can still take it. I’ll even up the ante. Five hundred thousand, and you get your little girl. All you have to do is take her and leave the country. Get far away from Don Barone, where he can’t ever reach you.”