And then my eyes hit the first sentence and my knees buckle. “Oh God.”
“Jessa?”
“It’s her,” I gasp. “It’s her…”
Lev snatches the letter from my hands before I have a chance to properly read it. Then again, I’m not sure I can read it myself.
“Fuck,” he growls.
“Read it to me,” I say. “Tell me what she wrote.”
Lev looks uncertain for a moment.
“Please, Lev?”
He glances down at the small note in his hand and starts reading. “‘Hi, Jessa, you must be wondering where Chris is. Well, he and I decided to get better acquainted. I have you to thank for introducing us. All my love, Freya.’”
“Freya,” I repeat. “She has him, Lev.”
Lev grabs me by the arm and yanks me up. “Come on. We need to go.”
He might as well be lugging around a concrete block. My legs are stiff and useless.
“Jessa, cooperate with me. We can’t stay here. If she has eyes on the building, she’ll know we’re here.”
I look up. “She has Chris.”
“I know. We’ll get him back.”
“You know what that note really means, don’t you?” I ask. “She’s threatening to hurt him. Because of me.”
“She won’t hurt him.”
But even I know that there’s no way he can be sure of that. Marina has killed unapologetically in the past, for offenses much less significant.
I have no faith that she’s not going to hurt Chris.
He grabs my hand so suddenly I gasp. Then he starts towing me through the apartment.
“Lev, let me go!”
“No,” he spits grimly. “My job is to protect you. We’re exposed at the moment. I have to get you out.”
I stop struggling and just let myself be led out of the building. All I can think about is Mr. and Mrs. Eckhart. If something happens to Chris, I’ll have to be the one to tell them.
But even now, I know that won’t absolve me for my part in involving Chris in all of this.
Lev gets me out of the building and into the car. By the time I zone back in, we’re minutes away from Anton’s mansion.
“We have to find him, Lev,” I whisper. “We have to find him before she hurts him.”
“We’ll find him, Jessa.”
But he can’t promise me that, not truly.
No one can.