“Make it fast. Then come to the closest car.” The officer leaves.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do,” I admit openly. “I don’t know if the money is enough. Even if it is, we are still missing a child.”
“Why are they doing this to us? Why are they fucking doing this?”
“I don’t know.” I don’t want to see the pain in his face. It is too much. I need to preserve the tears. “But the one thing I know for sure is that I’m not afraid because there is no plan B.”
“You’re all I have. If they take you now, I’ll have nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’ll be a lost man. I…I can’t lose you. I can’t fucking lose you too.”
“You’re all I have too.” Letting go of our intertwined hands, I pull him into a warm hug through the window. Our hearts beat wildly together. “But this has to be done. I’m yours, Giulio. You are not going to lose me.”
There is no way out of this.
I have thought about the possibility that this could be a deadly mission, but the thought of reuniting with my children gives me all the hope and determination to continue fighting.
The male detective returns to us and announces our time is up. Giulio buys us another desperate minute and the detective steps back with a sigh.
“Lencia, please. We have to find another way to do this. We have to.”
“What other choice do we have?”
“I just…I want to apologize again. I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever done. Every single thing. I really am. I’m sorry I lost you—”
“I forgive you, Giulio. And I hope you can forgive me too. I know how much you were hurting and I reacted upon my own fears to shut you out. I know you were scared to give us a second try. I was too. Now we know it’s the only way to live. We’re okay now. I lied too, we both did when we said it was over between us.”
“You don’t know how much that means to me. Amore…” We pull away and his thumb outlines my lips. “Please don’t leave me alone. I’m so scared of losing you. It…it cannot happen…” Raw urgency laces his voice. “Not when we just fixed it all, Lencia.”
We share a tender smile. An uncertain one.
Giulio is my life.
My rock.
“I love you, Giulio. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I love you. I love you so much.” And then we kiss and it’s a bittersweet passionate type of perfect. It’s so different from any other time. So unique because our circumstances are deteriorating. Up until this moment in our life, we have been fighting separate battles on the same team, now within this moment, we melt into one another.
We are one.
United.
Just like we should have always been.
I savor every last part of him. Just as quick as it started, the kiss ends, but it’s all for the right reasons. I need to get our children back.
15 minutes.
“I will never stop loving you, Lencia. I will never leave you.” He promises with a forehead kiss. “Please promise me the same—”
“You’re with me. Forever.”
Giulio gives me one last glance.
It’s a look that says it all…
Come back to me.
The car’s GPS states the address provided in the ransom call is approximately ten minutes away. I need to get there in time.
I need to save my family.
My feet bolt across the muddied front garden of the unfamiliar house. Flowerpots are overturned and half of the wood panels on the exterior walls are missing, as if in the midst of a renovation. Windows have bullet holes and the entire atmosphere of the abandoned premises is cold and eerie.
The force of my knock has the front door creak open. Inside, complete darkness faces me.
“Hello?”
Nothing.
In the bleak distance, there’s a streak of warm yellow light. It entices me to continue. The floorboards squeak under my loafers, stringing the silence within each step. It’s there where I stop by what I assume is the basement door. There’s a flashlight carefully placed against it and its flickers match my heartbeat.
I take a chance and hold the flashlight with my free hand. The duffel bag becomes heavier by the second. Well, there is a quarter of a million in here!
My thoughts of a basement is confirmed by the steep staircase beyond the door.
“Hello?” My question transforms into a petrified scream as a hand grips onto my right forearm.
“Continue walking,” a deep male voice I don’t recognize commands.
He urges me down the stairs with an abrupt nudge. It has me clutching the handrail to stabilize myself, but the flashlight tumbles down the stairs, its crash landing has the light vanish.
The door shuts to pitch black. I feel the man’s hushed breaths behind me “Walk.”
“I can’t see the steps.”
“I said walk!”
“I need a second to—”
“I SAID WALK!” The cool tip of a gun nuzzles into the back of my neck. “One at a time. That’s it. Your children did a better job.”
“Are they down here?”
“GO!” He pushes me aggressively and my head is the first thing to smack against the staircase. Jesus. My hands involuntarily respond by clutching it with a groan as I continue to fall until I eventually come to a stop. I need a moment to recollect myself on the concrete floor and search for the duffel bag I lost during the fall.
The staircase squeaks from behind me and a gun cocks in the distance. It could be that man’s…or somebody else is down here. I can’t see a damn thing and that concerns me more than the cunning chuckle echoing in the basement.
He’s nearing.
“Who’s going to save you now?”
“Myself.” I grit and hold the duffel to my chest. “You deserve to burn in hell!”
“Now that isn’t very nice.”
My backward steps lead me to an icy wall. Perfect. A dead end.
Just then a light flashes in my direction and I squint at the brightness. All I can make out is the man’s hands
