Blood Money by Lana Sky

Chapter Thirteen

It isn’t long before I realize that my “escape” is just an illusion.

This has always been a game from the start.

The sun rises, first as a faint glimmer of pink over the horizon, and then turns into a sweltering ball within hours, scorching my body from overhead. The illumination throws into stark contrast just how barren this landscape is. It’s the middle of nowhere. In either direction, I only find cactus, dry earth, and scraggly brush.

I’ve gone far enough from the house that I can’t even see it at least. Though, it’s not much of a comfort when I compare being held captive there to dying of heat exhaustion.

Or exhaustion in general—my entire body is a throbbing mass of pain. The golden chain, wrapped around my wrist, is a boiling hot iron shackle weighing me down, but I can’t stop moving. The second I do, I doubt I’ll have the strength to get up again. Sheer desperation is the only thing keeping me going, even as the despair gets harder and harder to ignore.

No wonder he kept the doors unlocked, and the staff never stopped me from leaving. There’s nowhere to go.

This place must be miles from any town or even a gas station.

And I don’t have the strength to make it that far. My steps are sluggish and staggering as the heat drives out what little liquid remains in my body as sweat.

When I first see the approaching car in the distance, I’m stupid enough to feel a tendril of hope. I even turn to it, limping, my throat so dry it hurts to suck in the air needed to speak, let alone scream. Help me…

Then common sense descends once I note the speed of said vehicle—a pace vicious enough to kick up billows of swirling dust that engulf it like a storm cloud. Run!

I try, painfully aware of the roar of an engine easily eating up the distance between us. Every grueling, punishing step feels like it lasts an eternity, but it must be mere seconds before the car advances on my position, roaring like an animal. Veering around me, kicking up dirt and dust, it skids to a stop paces away. I’ve barely remarked that it’s too expensive to belong to the average desert joyrider—some imported luxury sort, I bet—when the driver’s side door flies open, and Domino climbs out.

Shock alone knocks me off balance. I fall on my side, crying out. My carefully wound chain comes undone, biting into the earth as a jagged mass.

One look at him, and I know my plan failed. He’s standing upright, moving easily. Considering that same drug supposedly knocked me out for hours, I doubt a whole syringe wouldn’t have any effect on him.

“Did you really think that would work, Ada-Maria?” he demands. Anger rips through each syllable, matching the ire flashing in his eyes. “That you could drug me and just prance away? That I would really make it that easy for you? Do you want to know what you really injected me with, Ada? The equivalent of vitamins.”

I can’t tell if he’s lying or not. But nothing else could explain why he’s here now, on his feet, obviously alert.

“I even had Ines prepare a wonderful breakfast in case you decided to come crawling back on your own,” he adds, presumably his reasoning for why it took him so long to come after me. He wasn’t drugged. He was gloating. “Shame you missed it. Though you can still run if you want.” He forms a visor with his hand and comically scans the horizon. “Go ahead. Spend the day running to freedom. You wouldn’t even get close. There is no one to save you here.”

It’s as if his words are the trigger for every ounce of pain, weakness, and exhaustion I’ve kept at bay until now. I break.

My sobs are dry and gasping with no real tears to show for them. Just teasing hints of moisture that blurs my vision and stings my eyes even more in the brutal sun.

“You’re here until I tire with you,” I hear him say over me. “After last night, that moment is drawing nearer, Ada. Look up.”

He snaps his fingers, commanding me to.

But I can’t. So close... My eyes downcast, I clench fistfuls of the brown dust beneath me and watch it filter away on a gust of wind.

I was so close.

The thought haunts me, regardless of if it were true or not. As long as I kept moving, I felt close. Brave. Strong. All of those things I never was.

Without my father, I was always nothing. Am nothing.

It was a mindset my mother instilled, abiding by that very creed until she was wasting away before him, and he didn’t even notice. She let Roy Pavalos consume her and groomed me to sacrifice myself in the same way.

But I can’t…

“Come here.” I see his shadow as he lunges for me, but I don’t move. Not even as he snatches the chain from the ground, unwinding the tangled mass. “You were quite convincing; I’ll give you that,” he says, letting the chain loosen as he returns to the car. “Spinning your little lies. Trying to get my guard down. Using the one talent you do have. I’ll be sure to add that skillful mouth of yours to the listing. Those bastards at La Guarida del Tigre will have fun with that.”

La Guarida…

I lose track of the thought as he braces his free hand against the car’s sideview mirror and wraps his length of the chain around it.

“Think about how many other talents you might have to save yourself, Ada-Maria. Because when I get you back to the house…”

He lets the threat hang in the stifling air, conveying the same promise as a death sentence. I can’t run anymore. I can’t fight him. All I have to combat him with are three pathetic words.

“I hate you.”

He scoffs and tugs on the chain, yanking me forward. I barely manage to brace my hands over the dirt to catch myself.

“Move.”

He climbs into the car, slamming the door after him. I consider lying here, unmoving, letting the heat and exhaustion finish me off. I barely have the energy to stand. Slowly, I attempt to, groaning as I rise to my knees.

And the car begins to move.

As does his end of the chain. Unraveling, the coils of gold kick up dust as it extends with every inch of distance he gains, until…

Clink!

It’s like being caught on a fishing line. I have no choice but to crawl in the direction of the pulling force. Stagger. Fall. Stand. Run.

Die.

He doesn’t relent, no matter how many times I trip. The chain gets so tight I swear it will snap. Frantic, I grip it with both hands in a vain attempt to loosen the pressure. Then it becomes my only stabilizing force to find my balance.

The sun bears down, blindingly hot, until I can’t see the car. I can’t see anything. What a fitting metaphor for the hell my life has become—well before the kidnapping. Two years ago, I finally tried to take steps to end it.

And I failed.

If anything, this moment is the chance to finally make up for that regret.

So, I close my eyes as the chain grows tighter, cinching my throat.

And I just let go.

* * *

“Ada! You look at me! Ada!”

I can’t breathe. It’s just a relief. At the same time, it hurts. My lungs are on fire, my throat crushed. Even as I try to suck in air, I can’t.

I’m dying.

“Shit—”

A metal clang sounds. Then air…

I suck in with faint, stingy breaths, but it’s enough that my lungs fill. Too late do I realize that I’ve blown yet another chance.

Because of the same man who foiled my prior attempt.

“You look at me,” he demands, his voice like sin, his eyes blazing like fire. “You look at me.”

He’s scowling, though his voice lacks any anger or rage. He just sounds bitter. A man too devoid of emotion to feel anything in this moment but aggravation.

He stands, but I feel myself being lifted as well. Into his arms, I realize. My vision blinks in and out of focus.

When I come to again, I’m shrouded from the sun, someplace darker. In a car? The engine roars beneath me as my head lulls with the force of the motion.

The driver’s back is to me, but his scent is life-giving, sustaining my body when every inch feels broken and battered.

“I…” Trying to speak is excruciating.

He doesn’t react, but it feels suddenly important to say it, if only for myself.

“I’ve loved you…since that day. On the road. I did. But you were just like them…”

And he just happened to join the long list of people I ever cared about.

My mother.

My father.

Pia.

Alexi…

In their own way, they all sold me, in the end. He just went about the most literal method of doing so.