Chapter 34
Alina
Ikeep looking at my phone.
Kira probably thinks I’m just distracted by TikTok. Wouldn’t be the first time. I’ve gone down some pretty deep rabbit holes thanks to social media over the years. It doesn’t help that I can get pretty obsessed with stuff. My stupid, overly organized brain can’t let things go.
But it’s my messages app I keep opening.
The unknown number stares at me. Have you figured out who I am yet? I haven’t answered, and I don’t really know if I’m going to.
I know it’s her. That’s got to be my mother. Nobody else would send me such a weird and cryptic text. I don’t know how she got my number, but that’s probably the least of my problems.
Now that I know it’s my mother, what do I want to say to her?
There are hundreds of things.
Starting with: Hey mom, why are you murdering so many people?
But I also want to know why she left when I was a baby, what she’s been doing in the years since, and if she ever thought of me while she was away.
Isn’t that kind of pathetic?
I’m finding out that my mother is a crazy murderer assassin lady, and I keep wanting to ask her why she abandoned me.
Like there’s anything logical when it comes to a ruthless mass killer.
I should just delete the message and move on. Nothing good will come of replying. But what if I can talk sense into her? What if there’s a way to get past the threats, the deaths, all the bizarre blood, and come straight to the point?
What if I can save lives with a single text?
That’s worth trying.
Seamus would tell me not to. I can’t even pretend otherwise.
He’d get all stern and glare at me and be like, What are you thinking texting with that crazy lady?
I need to keep you safe. You’re the most beautiful woman in the world and I want to kiss the ground you walk on and spend my life worshipping your perfect natural body even if you get old and out of shape.
Maybe not that last part, but still.
I weigh it all day. Kira putters around the store and takes care of the few clients that come through. It’s mid-afternoon when I finally decide that I’ve had enough.
Nothing good will come of doing nothing.
I have to try. Even if that means putting myself in danger.
When Kira’s out on her lunch break, I type up my reply. My hands are shaking when I hit send.
You’re my mother.
That’s it. Just those words and nothing else. Maybe we’ll get to the questions and the emotional mother-daughter reunion later, but for now, just that.
I stare at the phone, waiting for it to do something. Seconds pass, a minute, three minutes, nearly ten, and I’m on edge wanting my mother to say something, anything—
When the door bangs open.
I look up, surprised. I’m about to say we’re closed for the afternoon. But Seamus comes storming over to me, his face dark and serious.
“We need to go,” he says with that attractive growly voice of his.
“What are you talking about?”
“Something happened.” He looks around the store, one hand on a gun tucked into his waistband. “I was meeting with your brother when Molchanie sent me another message.”
“You were with Taras?”
“At his club. Doesn’t matter though.” He comes over and shows me a picture.
It’s a hand. Only the fingers are visible, but the newspaper wrapped around the wrist is covered in something red.
Blood.
“Oh my god,” I whisper as he turns the phone away.
“I’m sorry you had to see that, but I needed you to understand.”
“Whose hand is that?”
“I don’t know, but there was a note. It said, You can’t keep her from me forever.” He stares at me, letting it sink in.
My stomach drops into my knees. I have to lean against the counter as my breath comes fast. I realize just how stupid I’ve been up to this point.
I keep forgetting what she is.
That woman might be my mother, but she’s also a ruthless, brutal murderer.
She sent me Alex’s head in a box.
Now she’s sending more body parts.
“She texted me,” I whisper.
He goes very still. “What did you say?”
“Last night. Just one message. She said, Have you figured out who I am yet? And nothing else.”
“Let me see.”
I take out my phone, but I don’t hand it over. “And you should know…” I trail off, feeling so sick I might throw up on the floor.
He lets out a long sigh. “You responded.”
“I just said, You’re my mother. Like ten minutes ago.”
“Oh, Alina.”
“I know. I know! It was stupid.”
“Show me.”
I unlock my phone and turn it to him. He scrutinizes the message and types the number into his device before sending it off to someone. “I’ll see what my people can find out about this number.”
“You think it’ll lead to her?”
“I doubt it. She’s good at this. But we have to try.”
“I’m sorry, Seamus. It was stupid. I don’t know why I sent that message. I just thought—”
He pulls me against him. His arms wrap around me protectively. “You shouldn’t have replied, you’re right, but you didn’t cause her to send me that hand.”
I look up at him, heart quickly pattering up into my throat. “How can you be sure?”
“The timing doesn’t work. When you replied, I was already on my way here, and she’d dropped the hand off already. The hand isn’t your fault.”
That makes me feel somewhat better. The guilt’s been there, heavy and thick in my guts, threatening to choke me. Even though I know it isn’t my fault. My mother’s the one causing these deaths. But somehow, they’re linked back to me through her sick, twisted brain.
“What are we going to do?”
“First, you’re going to close the shop. Where’s Kira?”
“On her lunch break.”
“Call her. Tell her to go home. Don’t scare her, but tell her the shop’s staying closed for a bit.”
“Okay, I can do that.” I follow his instructions. Kira answers and sounds pretty confused, but I do my best to make her understand that it’s not urgent, but we can’t open for a bit.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asks, sounding really nervous. “This is weird.”
“Everything’s fine. It’s just a precaution, okay?”
“I trust you, but please don’t disappear on me.”
Once that’s done, I move to delete the text from my mother, but Seamus stops me.
“I was thinking, since you already replied…” He frowns slightly, fingers brushing over mine.
“You want to draw her out?”
“At least I don’t want to close this off. Are you good with that?”
“I’m not good with any of this, honestly, but if it’ll help, we can try.”
“This is hard. I know you want to help. I know you’re scared too. But we’ll be okay.” He kisses me lightly. “I promise you, Alina. We’ll be okay.”
I believe him. I just worry that it isn’t enough.