Chapter 40
KAYLA
I groan, whimpering, unsure of where I am. My arms ache as I try to move them. Voices… They seem distant, but I hear a woman, and that’s when it all comes crashing down.
The moment she pointed the gun at me, the altercation, when I pushed her off and the bullet flew right past me.
That fear—the icy, blood-chilling fear that I was gonna die—is something I can’t even explain.
We fought. I remember that. She pushed me off, and…and I hit my head. I recall the throbbing pain. Remember when she hit me again, and that’s when I stop remembering.
Yet I’m still alive. She hasn’t killed me.
I…I don’t even understand any of this. Why would she hurt me? I came to help her. Why is she doing this? Where’s Dr. Collins?
“Mm,” I grunt, my eyesight blurry as figures dance before me.
Or maybe it’s just her and I’m seeing double.
Someone cries. Very close by. I don’t understand if it’s me or someone else. But who could it be? No one else was here, and her family was dead. Did she kill them? Did she want to hurt them for not accepting her? Did I become the next target? But why? What do I have to do with her family?
Then something else settles in my mind, something darker and far scarier. But I can’t yet wrap my head around that possibility. The one that includes Cammie as the killer. The Midnight Murderer herself.
That makes no sense though. Yet…there were two the night I was taken. Two people were hurting me. What if Dr. Collins has been her accomplice? That would make more sense.
Too many questions swim, and I need answers. I won’t rest until I get them. Grumbling, I force myself to open my eyes a fraction, and as I try to sit up, a soft touch lands on my arm.
“I want her gone,” Cammie says, voice muffled, but still clear enough for me to hear everything.
I can see her growing less dim as she paces several feet away from me.
“I want her far away where he won’t find her,” she says to someone. “That would be so much worse than killing her.”
She laughs with a darkness so eerie, the backs of my eyes sting. Who has she become? Where is she sending me, and who is she talking to?
A man chuckles, just as depraved, but I don’t recognize the sound.
“Wake up, Kayla. Please,” a child cries, her hand squeezing me. “Wake up.”
It’s then I turn my head slowly and blink several times, as though my eyes are playing tricks. They have to be. She can’t possibly be sitting right next to me. Must’ve really hit my head hard.
“Kayla…I’m scared. She’s crazy.”
“Sophia?” I choke.
“Yes, it’s me.” She nods.
“Oh, God!”
No, no this can’t be happening! Why would she take Sophia?! Elsie and Michael, do they know yet?
Then it hits me: that’s why Michael never replied to my text. He’s looking for his daughter. Oh, no! They can’t hurt her. I won’t let them!
“Aww, look, the princess is awake.” Cammie grins, and when she kneels, I clearly make out her face. She snatches my hair in her tight grasp. “Open your eyes and look at me!”
She slaps me hard against my cheek, and that has me instantly waking up. My body quivers and I register my hands tied in front of me, Sophia’s tear-stricken gaze and trembling bottom lip jutting out at me.
“You’ll be okay,” I lie to her. “I’m right here, sweetheart.”
“Stop talking to her!” Cammie fists my hair tighter. “She’s not going to be okay, and neither are you!”
Sophia wails, and Cammie grunts.
“Shut up! I’ve heard enough from you!” She points her gun at the poor, innocent child.
“Don’t you point that at her! She’s a baby! If you want her not to cry, put it away!”
She snarls and grinds her teeth, but lowers it. Her chest swells, her face bright red, the blood on her shirt still present, but clearly not hers.
This was a setup, wasn’t it?
“Why, Cammie?” I whisper, my heart rapping so fast I fear I’ll pass out again. “Why are you doing this? Why have you killed all those girls?”
I don’t even let her deny it. I know it’s her and her partner. It has to be. But nothing makes sense! After all we went through, how can she kill innocents?
She chuckles with a frosted, dead look in her eyes. “Look at you. You figured it out, huh?” She starts to clap. “Bravo!”
“I—I don’t get it.” My words quake out of me. “We don’t kill innocent people. We save them. We help them. How…how could you do this?”
“Mmm.” She twists her mouth and pouts. “I’m sorry, but we aren’t all superheroes like you and your boyfriend, killing the bad people.
” She rolls her eyes, then stares at me with sinister intent.
“Not all of us are sooo perfect,” she snarls.
“I hated them, you know. All those beautiful, perfect girls walking around the world like their lives were untouchable.”
She inhales deep, then releases, as though attempting to collect herself.
“Perfect families. Perfect boyfriends. Perfect jobs. Nothing out of place. Until they met me, that is.” She grins, and all the hairs on my body stand up.
I have never seen her this way. So callous and broken. Is that what she became? I feel sorry for her in this instant. She was hurting, and no one truly saw it.
“What did you do?” I whisper.
“Well, I’d meet them. Become their friend, then I’d drug them and let my friend have a little fun.
” Her lips thin into a calculating sneer.
“See, some of them didn’t actually die. Some were sent away to a much more horrifying place.
” Unblinking, she glares. “You know, the kind you and I know very well.”
“Oh my God!” I clutch my mouth with a hand. “You were working with the trafficking ring?”
“Yes.” Her grin widens. “See, initially, he was gonna take me, but I couldn’t let that happen, so we became friends.
Once he found out about what I was doing to the girls, we came up with a business arrangement.
Of sorts.” She shrugs a shoulder. “He gets some of the girls to expand his business, and the others, I let him test drive before I got to have my fun. Because no life is perfect, Kayla. You should know that more than anyone.”
“I’m…” I pant. “I’m so sorry.” Large tears roll down my eyes. “I’m so sorry I never truly saw your pain, how much more you needed from us. I’m sorry we all failed you,” I weep.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” She drives the barrel of the gun into my temple.
“There’s nothing wrong with me!” Her features contort into something demonic.
“They’re the ones who were deluding themselves into believing a perfect life exists.
They thought the rules of the world didn’t apply to them.
I set them straight. They should thank me. Because now they know too.”
Unable to help myself, I continue to sob, while Sophia clutches on to me, crying too.
“And…and the star? Was that you or your partner?”
“All my idea.” Her face radiates like she’s proud.
“Mommy used to call me her little star. Look how that turned out.” Her gaze narrows.
“She never wanted me after she found out what a whore I was. Never forgave me. None of them did. Even my twelve-year-old brother looked at me with disgust. Wouldn’t talk to me when I’d go to his school and try.
Laughed at me with his friends, whispered about me while they all stared from the playground.
” Her nostrils flare. “So I showed them who I truly was. And that moment right before they died, when their eyes connected with mine as I sank the blade into them for that final time, that was when they truly saw me.”
“This…this isn’t you.” Pain seeps out of me in waves, unable to comprehend how she could do this, how far she’s fallen.
She keeps her hand fastened around my hair as she pins her nose to mine. “This is me! And soon, you’ll see that too.”
“And…and where’s the doctor? Is he here? Is he watching us?”
Her laugh sends another cold shudder down my body. With a sigh, she rises to full height.
“Oh, the doctor won’t be joining us I’m afraid.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.” Her eyes dance maniacally. “But sweet Dr. Collins is no longer with us.” A wrinkle appears between her eyes in mock sadness.
“I—I don’t understand. I thought he…he was working with you.”
Her laughter echoes. “I lied, you idiot! I’m such a good actress, aren’t I?”
She clears her throat and tilts her chin up.
“He was so nice to me. He was helping me. How? How could he?” she sniffles dramatically, repeating the words she said when she told A and me the doctor was the one who hurt her.
“Who?” I can’t seem to breathe, the question barely falling from my lips. “Who killed him, Cammie?”
“I did.” But the voice that answers is no longer hers.
And when I see the man who starts toward me, my heart stops beating.
“Wh-what… No.” Tears spill over. “It can’t be you.”
Prince smirks wryly. “Hey, Kayla. You’re not looking so well.”
Spine-chilling fear engulfs me.
“H-how… Why?” My head spins, black and yellow dots flashing before my eyes.
“Why?” he mocks before he crushes his teeth and bares them.
With a quick rush, he’s in front of me, a hand tightening around my throat. The dots grow until I’m craving my next breath.
Sophia screams, and my hand reaches for hers and squeezes. I can’t let them hurt her. Not Sophia.
“Your friends took my father from me,” he says. “And for that, you’ll be the first to pay.”
“Your…your father?” I manage to choke out as he squeezes, his eyes filled with more rage than I’ve ever seen on his once-kind face.
“Agnelo Bianchi. You may remember him.” His mouth curls up for only a second.
“I was just getting to know him after I found out I was his kid. My whore mother kept it from me until I found out and confronted her. So I located him and told him who I was. And instead of turning me away, he welcomed me into his inner circle.” Boiling with fury, he flays me with a stormy gaze.
“He taught me how to be a man, wanted me to run his club after he retired. But then the fucking Cavaleris stepped in and took him from me! But I made him a promise that I’d continue his legacy, and I have. Now his name will live on forever.”
A sneer stays frozen on his smug face right before he lets me go and gets back up.
“Don’t worry, though. I made him another promise after he died, that when I found you, I’d sell you to the vilest piece of shit I could find. And I found just the right home for you and that little girl.” He gives Sophia a look that sends nausea into my gut. “He’s gonna love her.”
He chuckles, and Cammie joins him.
“And when I’m through here, I’ll come for Eriu too. Cute thing like her would sell for a lot of money.”
“No! Don’t you touch her!” I scream.
Sophia’s unending sobs cause my own to come in floods. She holds on to me through it while I grasp my fingers around hers, not knowing if anyone will save us in time.