described.” He paused for a moment, then added, “I have bad news about the road out of here.”
“What?”
“It’s beginning to flood. We need to get out of here, or we won't have any way out.”
Shit. I knew things were getting bad, but it was going from bad to worse very quickly. “Alright, we’ll get ready to head out—”
Emmy’s phone rang, shutting me up. I turned my attention to her, and her face was filled with shock. “It’s Liv.”
“Hold on—” Before I could stop her, she answered the phone.
“Liv, where are you, I—”
Her face fell and turned as white as a sheet.
I could hear the voice on the other line, and it wasn’t Liv’s. It was a man’s.
Antonio.
Emilia
“Emilia, my love, you’ve given me no choice.”
“I’m not your love,” I growled despite the terror in my heart.
“Tsk tsk, you’re in no position to be unkind. You would hate to make me mad when I have your friend in my care,” he said, his voice sounding almost bored. “You’ve really upset me, Emilia. I’ve given you plenty of opportunities to play nice and live up to our deal.”
“You made a deal with my father. Not with me,” I reminded him fiercely. “We have no agreement, Antonio.”
“Well, what if we made one now?” he suggested, his voice oozing with fake charm. “Since I have someone you value. Clearly, I overestimated how you felt about your father – but Liv? She matters to you, yes?”
I wasn’t about to answer the question. I couldn’t let him know he had power over me. But my eyes filled with tears and my hands were shaking. I had almost completely forgotten about the guys until Graham touched my arm. He had written Speakerphone on a piece of paper. I nodded and fumbled with my phone, hitting the speaker button.
Antonio continued talking. “I know she’s important to you, Emilia. I found your Facebook account.” He chuckled, a menacing sound. “I saw the photos of the two of you together at her wedding. You were her Maid of Honor.”
“Is she okay?” I managed to mutter.
“She’s fine. For now. But if I don’t get what I want, I can’t make any promises. You know, I have a temper… and I always get what I want.”
Graham wrote, Speak to her.
“Let me speak to her,” I said. “I need to verify she’s alive.”
Graham gave me a thumbs up.
“Alright, alright,” Antonio said as if I was bothering him. “Here you go.”
There was some rustling in the background, and then a tiny voice. “Emmy?”
I couldn’t hold back the tears. I covered my mouth to drown out the sobs. “Yes, Liv. It’s me. Are you okay?”
“I’m ok. What’s going on, Emmy?”
“We’re—I mean, I’m going to get you out of there. You’ll be okay, I promise—”
I heard more rustling, followed by Antonio’s voice. “So you’re going to do everything I ask you to,” he said. “Or that’s the last time you’ll hear Liv’s voice, I can assure you of that.”
I looked at Graham. He wrote something down and showed it to me. Go along with him for now. I nodded. “What do you want, Antonio?”
“You know what I want, Emilia. I’ve wanted you since the moment I first laid eyes on you, and I knew it was only a matter of time until you’d be mine. I love you, Emilia. And I believe, in time, you will love me too.”
“This isn’t the way to win my love, Antonio,” I said quietly.
“What was that?”
Graham shook his head, and I sighed. “Nothing. Just tell me what you want me to do.”
“I’ll call back with further instructions,” he said. “For now, hold tight, my love.”
The line went dead, and as soon as the call ended, I began shaking and dropped the phone on the bed.
“He’s insane,” I said, feeling like I might vomit.
“Yes, and he’s obsessed,” Graham agreed.
“It’s disgusting. I was just fourteen when he met me.” I shuddered at the thought of the pervert ever laying a hand on me. “I was just a little girl.”
“Men like him don’t care about things like that. They see what they want, and they get it. Usually. Not in this case, though.”
There was a knock on the door, and we all turned to find Mason in the doorway.
“Did you see something?” Graham asked. “Is someone here?” He was up and off the bed within a second, ready to jump into action.
“No one’s here, but we have bad news,” he said. “We have to leave, now.”
“How long do we have?” Graham asked.
“We should have