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IT’S PITCH BLACK.

This isn’t happening.

Hunched like a ball with my knees pulled up, I’m stuck in this scant place, crammed in here with the lid pressed against my back. Sweat seeps along the contours of my face as I try to turn my head. I dig my teeth into my knees to keep from making a sound, but my own heavy, trembling breaths are deafening, feeding my fear.

Oh my god. NO. Stop!

The blaring pain in my back is surpassed by the anguish I experience from hearing the constant blows and an incensed male voice. I shut my eyes tightly, and tears mingle with cold sweat as panic gnaws at my insides.

This isn’t real.

I hear Luca grunting in pain, and I can almost sense his suffering burning through my body while I have to listen to him being beaten, over and over again.

Someone’s yelling, and I want to help Luca, but I’m afraid to leave this space, so I honor the last promise I made to the man I love while the life is being beaten out of him.

After what feels like hours, but is probably mere minutes, of shouting and fighting, the sudden stillness thunders my fear to unmeasurable heights.

At least two shots were fired, but it could have been more. I clearly heard a shot being fired just now; it sounded weird, muted, but it was definitely a bullet leaving a gun.

Shivering from the cold, yet sweating from fright and from being huddled in this small space, I wonder what to do. I have no idea what’s happened to Luca, so how long do I wait? Why is it so quiet? Is Ashton gone? The attacker had to have been Ashton, but in my panic, I was unable to recognize the voice.

I count to one hundred and eighty to keep some sense of time. Oh my god, I just want to stay in here and cry, but I can’t. Not hearing Luca anymore worries me, so I have to get out and help him. Rounding my back, I slowly lift the lid until I can look through the opening, but it’s no use because all I see is pitch black with a blue hue in the distance where I think the cottages are located. I’ll have to rely solely on my hearing now, but my own irregular breathing is still deafening me – I need to calm down.

My chest constricts in warring sensations as I climb out, trying to make as little noise as possible. I scan the area but don’t see any lights. Ashton must’ve had a flashlight with him; how else could he have found Luca among these trees? Holding my breath, I stand completely still to focus on the sounds around me, but all I can hear is the wind, so I decide to head back to the cottages.

Branches and dirt crunch beneath my shoes, and my ear-splitting, uneven breaths roar in my ears as I step forward with my hands out in front of me, feeling my way through the darkness. My head whips back and forth, and angst blazes through me while branches cut open the skin on my quivering hands as I unsteadily tread through the trees. The silence is equally unsettling.

Where’s Luca? Where’s our assailant?

I let out a sigh of relief when the moonlight starts to shine through the trees more and more so that I can see the open space that will lead me to the cottage. None of the other cottages are nearby, so I’ll have to chance it and go back to ours to get to a phone.

Breaking out in a run, I reach the cottage’s back door and listen for any movement inside.

Silence.

I open the door and grimace when it creaks on its hinges. Quietly, I tiptoe to the hearth but drop down when a slam outside warns me of company. Broken glass cuts my palms as I crawl to the window on hands and knees, yet I bite through the pain and peek outside to see Ashton occupying the driver’s seat of a car behind Luca’s black vehicle.

I need to get to a phone, but mine is in my purse in the car. Turning my head, I spot Luca’s jacket in front of the hearth.

Please let his phone be inside the jacket!

I check the pocket, and thank god, I’m touching the cold surface of Luca’s smartphone. I haven’t heard Ashton drive away, so I skulk to the back of the cottage and call Adriano, trying desperately to keep the phone from slipping out of my trembling hands.

“What up?” he greets cheerily.

“A-Adriano...help me.”

“Fallon? What’s wrong? What’s going on? Where’s Luca?” He’s instantly on alert.

“I-I don’t know.” My chest heaves while I attempt to concentrate and give him useful information.

“I’m tracking his phone right now. You’re at Cottage Woods in Lake Forest, right? Take a deep breath and then tell me exactly what happened.” I hear him giving out orders to others as well. “Damian, go to Cottage Woods. Now! I want someone there within fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, cottage. Ashton is out front...I-I think he and Luca fought in the woods, and I heard gunshots. I don’t know where Luca is,” I cry and sniff.

“Fallon, where are you right now?”

“Inside the cottage, by the back door.”

“You need to leave the cottage, okay?”

“Nooo! Don’t make me go out there again; it’s so dark.” I wipe my nose with my arm.

“Ashton could come inside at any moment, and it’s going to take me twenty minutes to get to you. I need you to be brave and sneak back out, okay? When you get outside, cover the phone with your hands, run toward the woods, and hide behind the first tree you see. But don’t disconnect our call unless you see him following you; then you must disconnect it so the light of the screen won’t give you away.”

I nod through my trembles.

“Talk to me,” he coaxes in a gentle tone, laced with concern.

“Go back outside and run to the woods?” I ask hesitantly.

“Yes, but don’t go too deep into the woods,” he warns. “Hide behind the first large tree you see. Now run away from the cottage.”

I take off as Adriano instructed and round the first tree I see. For a long time, he stays on the phone with me, consistently soothing me, until he finally tells me that he’s arrived.

“I’m inside the cottage now. Ashton’s gone, and I’m going to walk through the back door. Three other soldiers are with me, so don’t panic when you see us. Do you see me, Fallon?”

A tall shadow appears in front of the back door of the cottage.

“I’m waving now. Do you see me? Come to me.”

I dash back toward Adriano, who meets me halfway when he spots me, and I jump into his arms.

“You’re fine now. Breathe.” Adriano strokes my hair and pulls back. “Where did you last see Luca?”

Other men holding guns and flashlights are behind Adriano.

“He hid me.” I distinctly remember that when I left my hiding place, I walked toward the cottage in a straight line, so I pull Adriano forward until we’re at the open lid of the underground space.

Flashlights are examining the area to try to find any trace of Luca.

With quivering lips, I continue, “They were fighting near where I was hiding. I could hear them, Adriano!” I point my unsteady fingers to my ears as tears pour down my face. “I heard gunshots!”

“Adriano,” a male voice shouts. “Over here.”

He takes my hand in his, and we run toward the other man. And then my heart drops to my feet as I fall to my knees.

“NO! Luca, you can’t leave me alone!” I scream and cry uncontrollably when I see Luca’s body on the ground with blood covering his face and chest.

But Adriano picks me up before I can touch him and holds me against his chest. His arms and sheer exhaustion immobilize me.

“Is he alive?” I ask.

“He’s in bad shape. We need to get him out of here,” he answers me and barks orders to his men. “You know the drill. Doc and an ambulance. Doc will take care of everything at the hospital. I’m taking her myself. Bury the other body.”

There’s another body? I didn’t even notice that.

“I want to stay with him,” I whisper so softly, but he hears me.

“We need to let the others do their work, Fallon. We’ll go straight to the hospital, and you can see Luca there.”

***

I SIT ON THE WHITE bed in the emergency room at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital and wait for Adriano to return with an update on Luca while a young doctor removes glass splinters from my palms. The wait seems to take forever as my gaze is focused on nothing in this sterile room. I’m feeling numb, not because of the horror Ashton has inflicted on me and my loved ones, but because I don’t know what’s going on with Luca.

Tears keep streaming down my cheeks as I wait and wait after the doctor is done with my entire examination while not even knowing if Luca’s still alive.

Adriano finally enters with an unrecognizable look. “He’s in surgery.”

What is with these guys and always being in control of their emotions and expressions?

“Was he breathing? Where was he shot?” I ask.

“He was breathing, but he lost a lot of blood where two bullets penetrated the chest wall and damaged his lung. However, we transported him to the hospital fast, so the doctor said that at least the chance of infection is minimal.”

I start to cry again, so he joins me on the bed and throws his arm around my shoulder.

“The most important thing is that we got him medical attention quickly. The human body is much more resilient than you think, and gunshot wounds are usually not fatal, Fallon. Only shots to the heart or a major artery are potentially lethal when not treated immediately.”

“Is Doctor Calderone operating on him?”

“No, he’s not a chest surgeon, but I called him in so that he can take care of the hospital’s legalities: hospitals are required by law to contact the police when a bullet wound victim is brought in. Luca won’t be in any trouble because there will be no report of his admittance here; Doc will take care of that part.”

“Do you think he’ll survive?”

He snorts and locks eyes with me. “Of course. He would never leave you.”

Adriano comforts me while I cling to the belief that I won’t lose Luca now that we’ve just found our way back to each other. I won’t survive it if I lose him too.