What was I supposed to do now?
The door opened once more, and for a moment, I thought Dad was back to tell me I had run out of time.
But it was only Nova.
I looked away from her.
I was still thinking about my predicament when she walked over to me. Her shoes came into my line of sight. Then her hand. I blinked, trying to process what I was seeing.
A phone.
“It’s not mine. I don’t know how long it’ll take before my dad finds out it's missing. But it’s a risk we’rebothtaking.”
I nodded. I got what she was saying. She had as much riding on this as I did… for both of us to escape.
“Call for help. And leave the location on so they can find you.” She moved over to her desk and tore out a piece of paper from her notebook, writing something down. “The address,” she said, handing it over to me.
I took it from her hand, mine shaking as I tried to read the words.
“Thank you,” I gasped out.
“Don’t thank me yet. And remember our deal. You’ll help me escape.”
I nodded and stood up, filled with renewed hope. “I will.”
I looked back at the phone, pulling up the messaging app, and tried to think. I only had one number memorized. And it wasn’t Elio’s or Valentino’s.
I typed in my message and hit send before moving over to the settings and turning on the location. Then I handed the phone back to her, and she shoved it in her pocket.
“Now what?”
“Now you get ready for the wedding. Put on your best performance. Do as they ask, and just wait for help to arrive.”
The tone in her voice told me there was a small part of her that doubted help would be arriving.
Perhaps because she was so used to having everyone let her down, she was expecting the same from me.
But despite all that, she still helped me.
And that was all that mattered.
28
ELIO
This was fucking hopeless.
Eight fucking safe houses.
We managed to find eight of them, and it was all for fucking nothing. There were no signs that those houses had been used in the first place.
I took a drink of my water and turned to look at Valentino. There was the same hopelessness in his eyes that was reflected in my own.
I was sure he was thinking the same thing I was.
That we wasted the last three days dredging through the woods for a fucking dead end.
I looked over at Romeo. He was looking down at the paper map in his hands.
