Revenge (24 page)

“I just want to take a look.” I give him what I hope is a sweet smile. “For old time’s sake. You know. Nostalgia.”

He looks at his phone. Swallows. Looks at me.

“Okay.”

I take a few steps down. The stairs go down at a slight spiral, and within five steps my body’s half in. I flip the light switch.

I
t doesn’t work.

“
N
o lights?” I ask.

“They rewired everything.” H
is
voice actually cracks. I haven’t heard that happen since he was thirteen. “Light s
w
itch is up here.”

A strange scent floats up. Like warm copper.

“Come on out of there, Carrie,” he says in a high voice.

“Why?” A tingly feeling covers my skin. Mikey’s acting very, very weird.

I take three more steps down. I’m completely in the storage space. All the wine bottles I remember from being a kid are gone.
Huge b
ags of green coffee beans are in here. Without the lights working, it’s hard to see anything else.

Two more steps and I peer into the darkness.

And then the light begins to narrow.

I look up.

Mikey has the hatch mostly closed, his eyes on mine.

T
hey’re black as coal.

“I told you not to go down there,” he says
in a voice made of ice
.

And then he shuts the door on me.

Click.

I’m in pitch blackness. There is no light.
The smell of warm copper is stronger now. The air has a humid feeling that is terrifying and out of place. My heart starts to pump in panic. Without light, I become disoriented.
 

“Mikey!” I call up. “
MIKEY
!”

A flash of memory hits me: when I was seven, I got stuck in here. Dad didn’t know I’d fol
l
owed him in, and when he’d left, he closed the hatch. It had taken over an hour to find me.

Dad’s words fill me with horror now:

“
I
t’s as good as soundproofed down there, baby girl. You never, ever go in there without me, understand?”

I’m trapped
now
. No one can hear me.

“
MIKEY
! SOMEONE! HELP!” I scream. I know it’s useless, but panic makes me try.

All I can hear is the sound of my own heart slamming against my chest. My breath, coming out in great, frantic whoops. I feel around in the dark to find my way. I kn
ow
the s
t
orage area is enormous, larger than the first floor of our old house.

I grab my phone. It has eleven percent battery life left. That’s what I get for never charging it properly.
I try to text Mark.
 

No signal.

I try to call.

No signal.

I try to check email, tapping on any app that might get me to communicate with the outside world.

No signal.

I turn on the flashlight and shine it all around.

Boxe
s
. Bags of coffee beans.
T
hat’s it.

I climb back up the stairs and bang on the hatch until the base of my hand starts to bleed. It’s useless.

And then I hear shuffling sounds.

Right behind me.

I w
h
irl around, my only weapon my cell phone.

T
he light illuminates a figure, on the ground, crawling toward me.

“OH MY GOD!” I scream, scrambling away.

I
t’s a human.
I
t’s a woman. She’s moving, dragging herself toward me. I back up and slip on the
slippery
ground. My arm is wet suddenly.

I look down.
I
t’s blood.

“Who are you?” I demand, shouting. I’m loud because I’m freaking out.

“Carrie?” the voice says softly. “
Is that you,
Carrie?”

My legs go numb, the sensation spreading up from my ankles to the top of my head.

I shine the light on the figure coming at me.

It’s
Amy
.

“Amy?” I gasp, running to her. She’s on the floor, her face covered in dried and fresh blood, her business suit torn and tattered. She’s filthy, one eye swollen shut, deep gouges in the skin of her face.

I reach down to try to hold her and she screams.

M
ore blood.
I
t’s warm.

I look down.

She’s
missing
an arm.
There’s a gauze bandage soaked with burgundy and dried a rust color at the edges. It’s just...gone.
 

Someone cut it off.

“He’s coming,” she hisses.
Her eye looks glassy as she meets mine. The wet metallic smell I’ve detected is clear now. It’s the scent of her blood. As I try to hold her up I smell something else. The odor of rot. The scent of infection.
 

“
Who’s coming?” I beg. “Oh, God, Amy, what happened to you? Who is
he
? Why are you in here? Where’s your
arm
? How can you have no
arm
?”
 

And then she faints.

* * *

Read the stunning conclusion to the Coming Home series in
REUNION
, the third book in the trilogy:
 

You can think you’ve had everything stolen from you.
T
hat there’s nothing left to lose.

Y
ou would be wrong.

My best friend’s been kidnapped. I was just captured. What I thought was a massive drug operation run by a man who killed my father turns out to be ten times more horrific.

I’m trapped. My best friend may be dead.

And Mark has no idea where to find me.

Some secrets should remain buried, my captors tell me.

And it looks like I will be, too.

Buried alive.

Get
REUNION
right now.

Suggested Reading Order

The Breaking Away Series
 

Finding Allie
 

Chasing Allie
 

Keeping Allie
 

T
he Coming Home Series

RETURN
 

REVENGE
 

REUNION
 

Meli Raine rode her first motorcycle when she was five years old, but she played in the ocean long before that. She lives in New England with her family.
Visit her on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/meliraine
 

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her
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