“I regret that every day. That she was so unhappy when he stole her.” He stands close to the bed, forcing me to look up at him like a child. He’s so close to understanding that she ran away because of what he did. “I don’t need to be judged by the likes of you.” His face twists into the shape of disdain. “You gave yourself to an outsider. You could have let him kill you, but you chose to let him defile you. They should scrape you hollow and send you away, but they keep you like pocket change. You exist to spend.”

They should scrape me hollow? As if the responsibility for his hand in it is too much for him to bear. No different than diverting guilt for losing Rosemarie onto my own choices.

“So, you hollowed Dafne. It was you.”

“She ran. She gave her loyalty away. She was, however, intact, which is more than I can say for you.”

“And if you find Rosemarie? What if she’s ‘defiled’? What are you going to do to her?”

He stiffens and puts his hands in his pockets. “I’ll give your grandmother something to help her sleep. You will get ready and meet me downstairs in exactly three hours. If you’re not there, I’ll assume you can’t do the job. And Sarah Colonia… if you come out of that cell without my daughter’s location… I’ll hollow you myself.”

He walks out, snapping the door closed, his threat breathing and pulsing in the middle of the room like a living thing.

Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

SARAH

No traffic. Very few cars. The garbage trucks are out, blocking narrow streets with crashing and banging. Otherwise, the city is asleep. The twenty-four-hour convenience stores are lit, but empty. The storefronts between them are shuttered and dark.

Before Dr. Palmeri’s drive to Precious Blood, I’ve only been in the front seat with Dario, where the driver was both comfort and temptation.

Now the silent, seething man next to me is a threat and an adversary. I can’t crawl far enough away from him. My skirt’s twisted under me, and the diamond ring inside my pocket jabs my thigh.

I put the ring in there out of habit, but almost took it out before tiptoeing downstairs. The man who gave it to me killed my mother, and the battle between love of what Dario’s done for me and rage over what he did to me is still being waged as we roll through the nearly empty streets.

I want to find a way to break Dario’s heart, but I don’t know if I can.

Palmeri doesn’t go into the parking lot but stops across the street and shuts off the car.

“Wait here.”

He leaves me alone and shuffles across the street to the back entrance, using his thumb to get into a narrow side door.