I DIDN'T TELL CHRISTINA about the kidnapping for two reasons, which I justify to myself very clearly.

First of all, it's none of her business. To know would only endanger her life.

Second of all... I don't want her to see me for who I am. For what I am and what I do. If I can keep up this wall between these two sides of my life, if I could have the money without the source, the power without the intimidation and danger, I would take it.

But we both know that's a joke. It's crumbling and I can't stand the thought of not keeping herself close to me before that happens. Binding her to me.

But how?

We get off the plane, a gust of wind causing Christina's loose trousers to billow around her ankles and calves. I'm half-reminded of a period drama Allie and Bianca forced me to watch with them once, where a flash of ankle would be considered shocking. It still feels shocking despite having seen her in a swimsuit only recently.

You're losing your touch, Cavalli.

"Did you have a good trip, signor?" Paulie, our driver--the word henchman sounds bad--asks me as I step into the car. He tips his chauffeur's cap at me, a motion that makes my stomach clench. He would never do that normally if Christina wasn't here. Instead, it's practically a blinking neon sign for, something's gone wrong.

"It went well, but I'm glad to be back," I say breezily as Paulie opens the door for Christina and I to enter the car.

"So am I," Christina says, but her face is pale, wan. Is she sick?

"Are you okay?" I ask, pressing a hand to her forehead. "You seem tired."

She yawns, moving away from my hand. Something in her eyes seems to convey more than simple fatigue, but who am I to say what it is? "Just jet lag."

"Okay." I have to believe her, because moments later, she falls asleep on my shoulder. Her head burrowing into my neck, her small hands rest on top of my forearm, her scent of roses wafting into my direction.

Her phone slides out of her purse, hitting the floor of the limo. I reach for it, carefully picking it up and trying not to jostle Christina too much, when the screen flashes, lighting up with a message.

+1 212 409 1021: Did you do it yet?

Then, moments later, a message from the same number. I'm only giving you this much time because you're my sister. Get it done, or you know how this will go.

My mouth goes dry, falling open before I can stop myself.

Why did I lie to myself? Why do I lie to myself? I'm not surprised. Not shocked in the slightest. It's not like I trusted this girl. It's not like I let her into my life and told her things about myself that i had never told anyone before. No, it's not like any of those things happened. Not at all.

It's not like I thought she trusted me. Trusted me enough to not leave when I gave her the opportunity to flee on our very first date. Trusted me enough to help her find her mother. Trusted me enough to fall asleep on her shoulder.

But apparently, she doesn't trust me. She doesn't trust me at all, or she would have come to me with this information and with this threat of blackmail.

My heart stops, dropping into my stomach like a stone sinking in a well, making barely a splash but leaving deep reverberations.

I let her sleep on my shoulder until we reach the house. I instruct Paulie to bring our luggage in, but then to come out again and bring us to the Cavalli Compound. Sliding Christina's phone back into her purse, as though nothing ever happened, I calm my breathing and slow my heartbeat. I will be fine.

I am untouchable.

I always have been.

She was just an exception to a rule that should never have had a single one.

If she wants to play with fire, she's going to get burned. And the things I have planned for her... Well, they won't be pretty. And they will make her regret ever betraying me.

I WAKE UP IN a strange place. The masonry and stone walls surrounding me make me think of a cathedral, but it's too fortified for that... more like a fortress. Tapestries hang on the walls, and I'm lying in a four-poster bed. At any moment I expect a medieval knight to come rushing in with a sword. This isn't the Cavalli's house in the Hamptons. This place is... somewhere else. Something else.

Why would Antonio take me here? The last thing I remember was falling asleep in the car, onto his shoulder. Panic and curiosity war within me and curiosity wins out. I'm wearing the same clothes as I was on the plane: tan palazzo pants and a black camisole with a black cardigan, and so the frigid air conditioning doesn't bother me too much. Pushing on the heavy wooden door that seems to take more bicep strength than I possess just to creak open a few inches, I slip out into a corridor.

"Where is this place?" I mutter under my breath. Through a window partially covered by red velvet drapes, I spy a river. A dense forest beyond that. Blue sky, a few clouds drifting across it.

Completely out of place, a kitchen magnet on the fridge reads Welcome To Vermont.

Vermont? We're in Vermont of all places? Okay, calm down, Christina, maybe we're still in New York and he just likes collecting kitschy souvenir magnets to hang on his refrigerator. Maybe. But have you ever seen the man cook? Why would he collect magnets for his fridge?

But New York? The man is wealthy, but not wealthy enough to have a palatial mansion in New York City. I chew on my lip, walking out of the empty kitchen. All my footsteps echo, making me feel like Jane Eyre in Rochester's manor, wandering through bare rooms and carpet-lined hallways. I feel like I should be carrying a candle and wearing a white nightgown, making soundless footsteps and haunting the castle.

Walking past a door, I hear someone crying. The voice is unfamiliar but distinctly feminine, making me tense up. Who else is here?

Carefully unlatching and opening the heavy door, I wonder why it's locked from the outside. Inside the room is a heavily pregnant woman sitting on the edge of a bed, her chestnut hair falling over her face and disguising her delicate features. When she sees me, she looks up and dabs at her wet eyes with a Kleenex, her expression unreadable. A Bible sits on the bed next to her, open. She wraps a burgundy shawl around her thin shoulders, covering her thin white dress.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you..." I fiddle with my fingers. "I just heard someone crying, so I worried there was something wrong."

"No, it's fine." She stands up from the bed with difficulty. Extending a hand for me to shake, she introduces herself. "I'm Katerina, Katerina Steele."

"Christina Martell." I shake her hand. "Can I ask why you were crying?"

"You mean, besides being kidnapped by the Cavalli's on the way to see a doctor?" she says with a scoff before smiling at me. Her smile seems genuine enough, despite her... situation. Something clenches in my chest at her words.

Kidnapped. Kidnapped?

What was it Antonio had told me a few months ago? That he never kidnaps people? That they never engage in human trafficking?

Well, Allie is clearly proof that that's a lie. Not to mention this woman here.

My heart pounds in my chest and an acrid taste sits on my tongue; like I've eaten too many sour suckers. Kidnapped. He kidnapped her, this woman. "I... I'm so sorry to hear that."

She chews on her chapped lower lip, looking down, smoothing a hand over her abdomen. "It's fine. I just... Um, I hope my husband can find me, before... Before it comes time for the baby to be born."

This entire situation is so messed up. What is this place, some kind of sick Bluebeard's castle, for storing women? My stomach turns, and I force myself to focus on the conversation and offer a smile.

"Do you know where we are?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. That's all I could say. Upstate New York, probably. It doesn't seem like they took us very far. So, what's your story? Did your family mess with the wrong people and now the Cavalli's took you?"

I pause, unsure of what to say. I came here willingly. Didn't I? Didn't I get into that car, into that plane, didn't I go on that date of my own free will? "I don't even know anymore... I just woke up and I was here."

"Oh." She frowns. "Have you seen Allie?"

"Allie?" I ask. Antonio's little sister, the one who stood up to me against though mean girls at that party that feels like a lifetime ago now. "What does she have to do with anything?"

"She's the one who was with me when I came here," she responds. "I haven't seen her since, and that was three days ago. There are guards patrolling this place every night, and even if I tried to run away, I wouldn't make it very far in my condition."

"Have you been eating anything?" She looks thin and tired, dark circles beneath her eyes. Where is Antonio? Didn't he come here with me? "Are they feeding you in this place?"

She nods. "The kitchen is fully stocked and open to us. Except, they keep all the knives chained down. It's not like you couldn't attack someone with a fork."

"My thoughts exactly," I say as my stomach growls. "Do you want to go there now? I could do with a snack."

"This place is so strange," I comment as we walk down the hall together, offering her my arm. "It's like being in the castle from Beauty and the Beast."

Katerina snorts, a surprisingly unladylike sound from her seemingly prim and proper figure. "Where's the Beast? I haven't set eyes on any Cavalli so far, only the guards who brought me in here."

Beneath the derision and curiosity, I hear vulnerability and fear in her voice. I can't imagine being in her situation, and I realize, with a sinking, twisting terror that wraps around my insides like a vice, that I could be. Not now, not right here and now of course. But what if I was still with Antonio? What if I stayed with him and someone else took me as retaliation against him? I doubt they would be so kind as to leave me a fully stocked pantry for me or to keep me alive.

I have to leave him. I have to. But how? It's not safe. What if he knows about the airport? What if he knows I'm the one who leaked information about the shipments?

What if that's the reason I'm here? As punishment? The princess abandoned and locked in the tower by a dark prince, for her own sins and stupid mistakes? I shake my head. Confined for only a few hours and already I'm losing my mind.

"Want some cereal?" Katerina shakes a box of Honey Nut Cheerios into a bowl.

My mouth is still so dry that I can only nod as she pours milk into the bowl, passing it toward me and grabbing a spoon. "Thanks," I say between mouthfuls.

"No problem." She gently eases onto a chair, eating her own cereal slowly. I don't even know what time it is here. I didn't wear a watch and I can't find my phone.

Is it breakfast time? I try to remember when we got back from Monte Carlo. Late afternoon, at the most. Did I sleep all the way from then until the next day? One peek outside the barred windows tells me it's bright enough to confirm that notion.

"So, how did you get involved with the Cavalli's?" I ask. Part of me wants her to tell me that her decision-making has been as poor as mine.

Another part of me just tells me that's selfish and it would be better for her to have people out there looking for her and wanting to rescue her.

"I wasn't. My husband's family and them apparently have a generational feud going back to the last fifty years or so." She sighs. "Sometimes, I can't believe this is my life."

I quirk a smile. "Relatable."

But in what way? Good, or insanely bad?

"I was just a normal girl, living my life until my father died..." She bites her lip, the spoon pausing as she stirs the cereal. "And then in his will, believe it or not, I was forced to marry into the Steele family if I wanted his company to remain in one piece. So I had no choice. I mean, it all ended up for the best, and I know now that God had His plans for us, but... It's crazy, you know? Where God takes you when you trust Him. It may not always be good, but you know it's where He wants you to be."

I sigh, marvelling at her faith. "I... thank you for sharing, Katerina. I needed to hear it."