Page 173 of Cinder
Unknown:I’ve got Elle.
For a second, I don’t understand what I’m reading. The words sit there flatly, like they’ve been dropped into place out of thin air. My brain tries to catch up, to slot them into something that makes sense, but there’s nothing for them to land on.
Then my pulse misfires. Heat rushes up the back of my neck so fast it makes me dizzy, my grip tightening hard enough around the phone that my fingers ache.
No.
No, that doesn’t—she’s with Remi. She only left an hour or so ago.
My thumb fumbles toward Remi’s contact, but another call cuts across the screen before it connects, and I bring it to my ear.
“Hello, Penny.”
The voice on the other end is familiar in a way that prods at something raw inside me, and everything in me goes cold.
“Stacey,” I breathe, the name scraping out of me.
A small, humorless laugh crackles down the line. “Yeah.”
“Where is she?” I demand, already moving, already snatching my keys off the counter without fully registering it. “What are you talking about?”
“I picked her up early,” Stacey says, too casually. “She thought I’d cleared it with Evan.”
That doesn’t track. It doesn’t—Remi would’ve called, she would’ve said something. And if not her, Evan sure as shit would’ve.
“Put her on the phone,” I cut in, sharper now. “Let me talk to her.”
There’s a pause, long enough for the inside of my skull to start roaring.
“She’s fine,” Stacey says. “But if you want to keep it that way, you’re gonna listen to me.”
My hand braces against the counter because suddenly standing upright feels harder than it should. “Don’t—don’t do this. Just tell me where she is.”
“Maple Hill,” she says. “The old water tower. You know it?”
I swallow hard. “Yeah.”
“Bring cash,” she continues. “As much as you can—I know you have plenty from selling your Daddy’s company.”
“What—why—”
“Because if you don’t,” she cuts over me, her voice going flat, “Evan will never see her again.”
My vision blurs, and every instinct screams at me to call Evan anyway.
“And don’t be stupid enough to tell anyone,” she adds, like she’s bored. “Not Evan or Remi. No one.”
For one horrible second, I can’t hear anything except the sound of my own breathing.
“You bring the money,” she says, “and you come alone, or I disappear with Elle, and you can spend the rest of your life apologizing to Evan for not acting fast enough.”
A strangled sound catches in my throat. “Please—”
“Maple Hill Tower. One hour,” she says, and the line goes dead.
I stand there at the front door, my phone still pressed to my ear, the silence on the other end stretching out until it roars.
Then everything snaps into motion.
