***
I stared at the screen, every breath stolen from my lungs.
My mother.
Tied.
Mouth gagged.
Eyes wild with fear.
And behind her—Savannah Langford, still perfectly polished, lips curved in a smile that could melt glaciers and murder hearts.
She wasn’t running.
She was waiting.
And now, she had made it personal.
The photo was timestamped five minutes ago.
“Jace!” My voice cracked as I leapt from the bed, snatching the phone off the mattress. “She has my mom!”
He shot upright, the sleep vanishing from his face in an instant. “Who?”
I turned the screen toward him.
His face went pale.
Savannah.
He grabbed his jeans from the floor, yanking them on as I paced like a caged animal, panic boiling over into rage.
“How did she even find her?” I asked, voice trembling. “My mom’s been
