#Chapter 61 - Taken by Marco

Layla The kitchen around me had grown dark as the day faded into the horizon, but I didn’t notice. Didn’t rise from my seat at the table to turn on a light. The glow of my phone’s screen was light enough—and I had eyes only for its contents anyway. The device trembled in my fingers as the message played. Again. As it had on repeat for the past few minutes while I struggled to determine my next move. “Layla,” Marco’s voice drawled from the tinny speaker, filling my quiet kitchen, “you have something I want. And now, I have something you care about.” Marco didn’t appear in the video that flickered across the screen. Of course, he didn’t; that coward wouldn’t show his face in such an incriminating way. No, it was Eli’s pale, frightened face on my screen, shadowed by the dim lighting of an unfamiliar kitchen. That little face was drawn in tight lines of tension, but his blue eyes glowed bright with determination as he stared down the camera. A white bandana parted his lips, pu