I release him, but refuse to back down on this. His points in my direction. “You don’t have any goddamn say in what I do. You forfeited that right the moment you fucked my sister. You! You put her in danger!”
I want to kill him for thinking it’s just fucking between his sister and me. He believes what I feel for his sister is cavalier. Simple. It’s not. She’s my world. I don’t know how I’ll breathe if they kill her.
“If you call the police, she’s dead. They all are,” I utter, needing Jace to understand the seriousness.
Jace inhales and bends at the waist, cursing under his breath. When he lifts his head, he ignores me and turns to Silas. “Can you get Caleb involved? Caleb can find her. This is what he did before?—”
“It’s our responsibility, Park,” I interrupt him.
“Right now I don’t give a fuck about your responsibilities! You had a responsibility! To leave her alone! To not touch her! You failed motherfucker! I trusted you! You put her in harm’s way by association and now some animals have her!”
He’s right. Every accusation. Every indictment is valid, and the acid in my chest burns hotter. I knew the risks I was taking when I touched Camryn, when I marked her, fucking every chance I could without thought. I knew people were watching me. I knew they had their eyes on me, and I drew her into my web anyway. But none of that matters anymore. It’s too late. She belongs to me, even if in the end I can’t keep her.
For now, my only concern is finding her. Jace and everyone else can help behind the scenes, but the war, the war is mine.
Silas pulls out this phone, stepping away from the group. I watch him dial before speaking quietly into the mouthpiece. I’m itching to move. Desperate to get Camryn.
Riggs approaches me. “What do you want us to do?”
I hate how helpless I feel, but I owe it to Jace and to Camryn to include him. “We work with them.”
“Are you sure?”
Am I sure? Fuck no. The only thing I’m sure about is that I’m going to enjoy killing the bastards who hurt her. El Jefe has what’s mine. His blood will soak into the ground when I’m done with him.
Silas’s calm voice cuts through the thick tension. “Caleb is going to work on it. Quinten and Zeke are going to be called in as well. We need to meet him to plan.”
Chapter 70
My fingers are numb. My ass is numb. Every part of my body hurts. My breasts ache from the constant pinches and gropes I endured since I woke up, my head throbbing from that asshole’s punch. No matter how many times I curled my body away from the one who rode in the back with us, until they suddenly pulled over and he disappeared, but not after groping us and kissing Jacinda, touching her still unconscious body. The interior of the van was dark, but I could hear the moans of pain as Kamilah suffered the same fate.
Now, we are in the back alone; our antagonizers left us alone a while ago. From the sounds outside, we’ve been driving for a while. The road was smooth. Highway was all I could think of, but now I jerk and bounce in the back of the van, and I can tell we are on a different kind of road.
The corners of my mouth are rubbed raw. After screaming and cursing each time they stopped, they got tired of us, Jacinda, Kami, and me talking amongst ourselves and decided to gag. Turning my head, I look at Jacinda. She’s lying on her side, exhausted. She hasn’t had anything to eat, and I’m sure her blood sugar is a mess. Frustration tugs at me because I’m afraidfor her. The last time we stopped, they gave us water and a few dry crackers, but that was it. My stomach rumbles.
Kami is staring listlessly into space, and tears are on her face. I make a garbled noise, and she looks my way. I nod my head toward Jacinda, trying to communicate with her using my eyes. Her eyes widen at the prone form of our friend. I scoot closer to Jacinda, worried that she’s passed out. Kami inches closer to, alarm all over her pretty face.
I lean to the side and use my knee to nudge the front of Jacinda’s thighs. She blinks, opening her eyes. Thankfully, she seems aware, albeit tired. Sweat coats her face. My stomach rumbles again, and she maneuvers herself up, leaning on me for support. Kami cuddles next to her, and we lean on each other. We aren’t able to speak with our gags, but we don’t need to. The fear on all our faces says everything.
Suddenly, the car jerks to a stop, and I flop over in the opposite direction, grunting in pain as the side of my face crashes into the metal interior of the van. Moaning, I try to sit up, unable to find balance with our hands tied behind my back. The rear doors of the van are yanked open, and my eyes naturally squint at the brighter light. It’s not much, but from what I can calculate, it’s late afternoon. When I went out to check on the girls, it was nine in the morning, and around six hours had passed. The air rushing through the open doorway is cool. It feels good against my overheated, sweaty skin. My hair is stuck to my neck, and I wish it weren’t so loose. The breeze also brings the smells of grass. The woods. I can also detect something stagnant, like lake water. Definitely not the city anymore. The scent reminds me of that day in the forest with Stone, but that night was different. This fear is stronger, making me salivate and sweat.
Two men climb inside and watch us. They are not the same men as earlier. That means there are at least four. These men arebigger, and they look even scarier, not the dark romance scary either. Their eyes are dead. Jacinda starts to tremble, and I lean into her body, hoping to protect her. I know she’s strong, but she’s the most vulnerable. Her blood sugar may be dropping. I don’t know much about it, but, seriously, she has to wear her glucose monitor in her body. Hopefully, her monitor has some sort of tracker, and they can use it to find us.
He’s handsome, and if he weren’t my kidnapper, and will probably be responsible for my imminent death, I could see his appeal. My fear ratchets up when the bigger one moves closer to us. He’s huge. Tall like Stone, maybe even taller, and his muscles are bulging from his sleeveless shirt. He stinks, legitimately stinks. I arch my head back when he reaches out and touches me. He tilts my chin to the side and pulls down my gag. The corners of my mouth burn from the tightness of the gag, and my tongue is dry.
“Are you Camryn Park?”
His English is perfect, but there’s an accent. Not French, not Spanish, but something different. My voice is scratchy when I respond. “Water.”
He doesn’t look away from me, but barks out in a language I haven’t heard before. It’s lyrical, and my brain scrambles to think about whether I’ve heard it before, but exhaustion and dehydration are making the synapses in my brain work at a slower pace.
A bottle of water is raised above my head, and he pours it over my face. I open my mouth, not caring about his attempt at humiliating me, as long as I get the water. I greedily swallow, the coolness easing my parched throat.
“My friends. Please.”
I open my eyes, and water drips into my eyes. I watch him. He’s angry, hatred burning in his eyes. I watch him rip the gagsfrom their mouths. He pours the bottle and does the same thing to Jacinda and Kami.
“You got your water. Now talk. Are you Camryn Park?”
