I let out a shaky breath, the weight of our situation descending on me. “What’s happening, Alex?” I let the truth slip out. Quietly. Scared. And inching closer toward some invisible but very real line.
He blinked up at me, no hint of a smile on his upside-down face.
“I don’t know,Preziosa.”
It didn’t sound so bad. The way he whispered it—it no longer annoyed me. His arm lifted, and then his fingers were sliding into my hair, rubbing the coconut oil in. My eyes squeezed shut, as if the darkness would protect me from the heat of his skin. The danger in his eyes.
But my body did its own thing. I moved closer, letting him guide me until my lips registered the heat of his. Somehow, inexplicably, accidentally, purely by chance, but so on purpose…we were an inch apart.
“Why are you here?” I pleaded, taking in a lungful of his scent.
His chest rose and fell with every one of his breaths, his fingers tangled in my hair, the same way mine were in his.
“I can’t…” he whispered and I could almost taste him. Taste the mistake, his darkness, and my demise. “I can’t stay away. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat…without you. I can’t.”
Sebastian Moretti held another press conference this evening—
The voice emanating from the TV pierced me right through the heart. My head jerked up like I’d been electrocuted and that’s when I saw him—my father, wearing his signature navy suit and red tie, standing at the podium of the press-conference room, familiar faces of the detectives I’d worked with right behind him.
—appeared resolute as he addressed the ongoing silence surrounding his daughter’s disappearance. He doubled down on his warning, stating that those responsible weren’t dealing with a grieving father, but with the full weight of the federal justice system.
I ripped my fingers out of Alex’s hair and almost tumbled off the couch in my rush to approach the TV. This was the first time I’d seen my father since it happened. I hadn’t turned the news on, but of course, he was out there, looking for me, threatening anyone who would listen.
Moretti warned that any individual or organization withholding information would be treated as complicit, adding that federal resources were being fully mobilized to ensure the safe return of Jade Moretti, a federal employee. She was last seen in Miami.
The news switched to another story, but not in my mind. My eyes burned with the image of him standing there so composed. Like this was regular business, not a press conference about the disappearance of his daughter.Federal employee.
Alex’s large body loomed behind me and I turned to him, such sudden and deep regret washing over me.
No, I didn’t really know him, and yes, he did kidnap me. Yes, he was absolutely a criminal and I hadn’t figured out which kindyet, and at the same time, Alex gave me something my father never did. Protection, respect, and care.
“Alex?” The almost-taste of his lips and the smell of his skin still lingered inside me. “You don’t have to tell me what you do, but…do you sell drugs, women, or children?”
Alex was stoic, looking down at me with his eyebrows furrowed, not in the least bit shaken by what we’d seen on the news.
“No,” he said simply and that was enough.
That wasenough.
I looked into his beautiful brown eyes and asked a very important question.
“Do you still have some zip ties?”
What kind of criminal are you?
11
What Makes Jade Cry
Alex
My fingertips ran up my temple again, trying to keep the coconut oil in my hair and not on my face. I slowly paced the living room, waiting for Jade. BecauseJadewas fucking crazy and I fucking couldn’t get enough.
Jade proposed a genius idea, and I doubted my own self because why the hell hadn’t we thought of that? Anticipation shook my chest and I waited, making sure to take deep breaths in. I was a damn mess.
There was no denying anything—we’d almost fuckingkissed. It was right there, just on the precipice, and it was so sweet, tempting, and whole.
This kidnapping was going off the rails at full speed.
