I turn away from him, forcing air into my lungs. It doesn’t hurt. I never had feelings for Adrienne. When Adrienne had filed for divorce, it didn’t even cross my mind. We had our arrangement, and it was complete. I always knew she’d leave
When I found out about Dakota’s betrayal. That hurt. I treated her like a daughter. Maybe I should’ve made it clear that she never would’ve been able to step into my place. Checked in with her more. Done more to make sure she knew I didn’t forget about her.
The fact of the matter is, they betrayed me, and that won’t stand. I roll my shoulders, attempting to loosen some of the tension.
“Fine.” I clench my teeth so hard I’m already apologizing to my dentist. “What’s your idea?”
32 BAIT
Jace
She's going to be furious. She might actually kill me.
I knew my father would've seen this as too opportunistic a timing to have believed it to be real. But he knew where I would most likely be. And I played right into his hands.
The others would've never agreed. Luca might’ve. But I digress. We needed my father to come after me. I wake up to darkness and my body being jostled.
I'm in the trunk of a car.
I test the restraints on my hands and feet. They're tight. And there's a bag over my head for extra measure. I sigh and try to find a comfortable position. There's not much I can do here other than be along for the ride.
My father has to die.
He doesn't care about anyone except himself. Not even me.
I know, after he makes sure that I've suffered, he'll kill me too. I wonder if he already has plans to start over, make another heir.
I'm sure he has.
There's probably a woman out there already pregnant. As soon as herealized that I was dismantling his empire using all the information he gave to me.
I picture Isobel: her face, her eyes, her smile. I wonder if this will be the last straw. I didn't talk to her last time, and I didn't talk to her this time.
If you really loved me—if you really loved any of us—you would have trusted us enough to talk to us.
Her words echo in my mind like a sound chamber, but she doesn't understand my father as I do. Everything needs to be specific to look a certain way for my father to take the bait.
They couldn't be hovering around me and not the prototype. I also couldn't let Isobel keep suggesting being the bait. Honestly, she was the one who gave me the idea.
The first time she brought up how she should just go out into the field before she was ready as bait would hopefully be enough to stoke his anger and have Gideon come after her.
None of us were going to take that chance. He would not be touching Isobel again.
My father was a smart man, we weren't going to just catch him up without some serious manipulation.
As the tires screech to a halt, I relax my body and try to remain still. The trunk is opened and someone pokes me with what I assume is a gun.
When I don't respond, hands are on me, and I'm lifted out unceremoniously. I keep my body limp and have to keep from grunting as I'm hoisted over someone's shoulder.
“What did he want us to do with him?” the guy grumbles.
“Just throw him in a cell. Boss just wanted us to know that no matter what, we came back with him.”
So predictable. I can't help but grin to myself and I'm actually happy there's a bag over my head.
A door is opened, and I can feel the shift in temperature as we leave the summer heat. Wherever we are, we're obviously not in public, well not a public that isn’t paid for by my father; there's air conditioning, so we can't be too far off thepower grid.
As the men move, I run through my mental list of locations Gideon has. I've narrowed it down to two locations that he could still have access to.
