Page 143 of Road to Redemption

Shink.

But the symbol?

I’d seen it on the phone of a guard who got a little too close during one of my feedings. I’d swatted the phone from his belt holster and received nothing more than a scowl as punishment.

Weird.

But I’d seen it — the eagle with the lightning. The symbol from the clubs.

Who, who, who?

It would help if I knew how many days had passed. Was the wedding over?

It can’t be.

He would certainly kill me by then.

More shares for Maura, more shares for him.

Unless the men weren’t his. But another captor wouldn’t let me walk free either.

More valuable in hand. Vulnerable, afraid.

What was the point? To traffic me? To demand ransom?

My eyes shifted up to the dark, concrete ceiling before my mind could return to its spiral.

I can see the cracks. All I can see are the cracks.

Then, for once, there was something I could hear: not the booted footsteps of the guards I’d grown so used to. Dress shoes.

Company’s coming.

I scrambled onto my knees, refusing to be a sitting duck as a beam of hallway light announced my new visitor. The metal door slammed hard against the concrete as a tall, tuxedoed silhouette filled the bright doorway.

What’s the occasion?

I couldn’t make out the suited man’s face through the blinding light, but I could tell that the shoulder pads on his suit were tacky. He strode into the room like an overconfident child in his father’s formal wear. The armed guards flanking him probably validated his hubris.

But as he stepped closer, it was his scent that gave him away: cheap, metallic cologne.

It’s Gabe. Fuck.

The hairs on my spine stood as he crouched in the shadow in front of me, assessing me with a shit-eating grin. “How’ve you been Kiera? You look like shit.”

“Get fucked,” I spat. But as weak and dehydrated as I was, the saliva only made it as far as his shoe.

“Chipper as always,” he chuckled before standing and turning to his guards. “Get out. I want a minute alone with my girlfriend. This reunion’s long overdue.”

“I’m not your anything,” I growled as his guards shuffled out, shutting the door behind them.

“Oh don’t be so sour, Kiera,” Gabe chuckled, pacing around me in the dark. “You’re my prisoner, at the very least.”

The fluctuation between light and dark was seriously fucking with my sense of direction. I didn’t know where Gabe had disappeared to until he was behind me, brushing a hand through my hair.

“You know, this looked so much better when you would straighten it.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you think,” I shirked him off, leaning as far away as my restraints allowed. “You’re a fucking monster. I know what you did. I saw.”