Page 21

Knowing I can’t stay in the bathroom forever and that I’ll have to face them eventually if I’m going to leave, I turn on the faucet and splash cold water on my face. After blotting my face with a hand towel, I notice a soft light glowing under the bathroom door.

There’s ringing.

“Hello? Anna? Is that you, sweetheart? Are you all right? Can you hear me? Say something, Anna. If you can talk, please say something. I need to know you’re okay. Please.” My father’s voice is faint, muffled through the door, and the cell phone pressed against it, but the concern and fear in his voice are clear. Genuine.

“Dad?” I unlock the door, yank it open, drop to my knees, and snatch the cell phone from Jax’s hand. Mark and Jax share a look, something like surprise passing between them, but I don’t waste time processing it. My dad is on the phone, a connection to my mother. A strangled, half-sob escapes before I can call for my father again. “Dad, are you still there?”

“Anna.” My name comes down the line with a heavy exhale. My father’s relief to hear my voice is palpable in the sigh. “You’re alive. Thank God, you’re alive. Have they hurt you? What are their demands? What do they want to bring you home? Whatever they want, whatever the ransom is, Patrick will pay it. You know he will. You’re his fiancée. He’ll pay it.”

I’m not sure who he’s trying to convince that a man like Patrick will do the right thing, me or himself. Not that I care. The only thing I care about right now is my mom.

“How’s Mom? Are you there with her at the hospital? Can I talk to her? Please, Dad, put her on the phone. Let me talk to her.” Fresh tears are streaming down my face. My father and I weren’t on the best of terms, even before he sold me off to Patrick, but I’m happy to hear his voice, for any update on my mom that he can give me.

“Anna, oh, sweetheart. Your mother, she…” His voice breaks. He’s crying. I can hear the anguish, the pain.

Oh, god. Oh no, please. No, no, no.

Coughing. Another broken sob. My father clears his throat a couple of times and tries again. “Your mother, she…”

“No, Dad. Please, don’t say it. Don’t say it.” My voice is barely a whisper. If he doesn’t say it, it isn’t real. It isn’t happening. She isn’t dead.

Jax wraps his arms around me, and I don’t fight him when he pulls me onto his lap. Mark is stroking my hair, and I’m vaguely aware the phone is on speaker, and they’re listening.

“She’s in a coma, sweetheart. The doctors aren’t sure…” He breaks off again with another choking sob. “They aren’t sure if she’ll…she’s not…they don’t think she’s going to⁠—”

Coma? There’s still time to save her.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The doctors are wrong. They have to be. “Tell Mom I’ll be there soon. I’m on my way. I heard somewhere that people in comas can hear you talking to them. Talk to her, Dad. Tell her I’m coming.”

He’s quiet for a moment, doesn’t ask how I plan on escaping my kidnappers, how I’ll get from wherever they’re keeping me to the hospital. He doesn’t say anything. There’s only the sound of his soft sobs coming through the phone until he manages to pull himself together enough to whisper goodbye. “Okay, sweetheart. I’ll tell her.”

The phone slips from my hand, hitting the hardwood floor with a thunk. “Take me home.”

My tone brooks no argument. There won’t be one. I’m leaving, and there’s not a goddamn thing they can do to stop me.

11

JAX

“Don’t worry, Anna. You’re going to see your mom real soon,” I whisper while rubbing small soothing circles across her back. “Mark and I will drive you to the hospital.”

It’s a fucking terrible idea.

Not because I don’t want her to see her mom. No, Anna was right to call Mark and me out on that bullshit. Her mom’s sick, worsening by the day from the sounds of it. If someone tried to stand in the way of me or Mark spending time with Penny, we would have gone ballistic. Somewhere along the way of planning and implementing our revenge against Patrick, we lost sight of why we wanted to get back at him in the first place.

We did the research. We knew Barbara had cancer when we decided to kidnap her daughter. She was supposed to be in remission. At least, that’s what the medical records said when we hacked into her oncologist’s server and went through Barbara’s file. It looks like his staff was behind on updating office notes in the patient records. I wish I could blame the incompetent employees for the situation that we’re in, but I can’t. Mark and I should have kept digging.

Hell, we never should have taken Anna in the first place.

But then, she wouldn’t be ours. Maybe that’s for the best. We can still cut her loose, cut our losses, and run. It’s not too late. Who am I kidding? Of course, it is. Now that we have her, had a taste of her, there’s no way we’ll be able to let her go.

Which brings me full circle. Right back to why taking Anna to the hospital is a horrible idea. We can’t protect her. Not from that piece of shit, Patrick Calhoun, her father, or herself. Especially herself. Anna was ready to go back and marry Patrick before we called her mom. She was supposed to talk to Barbara, let her know she wasn’t hurt, and that despite being kidnapped from her wedding, she wasn’t in any danger. She is safe.

That plan went to shit too.

As it turns out, Mark and I aren’t the strategists we thought we were. We’re clueless, bumbling in the fucking dark and making a huge mess of Anna’s life. And yet, I’m having difficulty regretting anything we’ve done. Well, except for the pain and suffering we’re causing Barbara. We never would have let that happen to Penny. Anna’s mom is innocent, just like Penny. She didn’t do anything to deserve this.

We fucked up. And now we have to fix it.