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This man helped kidnap me yesterday. He shot at us in the car and was in the vehicle that ran us off the road.
And now we’re going to accept a ride from him?
Chapter 3
I know Theo and Ryland can sense my unease, but neither of them offers up much explanation as we thread our way through the quiet rows of warehouses, back toward the street.
When we reach Dominic’s car, Ryland hands me over to Theo before sliding into the front passenger seat. Theo helps me inside, keeping an arm wrapped around my shoulders as we settle next to each other on the seat. Ryland still has his gun in his hand, although he rests it on his thigh as Dominic starts the engine. It feels like some kind of insurance policy, but it hardly makes me feel any better.
Is this Luca D’Addario guy really that powerful? Powerful enough to both instigate a seventy-two-hour bloodbath and end it at the stroke of noon?
Theo and Ryland both appear to trust that Dominic won’t try to kill us, and it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around that fact. Just a few hours ago, he was shooting at us. Hell, less than thirty minutes ago, he almost did shoot us.
I don’t fucking understand it—although maybe that has something to do with the fact that my brain is splintering apart inside my skull. Eventually, I give up trying to keep my gaze on the road and lean into Theo’s embrace, burying my head in his shoulder and concentrating on taking deep breaths through my nose.
Ryland mutters directions to Dominic in the front seat, but those are the only words anyone says. After an indeterminable amount of time, Ryland says, “Here is good. Pull in up there.”
The car rolls to a stop. It dawns on me that I’m still a bloody mess, and I have a second to hope I wrecked Dominic’s back seat before Theo is opening the door and pulling me out after him. Ryland’s door slams shut, and a second later, his large body is on my other side.
They sandwich me between them as we walk toward a heavy metal door, and I realize we’re in an alley. I don’t know where we are, but I’m guessing we’re back in Halston proper, no longer on the outskirts where the warehouse district was.
As we near the door, it opens from the inside, and a man with salt-and-pepper hair and a neatly trimmed beard appears. He’s wearing a long white lab coat over a button-up shirt and slacks. A slight twitch of his eyebrows is the only outward reaction he gives at the sight of me, and he nods at Ryland as the three of us reach him.
“Mr. Bennett. I’ve got everything ready. If you’ll just follow me.”
We step inside the building, and the man who I’m sure is a doctor leads us down two intersecting hallways and then into a small exam room. Theo and Ryland stick close to my side, but as soon as I’m settled on the t
able, Ryland pulls his phone from his pocket and steps back outside of the room.
The man in the lab coat glances at Theo quickly before turning his gaze to me. I can still pick out just a hint of shock in his expression, but he’s doing a good job of schooling his features. Based on the carefully neutral way he’s looking at me, I could almost imagine that I don’t look like a horror movie come to life right now.
“I’m Doctor Adelman,” he tells me. His voice is gentle and mellow, but it doesn’t do much to relax me. “I’m going to take a quick look at you, okay…”
He trails off, waiting for me to supply my name.
My knee-jerk reaction is to not tell him anything, to refuse to hand over any information he asks for. But Theo and Ryland brought me here, which means they trust this guy—enough, at least. And despite everything, despite the secrets they kept from me and the lies they told, I trust them.
“Ayla,” I mutter.
“Ayla,” he repeats, dipping his head in a nod. “I’m just going to do some tests to make sure you didn’t cause too much damage to your head when you fell. Ryland told me you hit it, is that right?”
“Yes.” I start to nod, but stop when pain flares in my temple again.
“All right. We’ll take care of that.”
With Theo hovering protectively over my shoulder, Doctor Adelman asks me questions and does a series of tests, tracking the movement of my eyes and shining a light into them.
At some point, Ryland slips back into the room, and I glance over at him.
“Did you talk to your guy? Can he get the footage?”
He nods. “He’s working on it right now.”
“How long will it take?” I press as Doctor Adelman gently turns my head back toward him so he can continue his examination. I know the guys wanted me to get checked out, but now that I’m sitting here in this sterile, quiet office, it doesn’t seem nearly as important as figuring out what the hell happened to Marcus.
“Not long, hopefully.”
Ryland’s answer is clipped, and I can still see the same blank mask over his features that I noticed before. He’s always been good at controlling his emotions, keeping them locked down tight—it’s why I was so sure he hated me for so long—but now it’s almost like he’s shut them off entirely.
