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ADRIK
My world has narrowed to a pinprick.
There is a single goal sitting in front of me and my life hinges on it.
On her.
I have to save Emery.
“You’re bleeding out,” Stefan snarls, trying to keep me on the floor. “You can’t go anywhere. You need to stay down.”
My best friend’s voice sounds far away even though he’s hovering over me, pressing both hands to my shoulder.
“I need a fucking bandage!” he yells out over his shoulder. “And where the hell is Toma? If he’s still alive, he won’t be for long. Get him here. Now!”
“She’s… getting away,” I growl. I try swatting Stefan’s hands away, but my strength is fading rapidly.
“We’ll get her back,” he tells me. There’s something placating in his voice. Almost like he’s talking to a child.
That triggers a new thought. A child. Fuck.
“Isabella,” I say all at once. “Isabella is in my office. In the closet. We have to—”
“She’s already out of the house,” Stefan says. “I took care of her. Now, shut up and let me stop this fucking bleeding.”
I’ve lost too much blood already. I can tell by the fuzzy feeling in my head and the way my arms are too light for my body. It feels as if they could float in the air like balloons.
“Waters can’t… get away, Stefan. He came into my house and took my wife. And we’re going after her… right now.”
Stefan shakes his head, but before he can argue, I grab his shirt and bring his face to mine.
“I’m not asking you,” I spit. “Right now, you aren’t my friend. Or my brother. You’re an obstacle. I’m giving you one chance to help me before I forcibly remove you.”
He stares down at me, emotions flickering over his face so fast I can’t read them. Though that might be because my vision is going black around the edges.
Then he clenches his jaw and curses.
“Fuck. Fine!” he seethes. “If you want to bleed out today, be my guest.”
I grunt in acknowledgement and start to lift myself up, but Stefan pushes me back down just as a man arrives with a towel and a roll of duct tape.
“But I’m bandaging you first.” When he sees the offered supplies, he curses again. “We’re in a goddamn mansion and this is the best we can do? For fuck’s sake. Fine, give it to me.”
Stefan makes quick work of wrapping the towel around my shoulder and taping it into place, grumbling under his breath the whole time. Only once he’s confident the towel isn’t going anywhere does he help me to my feet.
“What’s the plan, tough guy?”
I ignore his tone. I asked him to help me; I didn’t ask him to be happy about it.
“We chase them down.”
He arches a brow. “And how do you suggest we do that? We have no clue where they went.”
“Lucky for us, I put a tracker in Emery’s wedding ring.”
Stefan laughs in amazement. “You sneaky son of a bitch. Did you really?”
I pull out my phone and open the app. “I didn’t have time to get it set up before she ran off to that motel. But while she was in the dungeon, I found the time. It should be working now.”
Sure enough, the screen loads. A red dot blinks on the map half a mile from the compound.
“Let’s move.”
My men mobilize quickly, following me into the garage. Stefan is at my side, casting side glances at me, clearly worried.
“Stefan, you’re with me,” I say once we’re in the garage. “Everyone else, follow behind.”
“I can drive,” Stefan suggests.
I shake my head. “She’s my wife. I’ll drive.”
“That’s the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard,” he mutters under his breath. But he climbs dutifully into the passenger seat.
Usually, I’d knock some sense into Stefan for arguing with me, but I have to conserve my energy. It’s taking everything I have to pull myself together right now. My shoulder is like a burning sun setting beneath my skin.
I hand him my phone. “You navigate.”
I pull out of the drive. A line of black vehicles trails behind me like a funeral procession.
Stefan was right: I shouldn’t be driving. I feel lightheaded, delirious.
But I’m the only one who can fix this disaster.
Emery should have never been in the dungeon. She should have never been down there with Pietro. It’s my fault she was captured.
And I’m going to be the one to save her.
Unless you’re too late, a voice in the back of my head says. Unless this is like the last time. Unless this is like Sofia. Unless you fail.
I push the memory away. It will do me no good now.
Caring about Emery won’t save her from Waters. Just like caring about Sofia didn’t save her from myself.
“Turn right here,” Stefan says, wrenching me back to the present. “They’re a mile down this road.”
It’s a back road, but I recognize it. The trees are taller than they were years ago, the brush on the sides of the road denser and more overgrown.
But it’s all so similar. Even the blue sky above is the same as it was that day. It feels like it’s taunting me. Like the universe is saying in a mocking whine, How could anything be wrong on a day so beautiful?
If we follow the road long enough, it will lead to a Volandri mafia hideout. To the same hideout Sofia was trying to reach the day she died.
Stefan remembers. He was there, too.
“They’re going to the hideout,” he says, turning to me. After a second, he asks, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
But that’s a lie. I’m seeing the impossible: Sofia’s car on the road ahead of me.
I’m seeing the way her silhouette keeps spinning around in the driver’s seat, checking to see if I’m still following.
I edge closer to her, driving recklessly, refusing to fall behind more than a car’s length.
Then she is gone.
Poof. Vanished.
