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Staring up at her, this woman in her early sixties with dark brown hair and just a few gray streaks tightly pulled back from her face, with dark gray-blue eyes piercing and cold. Her beautiful face that barely has any lines on it despite her age, with just a hint of makeup, but always seems to be in a perpetual scowl.
I can barely believe that this woman in front of me is Jared’s mom. My new stepdad is so kind, loving, and generous, and she’s so hard, fierce, and frightening. I look over her sharp dark blue pantsuit with the pretty lilac top. Stella wears her suits like a weapon, never a hair out of place. Unlike me, she and my new stepsister Isabella are perfect and polished, strong and accomplished. I’m a mess of dark long matted hair, pudgy and awkward.
She keeps telling me I’m a Stratford now. That when my mom married my stepdad, Jared, I was adopted. My new name is Mia Stratford, and Amelia Hamilton no longer exists. With one signature and command from Stella’s stern lips, Amelia disappeared into the pages of history. Stella promises me that I have the opportunity to leave the old me, frail and weak Amelia Hamilton, behind in the past. That the future will have me becoming a strong Stratford princess. One that no one will ever hurt again.
At first, I raged against it. I didn’t want a new name; I didn’t want to be a new person. The longer I’m here, though, with these new people and far away from Casbury and the people that hurt me there, the more I start to believe that I can be this new Mia Stratford.
Pulling myself up from the ground, new strength and resolve fills me. I can be this new Mia Stratford. I can learn to be tough and dangerous like my new grandmother, Stella; no one would ever dare to hurt her.
Maybe she’s right; no one will ever hurt me again. I will be able to defend myself against people like those boys from Casbury Prep that terrorized me over and over. Anger fills all my limbs at the thought of them, and I put myself back into the stance the instructor was trying to teach me.
“Good, Mia. I have high hopes that you and Isabella will both be the new reigning queens of Manhattan when I’m done with you. Everyone will bow down at your feet.”
The image of the four boys from Casbury that helped to destroy me, having to bow at my feet, fills me with determination. I desperately want that. To have them bow at my feet, regretting everything they ever did and said to me. Desire to hurt them like they hurt me, shifting through my body. If being this new Mia Stratford will accomplish that, then I’m all in.
I pull myself out of the memory of my younger self, one that Stella Stratford helped shape. She made me believe that being a Stratford meant no one would ever be able to hurt me again and that I would be strong and never have to run away again, but here I am on this private plane, running. Scurrying away yet again from Casbury and a Saint-Lambert and Pemberton who want to hurt me.
I pull the gun out of my mouth but keep it pointed directly at me with my finger still on the trigger. My hand has started to cramp and become clammy with my hold on the gun. I take a deep breath to steady my nerves. “Grandmother, if you truly love me, you will instruct Tom to immediately turn this damn plane around so I can go after Carter and Theo. I will not return to Manhattan and cower, hiding from Vincent Saint-Lambert. I’m a damn Stratford.”
“Mia, it’s not that simple, my love. Vincent Saint-Lambert is a monster with powerful friends and reach. I don’t want him to get his hands on you. I’m trying to protect you, my darling, and I can only do that if you cooperate and return to Manhattan.”
“Grandmother, with all due respect, I have no intentions of returning home without my missing kings. Right now, Theo is being tortured to protect me and the other three. Carter, that irrational ass, is on his way to rescue Theo in a condition that all but guarantees he will die. They are mine grandmother, and I refuse to allow anyone to hurt them.” I let out a deep sigh, my mind filled with turmoil and pain. “You once told me that as a Stratford, no one would ever get the chance to hurt me again. You lied, grandmother. Stratfords do not bend; they do not fear anyone. Yet you have me running like a coward under the cover of darkness and allowing others to suffer for my safety.”
“Mia, what would you have me do, my darling? I cannot risk losing you. I cannot lose my granddaughter and heir.”
“Grandmother, if you do not help me save those two, you will have lost me no matter what. Leaving them behind to a fate worse than death or possibly die because of me will ensure that you destroy me along with them. I will never recover from that. How could I live with myself?” My gaze moves from Mateo to Finn. I can’t lose any of them. I’m not sure when that happened. When did they become such a part of me that now I can’t think of moving forward without them.
A huge shaky sigh leaves my grandmother through the phone, and I can hear her playing with her charm bracelet, probably in agitation from my disobedient ass. “Tom, instruct the pilot to change course and head back to North Carolina. Clark and I will be boarding the other Stratford jet within the hour.”
“Mia, darling, I am not sure how we will rescue your missing kings, but I need you to promise me that you won’t be reckless with yourself. I am coming and we will decimate those that mean to do you harm together. You are right, my love; we are Stratfords, and that name should instill fear in everyone that hears it.”
“I promise, grandmother, please send me all the available resources you can. We cannot wait until you arrive to go after Carter.” I release my tight hold on the gun, clicking the safety back on and handing it butt first to a relieved Tom.
Chapter 2
Mateo
“Fear cuts deeper than swords.” George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
Ahugeagonizingbreathof relief leaves my chest as I watch Mia hand over the gun to an anxious and furious Tom. When she first pulled that gun on Drew, fear momentarily rose within me, but I knew there was no way that my Mia could ever hurt an innocent.Are you sure about that? She was willing to hurt you and your fellow kings.My brain claps back.
When she then pointed the gun at herself, my whole body locked up, and it felt like the breath inside of my chest was trying to strangle me. Watching her put that gun in her mouth was the most frightening and horrifying thing I have ever seen and experienced. None of the terrors I have witnessed in the past have made my heart decimate as painfully in my chest as watching Mia with that gun.
Just the thought that I could lose her, just one slip of her finger, and my Mia would be gone forever, had my legs finally giving out on me and forcing me to reach out to steady myself on the back of one of the chairs. That show of weakness on my part is the least of my worries. I can’t lose her. We can’t lose her; we would never be able to forgive ourselves. Theo and Carter’s self-sacrificing actions would have been for nothing.
Listening to her grandmother give the order to turn the plane around and head back to North Carolina finally allowed my heart rate to slow down and my breath to stop leaving me in ragged pants. We need to go back; we have to try to grab Carter before he makes a huge mistake. What the fuck was he even thinking? Why did he think he could rescue Theo alone?
Tom’s words run through my head again. They don’t have enough manpower or weapons in Casbury to go after Theo and Carter. It will take some time to assemble all that, time we don’t have as Carter’s crazy ass is headed into danger as we speak.
I clench my fists tight and briefly close my eyes to get a grip on myself. A thought enters my mind. I know where we can get our hands on those needed weapons and manpower.But am I willing to pay the price?It would mean making a bargain with a devil and being in his debt. At least this devil is a relation of mine.
“I know where we can get the weapons and possibly the manpower to go in and rescue Theo and fuckhead Carter.” I spit out before changing my mind. I wrap my arms around myself to stop the fear and trepidation racing through my body.Get it together, you wimp.
Mia pivots in my direction, her head inclined and twin blue-green flames narrowed on me. If I weren’t so frightened right now, that look would have my blood pressure rising for other reasons. “What do you mean you know where we can get weapons and manpower? What the hell are you talking about, Mateo?”
“My uncle. We can get the weapons and men from him.” My forehead furrows and I meet her gaze with hesitation. Anxiety is still moving through my body and in the back of my mind, doubt and fear are screaming that this is not smart. Telling these people about my uncle is dangerous. Giving Mia more ammunition is dangerous.
You know what else is dangerous? Carter and Theo being at the unrelenting and psychotic hands of Vincent Saint-Lambert and Mack Pemberton. Moving closer to Mia, I shrug off the doubts that won’t be hushed in my mind.
