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“Rae, she has to forgive us. It will take time, but she has to. We love her. All of her, and she loves us too. You know that.” Mateo, who ended up next to Reagan after helping tear the idiots apart, reaches for her arm and pulls her into a hug.
“Let go of me, you squirmy leech! I don’t want you touching me! If it were up to me, Mia would set y’all on fire and never look back. Not one of you deserves my girl.” She pushes out of Mateo’s tight, happy grip.
The sound of multiple footsteps coming towards the family room and echoing off the stone floors of the hallway have all of us turning in that direction. Anticipation fills me. Maybe Mia decided to come back and fight for us. Hell, maybe she decided to come back and make us pay painfully for our treacherous behavior towards her. I will gladly pay any price she deems fit if only she will forgive my stupid, reckless ass.
The first one to appear at the entryway is Clark, Stella’s head of security. Once again, decked out in full riot gear and a look of anger across his features.What the fuck?Stella and her assistant are the next ones to appear in the doorway. The furious scowl that Stella’s rocking has fear skating down my back. The dragon queen is enraged. I wonder if Mia told her all the shit we have pulled in the last couple of days.Shit, Stella is going to murder all of us and make our bodies disappear from the face of the planet. I watch as Theo meets her fierce gaze with an unwavering one. That fucker has balls of steel facing off with Stella Stratford.
“Stella…” Theo never gets to finish his words before Stella slaps him hard across his face. The sound loud in the room and pulling gasps from Isabella and Raegan’s mouths.
“Grandmother!” Isabella shouts.
“Where is my granddaughter, you despicable heathens?” Stella demands, her eyes blazing like two sapphire pools. Fear like I have never felt in my life shoots through me at her hostile words. What the fuck is she talking about?
“What do you mean where is your granddaughter? She’s back in Manhattan with you,” Mateo responds with a look of confusion across his features as he steps forward, putting himself closer to Theo and Stella. The fear makes my body tremble and sweat break out down my back. Something is very wrong here. Stella doesn’t only look angry, she looks terrified.
“She never made it to Manhattan; we haven’t heard from her in more than thirteen hours, and the tracker on her watch has been disabled. Trevor was found dead with a bullet wound to his head in the wreckage of the vehicle she was traveling in outside of town. She’s gone!”
Chapter 49
Mia
“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” Maya Angelou
Myheadispounding,and I can feel the ground shifting underneath me. I gag as vomit races into my mouth, and I manage to turn my head to the side at the awkward angle it’s in and allow myself to puke.
Reality returns at rapid speed, and I realize it’s not the ground moving underneath me. I’m in a moving vehicle. I try to force myself up from my prone position only to discover that my arms and legs are tied together with rope. I try to focus on my surroundings, but all I can see is the dark brown fabric seat that I’m lying on and the roof of the vehicle I’m traveling in at what feels like a rapid speed.
I wet my dry lips and try once again to force my body into a sitting position so I can see out one of the windows and figure out where I am. It takes three attempts before I manage to get myself back on my ass; by that time, the light is quickly fading out the window, and the cover of darkness is setting in. It has to be past six and that worries me, Trevor and I left the property hours ago. I can’t see any road makers, just lots of trees and an empty highway on the other side.
“Good, the princess is awake.” The guy in the ball cap looks back at me through the rearview mirror. I can hear the amusement in the tone of his voice. This fucker is enjoying the horrifying situation I find myself in.
“Let me go motherfucker. I’m going to end you.” I seethe.
“Tisk tisk, princess. Is that the language they teach you at the prissy rich school you attend or back in Manhattan?”
“I don’t know who you think you are, motherfucker, but you just made the biggest, deadliest mistake of your life by kidnapping me.”
“Why is that? You think I should be afraid of you, little girl?” I watch as he smirks from the rearview mirror. I can’t see his whole face, just bits and pieces in the dimmed interior lights of the pickup cab.
“Do you have any idea who I am? Who my family is?” I struggle with the harsh rope around my wrists, pulling on the bonds to release myself, but they don’t budge, only grow tighter with my efforts. My fingers are starting to go numb, and I know that I won’t be able to fight him off when he removes me from the vehicle.
“Probably better than you, sweetheart.” Again this motherfucker smirks at me. His southern drawl, thick and grating on my nerves, and his lack of fear, causing rage to fill my blood. I wonder if I can get my bound hands around his neck and strangle him from behind. We might wreck, and we both might die, but I would rather that than be a prisoner of Vincent’s.
“My grandmother will give you a hundred times what Vincent is paying you. Release me immediately. In no universe will you survive Stella Stratford’s wrath for taking one of her heirs. She will have all of your family members wiped off the earth for harming me.”
A deep chuckle escapes him. “I don’t work for Vincent Saint-Lambert, princess. In fact, I hate that devil and have even been busy doing you a favor by removing his sick little minions one by one.”
Shock fills me. Oh my God, this guy is who has been killing off all of Vincent’s associates and minions. This is the other player on the board. We have been trying to figure out who he is.Why has he kidnapped me if he’s not taking me to Vincent?
“You… you’re the one killing off Vincent’s men? Why?” My words come out shaky, and I know he can tell I’m afraid. His dark eyebrow raises slightly but the rest of his features remain shadowed by the bill of the ball cap he’s wearing.Fuck, who is this guy?
“He tried to take a prize of mine. One that I am owed. I hate the fucker; he’s a slick monster behind all that money and I wanted to give my daughter a little revenge.”
I let his words sink in. Vincent tried to take a prize of his? Me, I’m that fucking prize. He wants to provide his daughter with revenge. Revenge on me. Dread fills me with his words. This man is going to hurt me, of that, I have no doubt. How the fuck am I going to escape him?
“Why did you take me? Where are you taking me now?” I demand, shoving my shoulder into the front seat and trying to get him to turn around.
He ignores my question and efforts to rattle him and turns on the radio, an oldFleetwood Mac song, Landside,coming on the radio. I’m fuming at his blatant dismissal. “Fucker, why have you taken me?” I question again, this time ramming my shoulder into the back of his seat as hard as I can. He doesn’t meet my eyes in the rearview this time. He turns up the volume louder on the radio and hums along to the damn song.
