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“Are you scared?” he asked, as if this was some kind of game.
“Yes,” I said honestly. I’d never been more terrified in my life.
“Good.” He gripped my chin and forced my mouth open before cramming the barrel of the gun inside. “I dare you to scream.”
Chapter31
Sebastian
Every worst-case scenario ran through my head as I sat in the passenger seat of the car with my eyes glued to my phone. Maxwell was behind the wheel as we drove down the streets of Central London. Belle had been gone for hours. So many terrible things could have happened in that time.
I was so glad that I placed a tracker in her arm. It allowed us to pinpoint her exact location as soon as the signal came back online. We figured they had transported her in a plane or helicopter because her signal was dead for about three hours. I’d been worried that the tracker wasn’t working, so it was a relief when it showed up on the app and led us here.
Still, I couldn’t get rid of this uneasy feeling. Every second that Belle was in harm’s way was one full of misery. She belonged safely in my arms, and I wouldn’t rest until I had her back.
I thought back to the promise I’d made to myself about never falling in love again because I didn’t want another heartbreak, but this was so much worse. My heart had shattered to a million pieces ten times over ever since Belle was ripped away from me. If I fully lost her and my babies, I would perish. There was no recovering from that. I loved her with every fiber in my body, and I felt like such a fool for fighting it so long. I’d wasted so much time, and I silently vowed that once I had her back in my arms, I wouldn’t take her for granted ever again.
I refocused on my phone. Her location had been steady since she came back online, and I hoped it would stay that way.
Briefly leaving that screen, I scrolled through the app until I got to the page that listed her vitals. I’d had to wait a while to get this tracker delivered, and this was why. I’d had it specially developed for this.
Checking her vital signs made a knot ache in my throat, but fortunately, it wasn’t as terrible as I had expected. Her blood loss was non-existent, which was a positive sign, and her oxygen level remained stable. This showed that she was still alive.
But her blood pressure was way too high. I could only assume that came from being terrified. God, just the thought of her being so scared made me want to tear something apart with my bare hands.
Maxwell turned down a side street, and I realized that we’d reached a much less desirable part of London, an area where shady shit happened and people looked the other way. None of the rundown buildings around us had numbers, so we had to follow the arrow on the app to narrow down Belle’s precise location.
We were close when Maxwell parked in an alley. It was dark and the smell of piss seeped into the car.
Belle didn’t belong in a place like this.
Maxwell stepped out of the car and surveyed his surroundings. It was still dark, but the sky was gradually transitioning from an inky black to a range of soft blues. It wasn’t quite light outside yet, but it was getting there. They took Belle around ten last night, and I boarded my private jet at one in the morning.
Maxwell gestured for me to exit the car, and I did, coming around to the back as he popped the trunk of the sedan. There was a black bag inside, and he opened it. He grabbed a couple of handguns and tucked them into the back of his pants.
“Load up,” he said.
I hesitated. “I haven’t shot a gun in a long time. Since the armed forces, but those men were the enemy.”
Maxwell raised an eyebrow. “And you don’t consider the men that stole Belle and your unborn children to be enemies?”
I stared at him for a long moment as he popped a clip into a gun. Then I took it out of his hand. He was absolutely right.
Pulling on leather gloves, we grabbed flashlights, and I tucked two guns into the back of my pants as well. Better to keep them hidden for now.
Maxwell took my phone and checked the location as we walked past two buildings. Stopping in front of one, he nodded. “This is most likely the place based on the signal.”
As the door opened effortlessly, Maxwell took a step forward and arched an eyebrow in surprise. However, before he could enter, I interrupted him by placing a hand on his shoulder.
“You don’t have to get your hands dirty for me. Finding Belle was what I needed you to do. You can wait in the car.”
Maxwell shook his head. “Getting my hands dirty is what I do best.”
As we stepped into the building, the darkness enveloped us like a thick veil, making it difficult to see. The air was stale and heavy, carrying the musty scent of a long-abandoned warehouse or storage facility. The pungent odor of urine and garbage lingered in the air, assaulting our nostrils and making us gag. The silence was deafening, save for the occasional rustling sound of rats scurrying in the corners, their tiny claws echoing in the vast emptiness of the space.
Maxwell and I were side by side as we walked through the space slowly, and I couldn’t believe my eyes as we peered into each room. There were so many half-naked women. Some were in cages, while others were sitting on the freezing cold concrete floor. They squinted when our lights shined on them, and I saw so many injuries that made my blood boil.
But no Belle yet.
