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“Give it until morning. Damian will be nicely worried by then.”
Despite all of Zane’s shortcomings, Damian has been loyal to him. Damian deserves better than this. The more I’m submitted to Zane’s nasty tactics, the more he comes across as a gold digger. It makes me wonder. Has he ever been Damian’s friend?
“How long have you been planning on getting your hands on Damian’s money?” I ask. “Since you got out of jail or from before?”
“Tell her,” Anne says. “It’s not like it matters, any longer.”
“Since he shared his plans with me in jail,” Zane says.
It was a scam all along. That’s why Zane brought Anne to live in the house. It was to seduce Damian, and when that didn’t work, they settled for plan B—kidnapping me.
“How did you even find me?”
“It wasn’t too hard,” Zane says. “When Dami put out word to our network that he was looking for you, the information was bound to reach me. He may have thrown me out like trash, but we still share the same connections. I reckoned you only have two friends in this world—Reyno and Phil. Anne watched Reyno’s place, and I waited outside Phil’s. Was no big surprise when the two of you arrived like lovebirds in heat. I have to say, you made it pretty easy for me. You practically ran into my arms.”
I never liked Zane, but I thought his actions were born from jealousy. Now he fills me with nothing but disgust. “Since when have you been scheming with Harold?”
“Since you made Dami get rid of Anne.”
“You mean since your backup plan when you couldn’t get Damian’s undivided attention failed.”
“Doesn’t really matter now, does it?” he says. “It’s all just logistics.”
Not all of it. “Did you fall in love with him before or after he made his money?”
His face twists into a mask of fury. He lifts his hands, but I don’t cower. I push out my chin, waiting for the blow. I’ve taken worse.
Anne grabs his wrist. “Don’t. If Damian asks for proof that she’s alive, we don’t want to show him a bruised face.”
Glaring at me, he lowers his hand.
“I need water.”
Zane nods at Anne. “Give her some. You’re right. We need her in good shape.”
“Why me?” she whines.
“Fuck it.” He kicks my chair and marches to an adjoining room.
Anne smiles at me. “You better hope Damian wants you back badly.”
Damian
It’s after midnight when I knock on Phil’s door. He opens it warily, as if he’s expecting trouble. My instincts go on high alert.
“I’m looking for Lina.”
“Lina?” He scratches the back of his neck.
“My wife,” I grit out, suppressing the urge to knock his head against the wall.
His gaze moves to the lounge for a fraction of a second. “Why would she be here?”
Shoving him back, I walk inside and shut the door. If I need to get rough with him, I don’t want witnesses.
“Hey, man.” He raises his hands. “Easy. She’s not here.”
I scan the lounge. My travel bag and Lina’s handbag lie on the sofa. Premature relief and rage mix in my veins. I lift him by the front of his T-shirt, walking him back through the house.
“Bedroom,” I say.
His toes barely touch the ground. He’s tripping all over himself as we move deeper into the house.
“First door left,” he chirps.
The bed is empty. The second room holds only a desk and chair.
I shake him. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know!”
Something crunches under my shoe. The remains of a broken wineglass lie in a red stain on the carpet.
Dragging him behind me, I go to the kitchen. There’s a stack of dirty dishes in the sink and a wineglass with a red ring in the bottom on the counter.
Two wineglasses. One dropped in the hallway. I swear to God, if he put a dirty finger on her, I’ll hack it off.
I smash his body into the wall. “Where is she?”
“This is not what it looks like.” He cowers. “I can explain.”
Fucking coward. “I’m listening.”
“She came to the gym, said she needed a place to crash. Look man, I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but she was pretty shaken up. I couldn’t leave her there and I was anyway locking up, so I brought her home with me.”
I twist his T-shirt and slam his shoulders into the bricks. “And then?”
“We got here, and she got all weird on me, attacked me and shit.”
“Think carefully about what happened, because I’ll find Lina. When I do, your stories better match up. If they don’t, you’re dead.”
He starts to cry. “I knew you were bad news, man. I never should’ve let you into the gym.”
“Man up, Phil. Start talking.”
He wipes snot from his nose. “I gave her wine to chill because she was so strung out, as in really flipping, if you know what I mean. And I mean, a girl isn’t at a guy’s place to watch television, right? She was here for a revenge fuck.”
