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If I’d thought my throat had been dry before, it was a sand pit now. I struggled to swallow, let alone talk. My brain couldn’t comprehend that this psycho had cut my arm.
The burn was like nothing I’d ever felt before. I bit my tongue to distract myself from my arm, but a low moan escaped me regardless. Tears pooled in my eyes, threatening to spill over. I’d never experienced pain this intense before.
How had I gotten into this situation? What little information I had on Liam and his family wouldn’t help them much. And there was no way I’d tell him anything, no matter how much my arm burned or my body wanted to shut down.
“Has your memory come back yet?” the chain-link guy asked.
“I… no.” I cleared my throat, forcing the words out. “I already told you that I didn’t pay attention to the security. I’m only Freya’s friend. You kidnapped the wrong person.”
He threw his head back and barked out a manic laugh. “You’re good.” He waved his knife around. “But I know you got close to the heir.”
There was no use denying that. He’d obviously seen us together. But that didn’t mean he knew how far our relationship had gotten.
“We only hooked up. He didn’t tell me all his secrets just because we slept together.”
“He’s never kept anyone as long as you.” He tapped his knife against my mouth, and I froze. “Ah, don’t try and deny it.”
Since I had no idea how much time Liam usually spent with his women, I had no clue if I had more or less of it. Removing the knife from my skin, the chain-link guy studied the cut on my arm. “You know, if you don’t have information, you’re only good to me as leverage. And that’ll mean sending body parts as enticement.”
I wheezed out a breath.Is he serious?
“They don’t care about me enough to risk getting me back,” I cried, the frustration and tears catching up with me, my arm throbbing. “You grossly overestimate my value.”
“We’ll see.” Getting up, he nodded to the guy standing by the door. “We’ll let them sweat it out for a few more hours. Then we send them parts.”
I trembled, my body going cold. He couldn’t be serious.
Jumping up, the chain rattling from shaking so hard, I reached for him. “No, please. They don’t care about me. You’ll be sending a lot of body parts with no results. That’s a lot of work. Wouldn’t you rather let me go and save yourself the trouble?”
Ignoring me, he left the room, his goon following.
Guess I only had a few hours left to figure out a way out of here. But for now, my legs gave out, and I crashed back onto the cold dirt floor.
Curling into a ball, I held my legs to my chest, letting the tears flow. The harsh reality of my situation hit me. I had no way to get out.
20
Liam
Gabriel leaned over the conference table that we’d repurposed as our command center. “She could be anywhere. We don’t have a single clue, and nobody has made contact yet.”
We’d been searching for nearly twenty-four hours, and there was still no sign of Quinn. I’d been tearing the city apart, but she’d disappeared without a trace.
Punching the table, I knocked over a half-full coffee mug. None of us had slept since finding out she’d disappeared. We were all running on empty and were going around in circles.
But while I knew we had to stop and rest, I couldn’t. If she hadn’t found out about the marriage contract, she’d have been with me. I’d have been able to keep her safe. Instead, she was out there on her own because I’d failed her.
Leaning heavily on the table, I couldn’t remember ever having felt so helpless. Maybe I deserved this. But while I might, Quinn definitely didn’t. And I’d find her. Alive. There was no other option.
Lifting my head, I watched Jude throw knives at the wall. “Have you heard anything from Gunner?”
Not halting his destruction of the office wall or looking away, he shook his head. “Not a word. If he had any new information, he would have called.”
I’d called Gunner as soon as I found out Quinn was gone. He’d already been turning the city over trying to find her. But not even his contacts had been able to come up with a location.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a feminine—and all-too-familiar—voice screeched from the hallway. “You let me through right now, or I’ll take that gun off you and shoot you with it.”
Gabriel groaned, and Jude finally stopped abusing the walls. All our eyes went to the door as Freya stormed into the office, her face a thundercloud, her hair a rat’s nest that she’d tried to tie up on top of her head but failed.
