“Nothing new there,” I quip before wincing when his grip on me tightens. I can only see his eyes and lips, but both of them are hard, his anger radiating from him. “What did I ever do to you?” I ask, forcing some lightness into my tone.
“Nothing personal, Princess.”
“As I thought. You’re just following orders, huh? And what is it you’ve been told to do? Come in here and mess me up a bit? Scare me? Hurt me? What’s the endgame here? You going to send me back to Daddy broken and bruised to prove a point? Are you working for my grandfather? Or maybe it’s my husband and my father-in-law you want. If that’s the case, I should probably tell you that Theo’s not going to be interested in what you do to me. He hates me.”
He chuckles as if he doesn’t believe me. Whatever. This arsehole can think what he wants.
I’m still not even convinced that Theo isn’t behind all of this.
My heart aches as my stomach clenches with hunger.
I have no idea what time it is, how long I’ve been here, or when the last time I ate or even drank was.
“I need to pee,” I tell the guy.
A smirk pulls at his lips as he releases me, roughly throwing me back against the wall. My shoulder collides with the unforgiving concrete but I refuse to react, to show him in any way that he’s hurting me.
“Look around, Princess. Your castle has everything you could need. And if you’re missing anything,” he grits out, taking my chin in a punishing grip, “don’t bother calling. We won’t come.”
When he releases me this time, I fly toward the floor, only just managing to catch myself before my cheek collides with the dirty, grey concrete.
“Arsehole,” I mutter as he marches away before swinging the door closed and leaving me almost in complete darkness once more.
A little light filters in through the cracks in the door, and after a few minutes my eyes adjust enough to be able to make out a toilet in the corner—and more importantly, a tray beside the door. I can’t see what’s on the plate—it looks like a pile of mush—but there’s a glass of water and I swallow, my raw throat desperate for it.
Ignoring my need to pee, I crawl over to the glass and down the lukewarm water in record time before staring down at the glass, wishing there was more.
My eyes flick to the plate which I now know holds dry, probably old bread, and my stomach clenches once more.
I fucking knew it was too good to be true when Dad said everything was going to be okay.
I knew things wouldn’t just settle down and allow me to go back to a normal life. I’m amazed he believed it as well.
Or maybe he didn’t and he knew this was going to happen.
Maybe he’s right outside this building, waiting to storm in to get me back.
Maybe he and Cruz planned this. Theo too.
Falling back against the wall, I slam those thoughts down. There’s no point trying to come up with some stupid idea that they’re right around the corner and planning my elaborate escape.
My life might feel like a fucking movie at times. It would be easy to get swept away with the excitement of it all. But the reality is that Theo could be dead at his steering wheel and no one else knows that anything is even adrift. That I’ve been taken.
Images of how Theo looked the last time I saw him flicker through my mind, and a lump of emotion claws its way up my throat. He was slumped over the steering wheel, blood trickling down the side of his face, his arms hanging limply at his sides.
A sob erupts as I think about the possibility of him still being behind the wheel of his broken and battered baby, nose-down in a ditch.
Archer and Dax certainly won’t be looking for me after what happened in the den. Although they might happily put a hit out on Theo after he shot Dax.
No one, not even a Cirillo, puts a bullet through a Wolf and gets away with it.
Another pained sob rips from my throat and my eyes close as exhaustion washes through me.
I knew that fucking smiley was a bad idea.
I just never could have imagined that I’d end up here.
4
THEO
I’m staring at the ceiling when the door to the room I was forced to stay in last night swings open, causing the space to illuminate around me.
“How are you feeling?” Alex asks, inviting himself inside.
I didn’t want to stay here. I wanted to get back out there and do something to find her, to help her, to rescue her. But after the vodka, and then the painkillers Gianna almost forced down my throat once she was happy I didn’t have a concussion, I was in no fit state to even leave the house, let alone drive or fight for my girl.
In all honesty, the painkillers have worn off and I’m in fucking agony, but that’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do today.
Flipping the covers off me, I sit up.
“Never been better,” I hiss as the room spins around me.
Schooling my reaction so he can’t see how hard every fucking movement is, I turn my back on him and start pulling on my clothes from last night.
“Here,” he says before there’s a dull thud on the bed behind me. “I brought you more clean ones.”
“Thanks,” I mutter, spinning back around and pulling them on instead.
He stands and watches me with his brows pulled, but he thankfully holds back the million and one questions that I know are on the tip of his tongue.
“I need coffee, then we’re leaving. I need to find her.”
He trails behind me as I make my way to the kitchen.
Thankfully, Gianna is already at the coffee machine and must have predicted what I was about to do when Alex came to get me, because she’s got two travel mugs ready to go.
“How are you feeling?”
“Fantastic,” I say, forcing a fake smile on my lips. “Thank you for last night.”
She gives me a sad smile before walking over and inspecting her handiwork.
“It shouldn’t leave too much of a scar,” she says softly.
“I don’t care about that.”
“You should,” Alex pipes up. “You’re already ugly enough.”
I glare at him across the kitchen but hold my tongue as he grins at me like a fucking idiot.
“You ready to go?” I ask once his mum has finished faffing with me.
“Yep, let’s go and find your girl.”
I’m almost out of the kitchen with my mug before he’s even finished speaking.
“Move your arse or I’m going without you,” I shoot over my shoulder, swiping his car keys from the dresser by the front door.
“You’re not driving my car, prick,” he shouts before saying goodbye to his mum.
“Whatever.”
Knowing he’s right, and not stupid enough to risk another fucking car accident, I unlock it and drop into the passenger seat to wait for him.
“Where we going then, bro?”
I let out a heavy sigh, knowing that there’s only one place we can go first.
I fucking promised her dad I’d get her home safe, and as much as I might not want to admit to the scary bastard that I’ve lost his daughter, I know I can’t put it off.
After all, I’m pretty sure I’m going to need his fucking help.