“You’d like to think not. But you’d also think he wouldn’t sign her over to an arsehole like me, and yet here we are.”
“Ah, something we agree on.”
I stare at him with a blank expression on my face.
“Why did I call you?” I mutter, reaching for my phone to get the others here.
I have no idea if they know something is wrong or if they just think we’re skiving school. I soon get my answers when I discover I’ve got a stream of missed calls and messages from all of them.
Even fucking Daemon has called, and that never fucking happens.
“Because I’m your favourite and you knew I’d rescue your arse last night.”
“Whatever. I needed your mother, not you,” I scoff, hitting call on Seb’s number and lifting it to my ear.
“Lies and you know it.”
“Bro, get everyone to Emmie’s dad’s place,” I bark the second the call connects.
“What’s going on? Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. Just get here, okay? And come ready.”
“You got it, boss. I’m walking out of class right now.” The moment he stops talking, I can tell he’s telling the truth because a feminine voice drifts down the line. “Am I boring you, Mr. Papatonis?”
I don’t hang around long enough to hear his response. Instead, I hang up and call Daemon back, knowing that he probably isn’t at Knight’s Ridge. And I find I’m right when he groggily answers the phone only a few rings later.
“Duty calls, man. Get your arse out of bed. Emmie’s gone.”
“Gone where?” he asks, clearly still half a-fucking-sleep.
“If I fucking knew that, I wouldn’t be calling you to help us find her, would I? Come to her place.”
“Fuck, man. I’ll be there. Give me ten.”
“Whatever,” I mutter, hanging up on him as Piper rejoins us, concern for her stepdaughter written all over her face.
“We’ll find her,” she says to me. “Dawson won’t stop until she’s safe.”
I nod at her, knowing full well that I’ll be standing right by his side until we have her back where she belongs.
She makes us both a coffee while we wait for the others to get here, but despite thinking caffeine was exactly what I needed this morning, my mug goes untouched on the coffee table, getting cold just like the travel mug that’s still sitting in Alex’s car.
One sip and I knew my stomach wouldn’t be able to take it.
The second the bell rings once more, I jump to my feet, racing out to the hallway as Dawson storms toward it.
“What’s going—” Cruz’s words falter when his eyes find mine in the living room door. “On? Why is Cirillo in your house?”
“Because Emmie got fucking abducted from right under his fucking nose.”
I don’t get a chance to blink before the motherfucker is on me.
His forearm presses against my throat, my back against the opposite wall as he glares down at me.
“What the fuck have you done to my niece, you stupid little prick?” he growls, his eyes darkening as I’m sure he imagines a million and one ways he could kill me with his bare hands.
My chest heaves as I fight to drag in the air I need while he squashes my windpipe.
“Leave it, Cruz. If it was Cirillo’s fault, D would have put a bullet through him by now,” Link states.
“I swear to fucking God, kid. If anyone so much as hurts a hair on her head—” He releases me just in time for me to finish that sentence for him.
“I’ll fucking kill them if anyone has laid a fucking finger on my wife.”
Dawson growls behind his brother as I say that final word.
Cruz’s hold on me finally drops.
“I know you think it’s all a joke. I know it looks like a joke. But while our marriage might have started as a farce, what I feel for her isn’t.” The words fall from me far easier than I ever thought they would have.
“I’ve fucked up. I’ve hurt her. I’ve let her get away, even if it was with you.” I look between Dawson and Cruz, knowing that they’re the reason I lost her in the first place. “But I care just as much as you do. I need her safe just as much as you do.”
“Doubtful, kid, but I appreciate your effort.” Cruz looks me up and down once more, judging me as I stand here in a pair of sweats and a hoodie.
It’s not exactly the uniform I prefer to work in, but I’m not wasting fucking time going home to pull on my armour.
“What happened?” he asks, nodding to my head.
“We were run off the road. I passed out. When I came to, she was gone, along with the car that forced us into the ditch,” I say, giving him the CliffsNotes.
“Who was it?”
“If we fucking knew that, we wouldn’t be standing here discussing it,” I snap.
He takes a step toward me once more.
“Don’t be a fucking smart-arse, kid. You might think you’re all high and mighty, being daddy’s little prince. But here, you’re the bottom of the fucking ladder, even more so seeing as all of this is your fault. We wouldn’t be—”
“Leave it, bro,” D snaps. “Fighting with a kid isn’t going to get us anywhere. You know as well as I do that Dad is all over this. For once, it’s not actually Theo’s fault.”
A smug smile tugs at my lips as I glare back at Cruz.
“So… shall we figure out how to deal with your daddy then?” His brows narrow at the sarcasm in my voice.
“Link, what have you got?” D asks, walking back into the living room and leaving the two of us taunting each other into a fight.
“It’s still loading.”
It takes a few seconds for his words to hit me, but when they do, I’m ducking around Cruz’s big-arse body in the hope that my suspicions are right.
5
EMMIE
My body trembles with the cold, and I curl up in a ball to try to stave it off. It doesn’t work, though.
Nothing works.
The cruel guy in the mask has never returned, and I’m not sure whether I’m relieved about that or not.
While he was here, he left the door open. After trying it more than once recently, I know it’s locked well enough, and I have no chance of escaping unless it’s through that door.
I glance over at it, willing it to magically open, to give me a small miracle.
But unsurprisingly, nothing happens.
Pushing my aching body up so I’m sitting, I wrap my arms around my knees as my stomach grumbles while the plate of bread taunts me from the tray he left.
I’m debating whether I’m going to have to just eat it when the click of the lock disengaging startles me.
Light streams into the room before a different guy storms in, his face also covered. But the second he talks, familiarity washes through me.
“Let’s go,” he barks out, reaching out and lifting me to my feet.
But despite the fact that he clearly wants me to leave the room, my feet remain firmly in place on the floor.
He’s not going to let me escape, so what horror is waiting for me outside that room?