They could be Matteo’s men, or Christian’s. The least scariest possibility is that they’re Xander’s, I couldn’t see them chasing after me though, not like these cars are. Turning down an alleyway, I drive through two trash cans and make a sharp left back out onto a street. Headlights flash behind me, and I know they’re still there.
Slamming on the gas, I weave through traffic, nearly hitting three cars in the process as I try to get away from them. If they catch me, I’m trapped. It doesn’t matter whose men they are. I’ll be a pawn on one of their chess boards when all I want is to be free. Taking another sharp left, I peer over my shoulder and see only one SUV.
Where did the other… The thought gets lodged in my head and scatters like puzzle pieces shoved off a table when out of nowhere, the second SUV comes barreling down a side street. Its headlights are blinding, and I squint, trying to figure out what they’re doing. It only takes a second to realize they’re heading straight for me. The nose of their car slams into the rear of mine. My teeth clatter together as the impact sends the car into a tailspin.
Tires squeal, and headlights flash in front of the car, making me dizzy. All I can think is to run. With sweaty palms, I reach for the door handle and shove it open. I don’t think about where I’m going, only that I have to get away.
My lungs burn and my heart thunders in my chest. It’s almost the only thing I hear as I dash from the car and out into the street. Crazed, I pause for one second and look over my shoulder just as the sound of car doors opening meets my ears.
“Get the girl, but don’t kill her. I want to be the one to do that.”
I know that voice. Christian. Shit. I didn’t escape one crazy-ass mob family to be tossed into another. Forcing my feet to move, I start running down the sidewalk. I make it all of ten feet before a muscled body plows me into the ground with the force of a wrecking ball. The air expels from my lungs, and my hands scrape against the concrete as I try and break my fall. Twisting in the assholes grasp, I drag my nails down and across his face. A hiss passes his lips, but he doesn’t release me.
“Feisty. I like it.” The bastard sinks his fingers into my skin with bruising force. “Keep fighting me. I love it when they do.” The weight of his body disappears, and just when I think I might have a chance of escaping, he yanks me up off the cold ground and starts dragging me back toward the cars.
“No, please...please, let me go,” I resort to begging because I know what happens if I get shoved into one of those cars.
“I got her boss,” the bastard dragging me behind him announces proudly. In a few steps, we’re at the SUV. The door opens, and no matter how much I struggle against the hulk of a man, I’m picked up and placed into the backseat of the vehicle, beside one of the most villainous men I’ve ever met, next to Matteo.
The door is slammed shut, and it feels like I’m being encased in my own coffin.
“We meet again,” Christian says, his voice drips with anger, rage that is suffocating. It’s like trying to breathe underwater.
“Let me go,” I order. Like a cat, I claw at the door of the SUV, tugging at the handle, but the door won’t open. The vehicle starts to move, and no matter how much I will myself not to cry, I can’t hold back the avalanche of tears.
“Why would I do that when I just got you back?”
“So, you gonna put me in a cell again?”
“No, Dove, you’re coming with me to my place this time. I’ll let you stay in my room if you behave.” He smirks, and I have to force the bile rising in my throat back down.
“What do you want from me? I have nothing of yours… Zane is… we aren’t together, and I don’t know where he is, and Matteo wants me dead if you think he cares about me, you’re wrong.” I look up at the man through thick lashes, tears clinging, no matter how hard I try to blink them away.
A sadistic grin pulls at his lips. “That’s the problem, Dove. You think you have nothing, but really you have everything, and by the end of this, I’ll take it all from you.”
Confusion seeps into my pores, but before I can try and piece anything together, Christian produces a needle and stabs it into the side of my neck, pressing the syringe down and injecting me with some unknown drug.
“Night, night, little bird, when you wake up, all will be different.”
44
“If you keep pacing like that, you’re gonna leave scuff marks on my carpet,” Xander growls from his desk, annoyance lacing his words. That makes two of us. I’ve had enough of mob bosses telling me what to do.
“If your men would hurry up and find her, I wouldn’t have a reason to pace.” I pin him with a stare that’s sure to get me killed. I still don’t trust Xander, and I’m not sure what his real intentions are, but right now, he is helping me, so I need to really rein in my anger.
“They’ll find her,” he snaps before returning his attention back to his laptop. I have no doubt that they will find her, but I fear that it’s going to be too late by the time they do, and I don’t want to imagine the condition she’ll be in by then.
“I just can’t wait around any longer. I’m going to go look for her myself.”
“I already told you, it’s best to stay here until we know what’s going on. My informant gave me too little information to act right now,” Xander explains again as if I didn’t hear him the first ten times. Apparently, Xander managed to get one of Matteo’s men on his payroll. That guy called an hour ago, saying that there was an incident at the mansion. Alberto is dead, and Dove has disappeared. Whether she escaped or was taken is still not clear.
Fuck, I hope she escaped. If not, I’m burning down the world until I find her.
“At least check the surveillance in Dove’s apartment again. If she got away, she would go there, I know it.”
“It’s still pulled up on my computer. If she goes there—” He pauses mid-sentence, his eyes fixed on the computer screen. “She just walked in…”
I’m across the room and around Xander’s desk in two seconds flat. My eyes fall onto the computer screen and catch sight of Dove… my Dove, walking into her ransacked apartment. Through the grainy screen, she doesn’t appear to be hurt or really even frightened. In fact, she looks strong, like a queen. Her gaze scans the ground, looking over her destroyed belongings before moving up and right into the camera. She doesn’t know where I hid the cameras, but somehow, she manages to look straight into it.
It’s like she’s staring at me, beckoning me to come for her.
I’m coming, baby…
“Ivan and his team are outside and ready to go. I’ll stay here and continue checking surveillance. Go!” Xander commands, and for once, I have no problem taking his order.
Without saying a word, I’m out of his office and running toward the front door. I almost take the handle off while opening it. When I make it to the front steps, I realize Xander wasn’t lying. Ivan is standing in front of a fleet of cars, seemingly only waiting for me to get in. He doesn’t have to wait long, because the next instant, I’m shoving into the passenger seat.