30. Chapter 30 – Olivia
Chapter 30 – Olivia
“ S how me how you did it.” Damon barked, standing over me where I sat at a desk with a laptop. “I want to know how you redirected the money to your own account without us knowing.”
The Duke stood in the corner watching me with intense eyes that were burning a hole in the side of my face. I glanced at him as Damon dragged me into the office and threw me into the chair, and he was even more intimidating in full light.
But there was something about his laser-like stare that called to me. Was there humanity in it? No.
Kindness? Definitely not.
There was only darkness there. But it was a darkness I recognized.
A darkness I had fallen in love with.
The same darkness that Maddox’s gaze held when I met him.
The Duke, whatever his actual name was, was more than likely familiar with the same lifestyle that Maddox and Dane were. And maybe I could speak to that, create some kind of connection. But I couldn’t tell him who I was attached to, because that would make them targets.
“Are you listening to me?” Damon roared, slapping the back of my head and making my teeth clatter.
“I can’t feel my arm.” My reply was as calm as I could make it. “I can’t type if I can’t feel it. And we both know I didn’t move that money.”
“Stupid bitch.” Damon reared back and slapped me again, this time to my face. Even though I braced for it, familiar with his favorite type of communication by now, I still teetered on the chair, nearly falling off. “Lies!”
The Duke’s critical stare at Damon caught my attention, but he didn’t intervene.
“I only did what you said to do. Following your instructions, I transferred the money from the John’s accounts in small increments to the designated accounts to avoid raising suspicion. That’s it.”
“You stole it!” Damon roared, hitting me again, “I want it back!”
“It won’t save you.” I changed tactics, forcing myself to be brave and look up at the monster standing over me as blood trickled down my freshly split lip. “They’ve started the hunt, and they won’t stop until you’re dead.” I turned to face The Duke head on, “Your name is on their list too.”
“Who, your big, scary boyfriend? You just couldn’t do what you were told!” Damon screamed, his facade slipping from the power-hungry egomaniac to what he really was deep down inside. “You had to go and fuck it all up for everyone!”
A scared little bitch.
Mentioning the long list of men that Maddox and Dane had killed was exactly the right move, even if it cost me my life. Because judging by the look The Duke was aiming my way, he knew nothing about the others.
“He didn’t tell you, did he?” I addressed the actual power in the room, drawing his darkness back on my skin. “There are monsters out there that are hunting down the men involved in this scheme. The ones with a hit on my head. And one by one, they’ve eliminated them. Moving their way up the list to you and Damon. The only two names left, out of thirty-two.”
“Who?” The Duke asked cooly, almost like the threat of being hunted didn’t scare him. Although he was usually the predator, not the prey, he had probably been on that side of the list before.
I wasn’t brave. I wasn’t fearless.
But I had to pretend I was.
“It doesn’t matter.” I replied, “You’ll never see them coming until it’s too late. That’s their specialty.” I shook my head and gave a little shrug. “Your only bargaining chip is keeping me alive and offering me back in exchange. And even then, you might not survive.”
“Why?” He asked, keeping everything so short and to the point.
“Because my sister was in that car.” I glared over at Damon, where he paced back and forth. “And Peyton is the wife of The Ghost.” I used Dane’s nickname, eluding information to the man, hoping maybe he ran in the same circles to at least be familiar with his reputation. “And I have no idea if she survived. But if she didn’t, then you can bet your ass that the ground will open beneath your feet and swallow you whole. Even if my boyfriend spared you, The Ghost never would.”
The Duke’s face didn’t change for the longest time as he stared at me, but his eyes roamed over my face and down my body, where I sat behind the desk with my crippled arm and giant belly. And then a small smile pulled up one side of his face and my blood ran cold.
Oh no. No, no, no.
I misjudged him.
He wasn’t familiar. He wasn’t sane.
His darkness would make Dane and Maddox’s look like sunshine.
“You’ve given me quite a gift here tonight, Olivia.” He walked across the room and leaned down with his fists on the desk in front of me. “Because I’ve wanted Maddox Renner dead for decades.” He tilted his head, speaking the name I didn’t give, and I swallowed audibly. “I’m going to enjoy making you watch as I do it, too.”
He stood up to his full height as my heart raced wildly in my chest. The Duke turned to Damon, “Call the doctor. Get her arm set and put her in a room. We’re going to need her whole if we’re going to use her as bait.”
And with that, he walked out of the room again, just like before, leaving me alone with the slimy monster who made the big mess we were all in to begin with. The way his own smile grew made my skin crawl and my stomach roll.
I was so fucking fucked.
I f I thought getting hit by a car hurt, getting my arm snapped back into place without a drop of pain medication was even worse. The doctor had been friendly enough, but he didn’t have any drugs that were safe for me in my heavily pregnant way, so I had to endure it dry.
That was hours ago, and I laid on my side, cradling my arm over the swell of my belly because it still throbbed from the violent jarring of it being replaced. But at least I could feel it again. Which was reassuring.
And at least I was warm in a bed, instead of on the cold concrete floor again. In a way, I suppose the Duke was to thank for that. Though I didn’t feel particularly lucky.
I had misjudged him so badly, which was out of character for me. As I lay in the darkness as sleep avoided me, I replayed as much as I could remember of the terse conversation, trying to figure out where I went wrong.
Also, trying to figure out what I was going to do to get myself out of the situation I was in. Not even knowing where I was didn’t help. There were no windows in the van that Damon used to kidnap me and all I knew was that we were still in the city somewhere, but I had no clue where.
Confined within the windowless room, a sense of claustrophobia pressed in, broken only by the faint smell of damp plaster. It was just four walls and a bed with a thin blanket and one flat pillow.
The longer I laid in the dark, the more times I replayed the crash in my head. Peyton’s screams tore my heart to shreds as I remembered the way she didn’t even seem to notice the metal and debris impaling her while trying to get me to leave her behind.
“Please, God. Let her be alive.” I cried quietly as my shoulders shook with sobs. “Please let her survive this.”
As if a lightbulb clicked on in my head, I remembered her last words to me before someone ripped me from the car.
Fishing in the cup of my bra, I found the forgotten gold bracelet that she had forced down my shirt as the men surrounded us.
Pulling it out and holding it up in the tiny sliver of light from under the door, I ran my thumb over the glowing eyes on the skull jewel in the center.
Take this, it’s your only chance. They’ll find you from it.
Was there something in the bracelet that Dane gave to her that would help them find me? If so, why the fuck was I still laying in the icy darkness? Did they leave me in captivity because of what happened to Peyton? Was she dead, and this was my punishment?
Would Dane do that? Yes.
And I’d deserve it.
But Maddox—would he abandon me? I tucked the bracelet back into my shirt and rubbed my hand over a spot on my belly where my baby was pushing hard as more tears fell from my eyes. Into the fear of the unknown, they fell. They fell for the pain I’d endured and what was yet to come my way. They fell for the loss I felt being away from the literal love of my life, not knowing if I’d ever see him again.
Maddox had promised me he’d be there for me for the rest of my life, yet now I was alone. Our baby was alone.
And it was my fault.
The turning of the lock startled me upright as the sliver of light from the hallway grew as the door opened, revealing an ominous shadow blocking the big doorway.
The Duke.
He flicked a switch outside of the room, bathing the room in the harsh light from a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling above me and I squinted my eyes, but refused to close them as he entered the small space.
He carried a folding chair in with him and stared at me as he shook his arm out and opened the chair before silently lowering his massive frame down onto it.
I swiped at the tears still clinging to my cheeks and swung my feet off the side of the bed to face him, unwilling to be a submissive victim lying down as I stared at the man who pulled the rug out from under me earlier.
Neither of us spoke, simply staring at each other for a long time like we were stuck in some weird power struggle, and the first one to break the silence would lose.
He pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it up, leaning back in the chair, staring at me with judging, scrutinizing eyes before he finally broke his silence.
“Why did you tell me about the list?”
I raised one eyebrow at him in outright surprise. Out of everything he could have said, I wasn’t expecting that. Mentally, I was playing chess with the man. If I could figure out how to play his game to my benefit, I might stay alive long enough to give Maddox a chance to rescue me. Which was what I was betting on, doubt be damned.
I trusted Maddox. I told him that, and I had to believe it.
“Because Damon is a rat.” I replied with indifference, even though I felt those words to my very core. “And the things I heard about you from the girls made me believe maybe there was something honorable about you.”
He grinned slightly, but it wasn’t friendly. “You tempted your fate based on gossip of whores who like the way I fuck them?” Blowing out a puff of smoke, he shook his head. “I heard you were smarter than that.”
“From Damon?” I scoffed, “I guess we both ended up disappointed in each other’s character in the end.”
“No,” He squinted his eyes, “Not from Damon.” He took another drag off his cigarette and I fought the urge to tell him to stop blowing his cancer stick at me but refrained. “From your sister.”
My blood ran cold as I stared at the mysterious man, “You spoke to her?”
He grinned again and took another drag and blew it out before speaking, though he ignored my question. “It wasn’t just gossip from prostitutes that made you take that chance to get into my good graces. Tell me what it really was.”
I curled my hands into fists at my side as he avoided what I needed to know the most, reminding me who was in the position of power, and who was at the mercy of the other.
“Your darkness.” I replied stupidly, desperate to hear about Peyton. “The evil in your eyes. It’s familiar.”
“To whom?” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees to stare at me powerfully. “To your precious Maddox Renner?” His eyes fell to my stomach and then came back up to my face. “That’s Damon’s baby though.”
My hands splayed out over my stomach, covering as much of it as I could over the thin fabric of my black sweater. “To Dane.” I replied, trying to turn the conversation away from Maddox, considering The Duke already told me he planned to use me to fulfill his blood thirst for Maddox’s life.
The man in front of me was a psychopath, I was sure. But as he stared at me as I spoke Dane’s name, he gave me a sign that there was something deeper in his soul than he wanted me to know as a muscle in his tense jaw twitched.
“The Ghost.” He replied, leaning back in his chair, but some of the menace in his eyes left his bright blue eyes as he stared at me.
“Dane.” I corrected again, given that he seemed to be triggered somehow by my brother-in-law’s actual name. “He’s a fucked-up monster who runs by no moral code and does whatever he wants to do without a second thought.” I sat up straighter and looked down my nose at him slightly, “That’s what I recognized in your eyes.”
“And you thought to align yourself to a monster like that?” He challenged, “You must be pretty desperate.”
That pissed me off, and I envisioned Maddox cutting his heart out with his knife and holding it in his hands, still beating, as he handed it to me for the disrespect.
“Less desperate than you are.” I lobbed back, no longer worried about my life or my soul. I was desperate, that was obvious. But I was also anything but a pushover. And the man before me wouldn’t scare me or bully me with his callous words. “I may or may not die at the end of this.” I shrugged, “That’s obviously not something I can change at this point. But I know for a fact that you’re just a normal man with a big wallet, walking around on borrowed time. Because you’re going to die for sure at the end of this nightmare. The only thing that changes is the how.”
The fucker in front of me smiled again and leaned over to snub his cigarette out on the floor before standing up, towering over me. “Is the baby okay from the crash?”
His question caught me so off guard, I had no sarcastic or snarky response to give him as my hands clung tighter to my stomach, staring up at the man. “I don’t know.”
The Duke’s blue eyes fell to my stomach and his head angled to the side. “I’ll have a baby doctor here in the morning to check.”
“Why?” I squinted back in speculation, wondering why he even cared to be kind.
He shrugged, walking toward the door as he slid his hand into his slacks pocket. “Because if it’s dead inside of you, then your value to Maddox and Dane goes down.” If I had something nearby to throw at his skull, I would have. But he was lucky the room was bare of projectiles, because I was just manic enough to try. “Oh, and Little Hacker?” He turned, using a stupid nickname that the girls from the Velvet Cage had given to me when we interacted. “Don’t tell Damon about this little visit. Better yet, refrain from speaking to him as much as possible.”
“Why?” I repeated, hating how he seemed to have all the answers but gave me only crumbs to survive off.
“My chances of getting you and your baby out of here alive dwindle every time you raise that scumbag’s temper. Which you do often.” He gave me a pointed stare. “Be a good girl, and I’ll get you home before you do something stupid like go into labor.”
As he walked back out of the door and locked it behind him again, I sank back onto the bed as the same back ache pain I’d been having on and off hit me like a brick. “You’d better move fast then.” I whispered into the darkness around me as I tried to figure out the secretive man’s motive for literally anything.