Chapter Nine
VINCENT
LIVING IN DETROIT AND New York was too dangerous for me now. I had just escaped New York in time before anyone found me. I had given up nearly everything to get her back, and the money she owed me. I had no idea how my business was going, or if it was even still trading. I really hoped I could trust the people I had left in charge, but the money I was spending would have a serious impact on their daily business.
I knew I shouldn’t have gone to Hudson’s apartment, but I knew he had Ella. He had to be the one who had taken her. She wouldn’t have dared to walk out on me without the help of someone else. I was certain it was him she had spent the weekend with. I had lied to Nico when I said I had been told. He was right when he said that no one would let that information out. Mikhail was very tight-lipped when it came to who was there.
I had guessed that it was Hudson after he conveniently appeared at my apartment not long after Ella had arrived home. Why else would he do that when we hadn’t spoken to each other for years? It wasn’t because of the business proposal he had for me, especially when it came to drugs. He’d never had any dealings with drugs, and as far as I knew, neither had Nico. But I was sure he knew how to get them. Then when I woke up after taking the drugs he gave me, she had gone. That only led me to one conclusion: it was him.
She needed to pay for what she had done to me. I had lost my line of credit for drugs without that money. I was using the money in the business account to keep me sane. I needed that daily hit to get me through the day. Luckily, I still had a couple of contacts in Mikhail and Viktor’s organization that were willing to help and supply the drugs I needed, but for how much longer, I didn’t know. One of them had found me a place just on the outskirts of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, about a four-hour drive from NYC. It was the typical cottage you could find in the area, but it was out of the way so no one would bother me.
I knew now that my suspicions were correct. Ella was living with Hudson and Nico in their apartment in New York. She even had the audacity to work as Hudson’s PA, a job she should have still been doing for me. I had everything confirmed by my contact. The mere fact that she thought she could withhold the money that was rightfully mine and think that she could leave me… She was sorely mistaken if she thought I would let her out of my clutches.
I had a plan in place to get her back to me, to make her pay for what I was going through. I just needed to wait for the ideal opportunity to make my move. I had her being watched, and even the phone line was tapped so I knew exactly what was going on and when. As soon as my contact heard about the perfect opportunity, we would strike. My contact would take out whoever was with her and I would snatch her and bring her back here.
No one would be able to trace me here. The only connection I had to the outside world was with a mobile phone, and the only person who had the number was my contact. I could do this and make them all pay for what they did to me.
All I knew was that no one would ever see the lovely Ella alive again. I was going to make sure of it.