Chapter 26
James
Days had passed since Kazi called. Days.
James had gone half-insane. He fully regretted how he reacted towards Yara.
He continued to blow up her phone, but she still hadn’t answered.
He had even gotten so desperate he tried to call Kazi back, but no answer.
He was in an unfamiliar town, waiting on…
he didn’t even know what at this point. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore, so he decided to go to where he guessed she would be.
Mateo’s house.
It was a mile into his trip that he saw it.
The large black SUV swerving and weaving behind him.
At first, he thought it was a bad driver, but then he decided to test his suspicions.
He took an abrupt left turn down a dirt road with woods on both sides.
One the vehicle would have no reason to go on, and just a few seconds later, it was behind him again.
James’s palms turned clammy as he white-knuckled the steering wheel.
What is this? Who are they?
The front of the SUV rammed into him, disrupting his thoughts. His teeth clacked together as he jolted forward. He attempted to correct his car, but then he was clipped again and the wheel jerked out of his hands.
He tried to take control of the situation, steeling his nerves for the arrival.
His car spun and swirled as he was whipped off of the road and landed between two trees in a drainage ditch. His airbags didn’t deploy, even as his head banged into the steering wheel, the horn ringing out loudly.
Disoriented and discombobulated, he was no fight to the two masked men who dragged him out of his car. They threw him into a different black sedan before accelerating away.
Confusion, anxiety, and unease cycled through him. There was only one man he suspected would do all of this.
“Where are you taking me?” He attempted to remain as calm as he possibly could. Kazi’s warning echoed around him, but what was Steve’s angle? “Am I going to Steve?”
The men didn’t answer, but they didn’t have to now that the thought had come to him. There was no doubt in his mind who was behind this.
When the vehicle came to an abrupt stop, he clocked they were outside of a warehouse.
The two masked men remained silent, even as they yanked him out of the car.
James whipped his head around as best he could to get an understanding of his surroundings, but then they were dragging him inside, down a hallway then another through what felt like a maze, before finally coming to a stop and opening a door.
They yanked James inside.
James’s vision was taken up with the entirety of a man’s back he recognized.
Steve.
Of course it’s him.
Anger and rage percolated through him. Of how Steve had manipulated him. Used him. How he had now kidnapped him.
But why?
Steve didn’t acknowledge James, instead twisting to the side, allowing James to see past him further into the room.
The color drained from James’s face. His eyes welling in emotion.
His daughter.
Isobella.
He hadn’t seen her in years, but she was unmistakable. And she was here…tied to a chair.
Horror struck him in the gut as he tried to remember how to breathe.
“Dad?” Isobella spoke, solidifying everything he already knew.
“Isobella?” James attempted to escape his restraints, but the two masked men squeezed tighter onto him, nearly cutting off the circulation in each of his arms.
I have to save her. I have to save her. I have to save her.
Isobella was here, in the flesh. Yara had been telling the truth.
His entire focus was on his daughter. On how she was clearly in distress, a prisoner here.
But he still couldn’t understand what was going on.
Just that he needed to save her. He continued to struggle against the men holding him but it was no use.
And then Isobella’s eyes welled with tears, and his heart broke all over again. She was his baby who he rocked to sleep in his arms. She was his little girl he comforted after scraping her knee. She was his teenager he hugged and supported after a tough day at school.
His daughter.
“Finally, together at last. Are those tears of joy? I can’t believe your sweet mother isn’t here for the reunion.
” Steve snapped his fingers, and James dragged his eyes from Isobella to the man before him.
“When she drunkenly told me what she had done? I grew curious. How could I use this secret? Because that’s what it was—a dangerous and powerful secret.
I think I did the best I could with it. But imagine my surprise when I sent James to lure Yara back to me, and instead? He falls for her. He fucks her. He—”
Confusion spiked in James’s temple, what did Yara have to do with any of this?
“Stop it!”
James’s heart beat into his ears, pounding painfully. He hadn’t seen her before, but there she was, tucked away behind Isobella on the ground against the far wall.
Yara.
She was bruised, her hair chopped raggedly, her face gaunt. Her legs and arms chained to the wall. Depression and crippling fear wound their way around his lungs squeezing them in a tight vice. His lips pressed in a tight line as he tried to make sense of everything going on.
James flinched as across from Yara the wall opened up, leaving a glass pane he could see through.
Isobella’s mother was on the other side of the glass.
She looked so eerily similar to the last time he looked at her, except there was the unmistakable trace of wrinkles etching around her lips as she pursed them.
The woman was clearly unhappy to be there, waving her hands about.
But James didn’t care about her. Steve was her husband.
In this instant, he wanted more than anything to run to her, to throttle her and demand answers.
Why was Isobella’s stepfather keeping her here like this? Why had she taken their daughter and run? Why had she married this monster?
It was clear she couldn’t see them, though, as she kept twisting and swiveling her head erratically. She didn’t focus in any direction as she continued her meltdown.
“Well, this hasn’t been quite as amusing as I wanted it to be. Maybe it’s time to spice up the party. Isobella. Who do you love better? Your mom or your dad? We always have a favorite, don’t we?”
James kept his attention on the woman through the glass. It was easier to focus on than Yara or Isobella. The sight of them had nearly broken him. But his ex? It was ramping back up his indignation.
Nobody spoke, but even still, Steve continued, “That’s what I thought. I don’t blame you, your mother is rather difficult.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
James jolted as he watched bullets land in his ex. He couldn’t see who had pulled the trigger, but could clearly discern the blood as it expanded out across her chest and stomach.
James spoke sharply, “Isobella, do not look. You don’t need to see it.”
He swallowed down bile and fear.
He flicked his eyes to Yara, catching her gaze.
I’m sorry, she mouthed.
“Yara?” Isobella asked softly.
“I’m fine,” she murmured. James watched her lips move around the words “for now.”
Steve huffed and gesticulated, drawing James’s attention, and a moment later, the glass wall disappeared again, along with the sight of the body. Two of Steve’s men stepped forward, manhandling Isobella, and again, James attempted to break free of his hold, but just as before, it was pointless.
I’m useless.
“Since you’re a coward, I’ll just rip the bandage off.
Your mom’s dead, she was just shot because you chose your dad over her.
Now, time to say goodbye to your dad and Yara.
This will be the last time you see them both alive.
” There wasn’t any inflection in Stephen’s tone.
He could have been discussing the weather for how he sounded.
James watched as his daughter fell in on herself, as she screwed her eyes shut. He wanted more than anything to go to her. To comfort her. To wrap her up in his arms.
What can I do?
“I’m sorry!” Yara screamed. “I’m so sorry, Izzy. I love you!”
Her terror, her agony, her sadness.
They broke James’s heart.
This was it, his last chance. James kicked out his foot, landing against one of his captor’s shins, but then the other punched him in the gut, causing him to double over.
James grunted in pain at the impact.
“I will see you again, we both will. I love you, I never stopped looking for you,” James grunted the words out. He needed to reassure her. To convince himself.
Surely, they wouldn’t be reunited like this just to never see each other again.
It would be too cruel.
“I love you too.” Isobella held his eyes as the words left her lips.
“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Steve’s voice turned sour, and James attempted to lunge one last time as he swung the gun.
But he could do nothing as it landed on the back of Isobella’s head, knocking her out instantly.
“Take her to Christian.”
James was forced to watch in horror as two men dragged Izzy unceremoniously from the room.
My daughter. Why is this happening? Where are they taking her?
He turned his questions to the only one who could answer them. “Why?” he asked. “Why am I here? Why are they? Aren’t you Isobella’s stepdad? Why did you come looking for me?” None of it made any fucking sense.
Steve gestured for the men holding James to let go of him. Still, he didn’t move, acutely aware that going after Steve would do nothing.
“You know me as Steve. But my daughter knows me as Stephen.”
“Isobella knows you as Stephen?”
“No.” Steve shook his head, baring his teeth in a terrifying smile.
He spun, marching to Yara. She sunk further in on herself as he approached, and James couldn’t stop himself this time.
He was surprised when the men didn’t hold him back as he got between Steve and Yara.
Wrapping his body in front of her, physically shielding her from this man as best he could.
Steve simply laughed. “This is my daughter. My actual blood child. My precious doll.”
Doll.
The memory slapped James in the face, the way Yara had shut down when he called her that. Realization struck through him in a blaze of pain.
James finally saw exactly what he had suspected since he met Steve.
Steve was not a person, he was not a human being. He was a sociopathic monster with no connection to empathy or other’s emotions. His eyes were empty and void, except for traces of excitement.
“And why you are here?” Steve cocked his head. “That’s simple. I want her to choose.” He lifted the gun in his hand, pointing it at Yara before settling it on James. “Your life or hers.”
Yara reached up from behind James, opening her palm.
“That’s a good doll. I trust you to make the right choice and return to where you belong.” He handed her the gun, dropped a set of keys on James’s lap, and then, without another word, he left, followed quickly by the rest of the men in the room.