Chapter 29
I hope, for Kaden’s sake, it’s important. Jogging to my car, everything in me screams to get back to Mia. Stop being paranoid. She’s safe at the lodge.
I get in the car while my mind and heart war in an incessant battle. I am about to turn around when I push the accelerator and reach campus in record time.
Rushing inside, the door slams against the wall. They’re all gathered around the table in the living room, looking from their laptops to me with a mix of contrite and inquisitive expressions.
“Where is Mia?” Hunter asks, standing up.
“Why the fuck did you call me?” I ask Kaden, who looks me dead in the eyes.
“I didn’t.”
“Mia… Noooo,” I let out a wretched sound I never made before. It was a trick. It screams of a trap, and like an idiot, I fell for it.
Pushing both hands through my hair, Abi shoots up, her face paling. “Oh my god.”
I turn around, rushing back to my car. Nothing happened. She’s fine. I am in full denial, but if I allow myself to despair, I’d fall into the pitfalls of hell.
In the rearview mirror, I catch my friends getting into their cars and following behind me.
Parking, I run to the lodge with my head in complete turmoil. Every second I spiral further down into delirium. In front of the house, I come to an abrupt halt. The door is open, the lights are on, and I spot a bloody handprint on the window.
“Silver,” I cry out her name. My heart shrivels, withering away, hollowness replacing the organ in my chest. I am living my worst nightmare, one I can never escape or wake up from.
Pushing my lead–flooded body inside, I drop to my knees. Tears gather in my eyes. I have never cried until now, but despondency claws at my soul, scattering the lifeless stripes to hell.
I can still smell her sweet scent mixed with notes of orange blossom and amber. Lifting my chin, I spot the eggs and flour on the counter through blurry eyes. She was supposed to bake muffins. I was supposed to confess to her my greatest sin. While I didn’t hold out much hope, there was a flicker there that her love for me would look past my biggest crime.
Now she’s gone. I will never have the chance to tell her to her face that I love her. She’s the only one who makes me want to live and have a life with her by my side. I even saw a future together, despite who I am.
Now, it’s gone—just like her.
A commotion has me looking toward the window. Hunter slams his fist into the bloody hand.
It’s not hers. She’s in our bedroom, waiting for me. Yes, she’s there. She has to be. Where else could she be otherwise, if not in our bed, waiting for me? I can almost hear her call me in that sweet, playful tone. I would rush to her like a possessed man filled with animalistic urges, mad love, and obsessive need.
On shaky legs, I climb the stairs. Please be there, my life. Please. I never begged or pleaded in my life. I never even believed in a god before, but I still ask not to take her away from me.
She’s not in the bedroom. The bed is made because we didn’t get the chance to ruffle the sheets. Time stands still. Seconds or an eternity could have passed while I am rooted in hell when Bailey places a palm on my arm. “I’m so sorry, Blake,” her voice is choked up.
It’s hard to form words, but despair spits them out. She hugs my side, and I say, “I don’t want to live without her.”
She cries while my knees give out, my legs breaking as if they’re made of sticks. Unable to keep myself upright, I drop to the floor.
Bailey lowers to her knees in front of me, cupping my face. “I will find her. I promise you. Be strong for her.”
I only want Mia’s touch. I want my woman. I refuse comfort, knowing she’s in the hands of my madman father and his diabolic best friend, Felix.
“Blake,” Abi says softly from behind me, but I can’t look at her. I am not in control of my body anymore. It doesn’t want to function without Mia.
“I don’t know how to get through to him,” Bailey says through a wail.
Abi gets in my face and slaps me, hard enough that my head reels to the side.
“Wake up. This is not you. Stand up, and let’s get her back.”
She grabs my hand, her voice softer now. “Please. I can’t lose you…”
Too , that’s what she doesn’t say, but it hangs in the air between us, heavy with implications. Mia being taken has nothing to do with a fucked up initiation. They tried to kill us once already.
Celine wraps her arms around me. “Mia loves you so damn much, Blake. She deserves the best, and you’re the best for her. So please, let us find the woman you love and get my best friend back.”
“I love her,” I say and choke on the words. Like a fucking coward, I said it to her every night in her hair, on her neck, on her chest, and every inch of her body, yet never to her face. And now I might never get the chance.
“She knows that, Blake. Believe me. And we all do, too,” Abi says, embracing me as well. All three of them hug me tightly, trying to hold me together. No one but Mia can.
The thought of her snaps me out of this debilitating funk. I’m going to fucking annihilate them. And if I don’t find her in time, I will follow her into the afterlife. One way or another, I will spend this life with her or whatever comes after.
With my focus back on what I need to do, determination flows through my veins, pumping me up.
“Let’s find her,” I say, and all three of them breathe a sigh of relief.
As we step into the living room, Kaden searches around and says, “There is no sign of a struggle, so they didn’t take her from the inside.”
Dane picks up her phone from the floor and says, “She wanted to call you, but something else must have caught her attention.”
What could make her leave her sanctuary? Mia would not go out without a reason. She’s too smart to put herself in danger like that.
Hunter yells, and we follow him outside where he stands next to a body-shaped indentation in the snow.
“This one is bigger than my sister’s.”
I can make out three sets of boot prints and a smaller pair resembling sneakers.
“They used someone to lure her out,” I say.
“Of course my good intentioned sister would help others.”
“Let’s split up and follow the leads,” Kaden says.
Hunter and I take the trail through the woods that doesn’t add up, heading down the path that leads to the college.
As we walk, he says, “It’s a student.”
“And a girl.”
I slam my fist into the bark of a tree hard enough it drops a coat of snow on my head.
“She’s my twin, my other half, the better half, but if I can keep my rage under lock, I expect you to do the same,” Hunter says.
“You should hate me. I failed.”
“Blake, I don’t care about anything but finding my sister. Mia is in love with you, and I know you feel something for her. I never had a problem with you or your relationship, but I had to see how serious you were about her.”
“There are no more serious intentions than mine. And what I feel for her is more than love, got it?”
“Good. Now, how do we find out who that girl is?”
Mia needs me, and I will find her. With motivation injecting my veins, I call Tyson, who picks up right away. “I need your help with something.”
“You sound off.”
“Mia got kidnapped.”
“Fuck, man. I don’t even know what to fucking say. How can I help?”
“Talk to your lackeys. Find out if anyone saw a girl jogging in the woods. I am offering one million if the tip is solid.”
“On it. I’m sorry, man.”
No more than I am. Oh, Father, you poked the wrong monster.
“Are you sure? It’s a lot of money,” Tyson asks.
“For her, I would pay with my blood,” I say and hang up, going to the others. We can’t afford to lose time.
I am silent as Dane says he found deep indentations and tire tracks, probably from a van.
“I can search the cameras for vans that went through Greenville tonight,” Bailey says.
“We both know they covered those tracks,” Hunter tells her.
“I’m sorry,” Bailey says, and he offers her a small nod, no trace of animosity between them for once.
“I informed Cassandra,” Kaden says.
I glance at the lodge one more time. Maybe this is the last time I will see it. Because I either find her and bring her back, or I won’t return.
“Man, I know what it’s like when you want a life with the woman you love or no life at all, but if you lose hope, you lose everything,” Dane says, squeezing my shoulder.
I jerk my chin in acknowledgement, and he says, “I’ll drive, hop in the passenger seat.”
“You’re leaving Abi to be with me? Never saw that one coming.”
“Fuck off. It will score me bonus points.”
Not that he needs those. I would have cracked a smile like he intended under normal circumstances, but there is nothing normal about this.
When we reach the estate, Samuel lets us inside. He offers me a sympathetic look as he leads us down the hallway and into Cassandra’s office. She’s there, and Kaden’s mother has her hand on Cillian’s arm, who looks utterly wretched.
“I’m sorry, sir. It was my fault,” I choke up.
“No, it’s not,” he says and pulls Hunter into his arms, holding him.
“I’ll find her, Dad. You’re not going to lose her, too.”
“I can’t lose you either. Got that?”
He nods, but the look in his eyes is not truthful. He would die for her, too.
I won’t allow that.
Cassandra approaches and stuns me when she wraps her arms around me.
“I am so sorry. Maybe if––”
“You wanted to keep my hands clean by not killing anymore, but I am who I am. And I will kill them gladly. I don’t struggle with who I am anymore. It’s the corrupt legacy I was born into. You kill or be killed. Behind the fancy facade, betrayal has plagued the Family’s history. But it ends with us.”
She nods and moves to Celine, pulling her to her side.
“We can’t afford to get emotional. We have to act,” I say.
Cassandra nods. “We’ll get Mia back.”
“And we’ll kill Felix and Caleb,” I say, and no one opposes it.
The thought alone seems to motivate everyone in the room.
“I’m still going to search for the van,” Bailey says.
“Let’s narrow the search to only underground facilities and a hundred-mile radius,” Kaden suggests, and Cassandra approves.
My phone vibrates in my pocket.
Your offer made waves. Your account will be dented shortly.
I don’t fucking care. Bring them to The Cave. I’ll be there in a few.
I move toward the door when Cassandra says, “Where are you going?”
“To find out who helped them. Kaden can fill you in.”
“I’m coming with you,” Celine says. “I am good at reading people’s faces.”
Then we head to my car.
“What if we find the girl and she knows nothing?” Celine sighs.
“You’re not helping.”
“Has the Syndicate been in contact?” she asks. Even though she knows the answer to that, I get it. All of us are a mess at the moment.
“No. They will only if they find something.”
“If our resources and theirs combined––”
“Don’t finish that sentence. I’m barely holding on as it is.”
“Sorry, it’s just why not anyone else but her? She and Bailey are genuinely good people. Mia didn’t want fighting lessons because she’s such a damn pacifist. She wouldn’t kill a fly, even if it bugged the life out of her. She would open the window and wait for it to fly out—only for more to come in. Who cares about damn flies?”
Mia does. Because she’s precious, yet she wanted me. I will never understand why, though.
“She would only harm you if you take what’s hers and hurt who she loves.”
“I’m going to torture them before I kill them.”
It will be a competition in our group who will get to kill those two first. They can have Felix, but Caleb is all mine.
At least twenty people are waiting in line when we reach The Cave.
I let myself in, and Tyson takes us to a makeshift office.
“How does he do that?” Celine asks.
“I think the fucker wants to create a legacy within our legacy.”
“He’s starting to become someone we’re going to need. I mean, he’s our friend and has the skills we could use.”
“He does.”
“Bring the first one in,” Tyson says.
Someone knows what happened. That’s all I focus on.
Hang in there, my life.