15. Astrid
Chapter 15
Astrid
I was dead asleep when my phone started to ring on the nightstand.
I fumbled for it in the dark, wanting to turn it off before it woke up Theo. I finally found the button and rejected the call so the ringing would stop. The screen was still lit up, but my vision was blurry so I couldn’t read it.
I immediately checked the bed beside me and hoped Theo was still asleep.
He wasn’t there.
His phone was gone from his nightstand, which meant he wasn’t in the bathroom.
I panicked and grabbed my phone, wondering if he’d been the one who called.
I fumbled with my phone, and it started to ring again .
It was Bolton.
I sat upright and searched the darkness for Theo, hoping he would appear from the shadows and tell me what to do. But he wasn’t there…and something told me that wasn’t a coincidence.
I took the call and put the phone to my ear, the light from the screen bright against the side of my face. All I did was breathe because I couldn’t speak, the sleep still heavy in my eyes, my mind still fuzzy.
“Sorry to wake you, baby.”
I wanted to hear Theo’s voice, not his, not the voice of the man who’d ruined my life. “What do you want, Bolton?” My voice came out stronger than I expected it to. A fire sparked inside me and masked the terror.
“You’re the one who wants something—and I have it.”
My heart dropped like a stone from a cliff.
Bolton spoke to someone in the background. “Anything you want to say to your girlfriend?”
My hand went to my mouth to silence my gasp. Tears started to bubble behind my eyes because I was scared, really fucking scared.
Theo’s voice was audible in the background. “Don’t do it, sweetheart.” He spoke calmly, like he wasn’t in pain, like there wasn’t a knife to his throat or a gun to his temple. “Don’t fucking do it. ”
Bolton came back to the phone. “Come back to me, and I’ll let him go. Don’t come back…and he dies.”
“He’s full of shit, Astrid—” Theo released a muffled breath as if he’d been punched in the stomach.
Bolton’s movements were audible, like he took himself to another room. “What’s it going to be, baby?”
If I went back, I would be a prisoner once again. Life would be unbearable, and I’d probably take my own life just to get out of it. But I’d die without Theo. Die if something happened to him…because of me. I suspected Bolton might kill Theo right in front of me once I arrived, so I had to provide a reason for him not to. “Okay.”
Bolton was quiet, like he hadn’t heard what I’d said.
“Where?”
He was quiet again, like he needed a moment to accept my decision. “My guys will pick you up outside. Wait at the curb.” He hung up.
I walked past Theo’s security and willingly got into the dark van that pulled up to the street. After they patted me down, I sat in the back seat alone while the guys sat in the front seats. We drove in silence. The radio wasn’t even on.
It was a long drive. Over an hour. We left Florence and headed into the countryside. I wanted to call Axel again. I’d called before I left the house, and he didn’t answer. I’d called Scarlett too, but she didn’t pick up.
I hoped they weren’t involved in this.
After an hour of heart palpitations, we pulled up to the Tuscan house we used in the summertime. It had a pool that overlooked the olive trees. I’d had a lot of good memories of this place, but now they were erased by this horrible night.
They opened the door for me, and I headed into the house through the terrace entrance. The lights were hung across the patio with the fountain in the center, where we’d had breakfast in the mornings. His guys opened the double doors, and I entered the foyer and then the sitting room.
My eyes went to Theo first, who stood there with his wrists secured behind his back.
His dark eyes looked at me, giving a reaction so subtle, no one else would notice it. But the rest of him was hard and pragmatic, like I was another one of his men who’d entered.
Bolton was in the armchair, a handgun on the table beside him. “Glad you could join us, baby.” He got to his feet and came within a few feet of me.
Looking into his blue eyes, I could honestly say I’d never hated anyone as much as I hated this man. That if I had a gun in my hand, I would shoot him between the eyes without a single pause .
He turned away, moving toward the table where he’d left his gun.
The guys against the wall behind Bolton watched Theo, all of them holding handguns so they could shoot him if he tried to do anything.
I didn’t know the man I married when I’d married him. But I knew him now. I knew exactly what he was about to do when he turned away. Grab that gun and shoot Theo right between the eyes for me to watch. “I missed you.” It took all my strength to say the words like I meant them, to ignore the way they made me physically sick, but I did it because I had to.
Bolton paused before he turned back to me, like he expected me to say those words to Theo instead of him.
But I only stared at Bolton, and I had no idea what Theo’s reaction was.
“I wish none of this had happened,” I said. “I wish we could go back in time and just…redo everything.”
Bolton stared into my eyes with a hard gaze, his thoughts difficult to decipher.
“I want to try again.” The bile rose from my stomach up my throat. I already felt trapped. Already felt suffocated.
“You do?” he asked, his voice sharp like he didn’t quite believe me.
“I do. But only if you let Theo go. ”
His mouth hardened at my request, the disappointment hot like flames in his eyes. “If I let him go?—”
“If you don’t let him go, then I’ll just be your prisoner like last time. And we both remember how that went. If you want me to actually try to make this marriage work, then Theo needs to live. Because if he dies, then I’ll die too. You’ll have to watch me every second of the day, because the moment I see an opportunity to end it forever, I’ll take it. But if you let him live…I’ll try. I’ll really try. We can move and start over somewhere new. You can leave the Brotherhood, and we can start a new life. Have a family. But I can’t do that if you kill him.”
Bolton continued his steady stare. Slowly, it softened, like he was tempted. The silence trickled by, growing heavier by the second.
I didn’t mean a word I said, but I needed to make it so genuine that even Theo believed it. Because that was the only way he would walk out of here alive.
Bolton gave a quiet sigh. “You’ll try?”
“Yes—”
“Then prove it.”
The hope I felt immediately dwindled.
“Prove it right now.”
“How?”
“Kiss me. And kiss me like you fucking mean it. ”
Disgust filled my insides, along with betrayal. The only man I wanted for the rest of my life was Theo. He knew I loved him…because I’d said it more times than I should have, said it even though I knew he wouldn’t say it back. This was all a fa?ade and he knew that, but I still felt like shit for doing it.
I sucked it up.
I stepped up to Bolton, closed my eyes, and the second my mouth was on his, I pretended that he was Theo. That we were at home in his bedroom, that we’d just walked in after a nice dinner at his restaurant. His big arms held me to his chest, and he smothered me with his warmth. My mind made it feel real because it had to. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to give the performance of a lifetime.
I pulled away first, and when my eyes opened, I saw the man I hated. All the heat I’d felt for the man behind me was gone at the sight of Bolton. But I knew I’d done my job because he looked at me the way he had before…like he loved me.
“Wait two hours, then drop him off,” Bolton said to his men.
Oh my god, I did it.
Bolton turned to look at Theo.
Theo had turned the other way so he didn’t have to watch the horror show. He kept his eyes averted.
“I took Scarlett as a sign of mercy. ”
Theo’s eyes flicked back to him.
“But if you try to come after Astrid again, I’ll take the kids.” He stepped toward me and grabbed my hand.
I let him. And it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.
My eyes met Theo’s.
His met mine.
The look only lasted a second, but it was the most painful second of my life. I hoped he would forgive me for what I’d done, would understand it was a sacrifice I had to make to keep him alive. This situation was always going to end this way, with me stuck with Bolton. So I’d rather it end with Theo alive…instead of dead.