Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
COLE
I wake slowly, my eyes burning and my head feeling like it weighs a ton.
What the fuck?
Why do I feel like I’ve been on a three-day tequila binge…?
The last thing I remember was watching a movie on my laptop with Lana in bed after we’d eaten dinner with the guys, but it was too early for me to fall asleep.
I look to my right, only to find Lana’s side of the bed empty. Maybe she’s downstairs in the basement, working out, or she’s gone to class already? I glance to my left to check the time, only for my blood to run cold at the sight that greets me.
Sitting on the nightstand is a note and an empty syringe, right next to the clock that reads 5 a.m.
Lana fucking James. I’m going to kill her when I find her.
I pick up the note, reading over the words written on the page.
I’m sorry, but you’re the one who said fair is fair.
Yeah, I meant about what we get up to in the bedroom, not about fucking drugging me.
When Logan gave me what I needed to kidnap Lana that time, he gave me two doses just in case.
She must have found the spare syringe and used it on me last night, leaving her to sneak out of the house without me knowing so she can go and get herself killed.
Because that’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s gone off on a fucking suicide mission, but like hell am I just going to sit here and wait to hear the news of her death.
Nope. I told her I’d chase her if she ran from me, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
I jump from the bed, rushing to pull on a pair of sweats and a hoodie before I head through the house to grab my keys.
My mind is spinning with a hundred different scenarios about what she’s doing and where she is when I remember the tracker Dare and I put in her jacket.
Dare.
I can almost guaran-fucking-tee that he is on campus, and she just didn’t want him to know about what happened yesterday for this exact reason.
I take out my phone and pull up the tracking app to see that she’s driving, and that she’s almost seven damn hours away.
I’m going to strangle her when I get my hands on her.
I rummage around the shit that’s been dumped on the kitchen island, looking for my car keys, when a throat clears behind me.
“You won’t find them,” Logan mutters, and I spin to face him, worry and rage simmering in my veins.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I growl and take a step towards him. I swear to God, if he just let Lana walk out of here…
“She left last night.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and pace back and forth. “No shit she left last night,” I grunt, waving my phone in the air. “She’s seven goddamn hours away.”
His eyes narrow on my phone, and his jaw tics. “You’re tracking her?”
“Me and every asshole that’s being paid to kill her. Yes, I am tracking her. Now, give me your fucking car keys so I can go find her.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know what bad shit that girl is into, but you’re not in your right mind when it comes to her. Maybe it’s better if you just leave her to deal with it herself.”
My body shakes, and my vision blurs around me.
Leave her to deal with it herself?
Fuck. No.
“I don’t care what you think, man. I’m going after her,” I say, heading towards the door.
“Jesus Christ, Cole. You’re fucking crazy when it comes to this girl,” he mutters, making me spin around to face him.
And. I. Snap.
“Crazy? Fucking crazy ? Logan, I am so far from crazy. I’m insane.
Utterly unhinged. I am certi-fucking-fiably deranged when it comes to that girl.
I know you don’t get it, and I don’t think you could even begin to understand, but she’s not just some random I have a thing for.
I know you think I’ve gone off the rails, and maybe I have, but I don’t care.
If my life without her was what it was like to be sane, then I don’t ever want to be sane again.
I want the crazy. I want to be so psychotically obsessed with her that I bleed for her, kneel for her, live for her, die for her.
I’d do anything for her, and you won’t stop me.
” I end my speech, breathless and itching to get out of here and go find her.
I start walking back towards the door, knowing exactly where I need to go before I go after Lana.
“Well, then I guess I’m coming with you,” Logan grunts, and I hear him pick up his keys, though I don’t wait around for him.
I head straight to his car, waiting beside the driver’s side door.
Normally, he’d never let me drive his car, but he must know I’m in no mood for arguing over it because he just throws me his keys and climbs into the passenger seat.
“If I ever get like this over a girl, I want you to shoot me,” he mutters as I put the car into drive.
“Deal.”
Rather than heading straight to the road that leads to the entrance of campus, I drive towards the staff buildings, knowing that there’s a section partitioned off for the dean.
“What are you doing?”
“We have a stop we need to make first,” I say and climb out of the car. “Stay here,” I mutter to Logan and run up the path that leads to Dare’s living quarters. I bang on the door, calling out his name.
Dare answers the door in only a pair of sweats and bed head.
“What the fuck do you want?”
I growl under my breath before answering, “We need to go. Now.”
“ E xplain to me again what the dean of the school is doing with us, and why he’s dressed like that,” Logan says once we get in the car, waving to the back seat where Dare sits with his arms crossed over his chest, dressed in black tactical gear and his tattoos on display.
“None of your damn business. What I want to know is why you are here,” Dare replies, and I shake my head.
Dare realized where Lana was going once he had checked the tracking app for himself and arranged for us to fly there by private jet. It’s only a short drive to where the jet is waiting for us, and we should get to where she’s headed in around two hours, not too far behind Lana.
Apparently, my little menace is heading to the Richardson estate, a wealthy family that runs in my family’s circles, though our families have never had a close relationship.
What they want from Lana, I have no idea.
Dare wouldn’t give me the details either.
Whether that’s because he’s pissed that I brought Logan along or because he doesn’t want to tell me Lana’s business without her knowing, I don’t know.
I just know he wasn’t very insightful as I stood there grilling him while he got dressed.
“He’s here because he can be useful,” I say, looking in the rear-view mirror at Dare before turning to my best friend. “And the dean is here because… well, because we need him, okay? Just trust me.”
“For the love of fuck, please stop calling me the dean. Just call me Dare.”
Logan snorts. “Isn’t your name Darren?”
I click my tongue and shake my head. We have more important things to be thinking about right now. Like Lana’s safety and how we’re even going to get to her.
It isn’t long before we reach our destination, park the car, and board the jet, though it feels like forever.
Every second I don’t have my eyes on Lana feels like an hour.
After this, I’m going to handcuff her to me so she can’t go anywhere without me.
She’ll just have me trailing around after her, looking like the good boy she accuses me of being.
“Tell me everything you can,” I say to Dare once he takes a seat opposite Logan and me.
I’m grateful Logan came with me, especially considering he has no idea what’s going on, just that I’m walking into a dangerous situation. He came along because he’d never let me go it alone.
He sighs. “I’m not going to get into everything, but what I can tell you is that the Richardsons have had it out for Lana’s family for years.
She was well hidden until she turned eighteen and received an inheritance.
The hits that were previously placed on her family were still in place for Lana, and she was safe until her dad died and people started tracking her down here in Blackwater.
Two years ago, when her father was the head of my old…
organization, he used his contacts to get me the job as the dean of the school as a fail-safe should anything happen and Lana needed somewhere to go.
Riko was my best friend, and I promised him I’d never let anything happen to his little girl.
So, we’re going to find her, put down the bastards that are so intent on killing her, and bring her home in one piece, okay? ”
I take it all in, absorbing his words and trying to picture what life must have been like for my girl. Having to look over her shoulder at every turn, having people after her, losing her family, and then all of the shit I put her through…
God, I’m such a dick. If I could go back and rewrite the past, I would.
“What do you know about some guy who goes by the name of The Shadow?” I ask Dare, and his brows rise.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because I spent half of yesterday burying him in a grave in the forest after Lana killed him for breaking into our place.”
Dare’s already shaking his head before I’ve even finished my sentence.
“There’s no way. The Shadow would never be caught like that. He’s always been…” He trails off, his hand running down his face before he shakes his head.
“Fucking Riko,” he curses.
“What?”
He clicks his tongue. “The Shadow mainly deals in favors, rather than money. My guess is that he owed Riko for something, and when Riko died, that favor will have automatically transferred to Lana. He will have gotten himself caught on purpose as a warning to Lana, letting her know how close the Richardsons are to getting to her. Though I doubt he’d have expected her to kill first and ask questions later, since that’s not usually Lana’s MO. ”
That… actually makes sense.
“If they haven’t heard from him, they’ll be on guard for an attack from her, so security will be tight. This just got a whole lot more complicated. Are you sure you guys are prepared for that?” Dare asks, looking between us.
“I’m so fucking confused, but whatever. Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it,” Logan mutters, and I nod at Dare. I don’t care what I have to do, but I will be bringing Lana home with me safe and sound.
Dare looks between us both, his eyes assessing us before slowly nodding.