7. Kiara
Kiara
At his whispered threat, my mouth snaps shut. I don’t know if he’s telling the truth, but I really can’t afford to test that theory.
I need to find a way out of this. My eyes scan the corridor, anxious for an emergency exit door or a fire alarm I could pull to create a chaotic diversion.
There’s nothing in here. We might as well be marching through a prehistoric cave on a deserted island in the Pacific.
“Good girl.”
Since he believes I’m cooperating, he sounds smug, and the roughness in his voice has smoothed back to velvet.
The sound infuses me with an urge to close my eyes and curl up on a couch like a cat in winter.
I bite my cheek to snap myself out of it.
“If Leo didn’t know you were missing before, he definitely does now,” the man muses aloud.
My heart leaps into my throat. Tears sting my eyes.
The emotions of the day threaten to choke me, so I abandon any attempts to speak.
“As long as you behave, I’ll get you out of here. Resist, and that promise flies out the window. You’re so close…you don’t want Leo to find you, do you?” I hate how his silky voice shivers across my skin even while he’s essentially threatening me. “You can relax. I know the way out.”
My pulse leaps. Can I believe him? Should I believe him?
“What’s your name?” He drops his head near my ear again, and the sensation of his warm breath tickles my skin.
“Kiara.” No one outside the De Luca estate knows I exist, so sharing my name seems safe enough. “Yours?”
“Rory.”
Rory.
Such a nice name. One more suited to the guy I originally believed him to be, not this current jerk version. It’s unnerving to talk to him without being able to see his face. If not for the vice grip on my wrists and his body heat radiating into my back, I wouldn’t even realize he was there.
I swallow my trepidation. “Why did you help me?”
Rory’s murmured answer is so unexpected, my heart actually skips a beat.
“I don’t like to see women in distress.”
“But you’re fine with restraining them?” I demand in the semidarkness. “Because that makes so much sense.”
His grip on my wrists tightens and loosens again, almost like it was an involuntary reaction.
But he doesn’t respond. And the more I dwell on this crazy situation, the more confused I become. If Leo invited this man, then they must be associates or allies in some respect, right? And if they’re on the same side, why help me escape?
What if he’s lying to me, and instead of getting me out of here, he’s taking me directly to my cousin?
Something in me doubts that theory.
Still, I can’t trust him. Not when he clearly has plans of his own.
I need to find out who he is. That’s my best hope of figuring out a way out of this, if any hope exists at all.
“What brought you here tonight?”
When Rory speaks again, there’s a smile in his voice. “I’m a humble art collector.”
“Okay,” I say, my disbelief evident from my tone. I’m sheltered, not stupid.
We reach a door, and he holds it open so I can awkwardly shuffle through.
“What, I don’t strike you as an art afficionado? Because I can assure you that I know who Libertas is.”
Bright pink surprise pings through me. Never thought I’d be having this conversation with my kidnapper.
“You…really?”
His voice softens. “Yes. Libertas is a favorite of my mother’s. She loves the art, and so do I. That combination of darkness and whimsy always lures me in and evokes an emotional reaction. I could stare at some of those paintings for hours and keep finding new things.”
It’s like I’m in primary school, finding out a boy I like has a crush on me. The butterflies in my stomach lose their minds.
Why am I so flattered? He didn’t say anything romantic or amazing. He’s literally making off with me like a bandit in the night!
But I am. Flattered, I mean. His praise renders me temporarily speechless, and my cheeks burn. Maybe I’m not good with compliments because I’ve never really received any.
At least, not from men.
He leans closer again as we enter some kind of service hallway. “What about you? Do you enjoy Libertas?”
“I used to…” The intensity of his eyes on the back of my head is visceral. “The work of Libertas meant a lot to my mom and me, too, once upon a time.”
Without missing a beat, Rory guides us to an intersection in the hallway and through another door that leads to an upward staircase.
How does he know his way around so well?
The tone of his voice changes again, deepening and becoming more pensive. “I was shocked to find that the artist himself was on the auction menu tonight. What do you think about that?”
Bitterness surges up my throat. “I don’t think human beings should be auctioned.”
“I agree with you there.” Still steering my body, Rory pushes me forward and we ascend the staircase, one big step at a time.
It’s like we’re deep in the bowels of a haunted castle, hoping to find our way out before dawn.
When we reach the top, Rory huffs a bitter laugh.
“Maybe we should have helped Libertas escape instead.”
Horrible irony claws at my insides. Fastening my jaw shut is the only thing that keeps me from blurting out something dumb.
I focus on my feet as we approach a large door. Rory reaches around me to shove it open, and I gulp down the crisp, nighttime air of early autumn.
We’re outside.
Free of the auction house.
Now I just have to figure out how to free myself from Rory.
My chest compresses. I pray Mae made it out safely too.
Except, I’m not sure “safe” is the correct word for my current set of circumstances. I choose to believe that I’m in a better situation than I was with Leo, but only time will tell.
The urgency of that thought sandbags me. The worst has yet to come. Once Leo realizes his cash cow slipped her leash, he’s going to freak out. If I don’t hightail it out of here, he may still catch me. Whatever Rory’s planning to do with me is nothing compared to what Leo will do…
The thought of Leo fills me with the urge to run until I reach the ocean and dissolve like sea foam.
We come to a small parking lot. Standing on the sidewalk, several paces away, are two security guards, one with a disfigured mouth and face tattoos, the other with crazy eyes and a cut near his buzzed hairline.
Our footsteps alerted them, and when they turn back and see us, recognition stiffens their posture.
My muscles seize.
They know who I am.
On instinct, I jerk my body to the right and prepare to bolt, but doing that only causes me to knock my head against the barrel of Rory’s gun.
Something inside me shatters.
Gun. Rory has a gun. And he’s pressing the barrel to my temple.
Hysteria erupts inside me. I could collapse from the stress if not for him still holding my arms.
“Not another step,” Rory calls to the guards stalking toward us.
They stop short. Face Tattoo touches a hand to his earpiece like he’s about to speak, and in the same nanosecond, Rory shifts the gun and fires.
A second after a small black hole appears between the guy’s glazed eyes, his body collapses onto the grass. A horrified scream sticks in my throat.
The other security guard charges us, but Rory fires again. Another perfect headshot. The bullet pierces Nicked Hairline’s forehead, causing the colossal guy to flop backward. He’s dead before he hits the ground.
The danger began and ended so quickly, my brain’s reeling from whiplash.
Rory just…he just…
He just murdered two men like it was nothing. He didn’t even let go of me to do it.
My blood runs cold, and my entire body starts to shake. When Rory’s grip on me finally loosens, my knees buckle. I slide to the ground, squeezing my arms around my torso.
Slowly, Rory crouches down so that we’re eye to eye.
I can’t tear my gaze from the gun in his hand.
Did he bring me out here to kill me?
“Kiara, I’m only going to ask this one more time.” His eyes glow with a dark, murderous apathy. “ Why is Leonardo De Luca after you?”
He gestures at me with the handgun, sending my already fragile anxiety through the roof. I’m babbling in seconds.
“Leo’s after me because I…I’ve stolen something precious from him.”
Rory grins a little, like it amuses him to know I’ve betrayed Leo in some way. “How precious?” One of Rory’s eyebrows quirks up, daring me not to answer.
I release a tiny, terrified breath, my mind slipping back in time to how Leo acted when he burst into my studio the other day. What did he say? I reach back through my memory to grab his words.
Fear rushes the answer right off my tongue. “The single greatest financial opportunity for this family in a decade. That’s what I took from him.”
“There.” Rory flashes me a radiant killer smile before jamming something into my forearm. “Was that so hard?”
My gaze drops to my arm. Some sort of tube sticks out of it. I think…EpiPens look like this. Terror quakes through me as the foreign sensation begins to grow and spread and change. In a matter of seconds, I’m tingling all over.
I’m woozy and weak and feel like I might fall over.
“What…is…this?” Why can’t I feel my face?
“Just a tranquilizer.” Rory’s voice sounds like it’s coming from another state.
No , I want to say, but I’ve lost control of my lips. I’m going to be drooling in a second.
Bastard.
He reaches for me, and I want to fight him, but my arms are as heavy as two tree trunks and every bit as coordinated. I slump into his embrace like a doll as he hoists me up.
Lucidity drains from me as quickly as sand from a smashed hourglass.
My thoughts slow, as if spread apart by oceans.
I’m in just as much trouble as ever, only this particular type of trouble comes in the form of a charming, unscrupulous man.
I was afraid today would mark the end of my life. Despite my best efforts to change that, my fears may have come true.
That’s my last coherent thought before the darkness eating at the edges of my vision swallows me whole.