Chapter One – Laina
This kidnapping wasn’t like that. In fact, when I finally woke to find myself tied to an old wooden chair in a small, dingy room that I’d never seen before in my life, my mind was fuzzy enough that I didn’t even remember the whole kidnapping thing. It took me way too long to piece it all together, to recall the events that led up to this particular plot twist.
I snuck out of the house to go to a party with Kelly. A college party. My goal was singular in its purpose: to hook up with a good-looking guy and live a little, something I was never particularly good at before. Rebel. Make a mistake. Do what I should’ve been doing my whole childhood instead of playing nice.
Why? Because screw my dad and his political dreams, that’s why. Screw Tessa. Screw it all.
But before I could seal the deal with the lucky guy, something unexpected happened. My Devil came, proving that he had indeed been keeping watch over me this entire time. He stopped me from sleeping with the stranger… by throwing him out of the room and taking his place.
By taking me as his, finally.
My Devil had given me no time at all to revel in it, however, because as soon as he took me, he abandoned me. He practically ran away, and though I tried to find him, I couldn’t. It was like he disappeared out of thin air.
I went outside, hoping I’d find him, but when I found nothing and no one, I got sad. Upset. I didn’t want to go back inside to the party; all I wanted to do was go home, so I called Mike. The man must’ve been sleeping, because he didn’t answer.
I was so caught up in my shit that I neglected to realize a van had rolled up beside me. I didn’t see it until it was too late. A sack was pulled down over my head and I was lugged into that van, where I vaguely remembered being stuck with a needle of some sort; a drug, maybe?
And then… I woke up here, wherever here is, tied to a freaking chair with my wrists pulled behind my back and my ankles fastened to the legs with rope so thick and tight there was no way in hell I’d be able to wiggle myself free.
Oh, and who could forget the pounding headache that was currently making me feel like I needed to vomit?
I looked all around, hoping I’d see something. Someone. Anything, really. But all I saw was a room that was maybe the size of my bathroom at home, the dirty walls made of concrete block and no windows. The stains on the walls and floor were questionable; if I had to guess, I’d say they were from someone doing an awful lot of bleeding. A single door sat in front of me, a few feet away, closed.
If this was my first kidnapping, I’d be freaking out right about now. Struggling in vain to tug at my restraints, trying my damnedest to get the hell out of here—because who knew what could happen to me?
But this wasn’t my first rodeo, and I wasn’t the same girl I used to be. I was actually quite calm as I took in my surroundings, the calmest a kidnapping victim could possibly be.
This couldn’t be my Devil. My Devil would never have drugged me. No, this had to be someone else. Maybe orchestrated by the same person who tried to have me shot at my first public appearance since the kidnapping, the one where Kieran saved my life and was now in a coma because of it?
If it’s them… if it was the same people, I hoped they got what was coming to them. Kieran, as much as he used to get on my nerves, didn’t deserve that. He—even now, knowing he’s in the hospital, alone, filled me with unease. Somewhere along the way, Kieran had wormed his way into my heart.
The notion alone was enough to make me close my eyes and suck in a hard breath. My Devil, then Kieran… the crazy thing was, they weren’t alone in my heart.
I could be a brat. I could say things I shouldn’t with ease. I hoped I wouldn’t die here, because I didn’t want to die without telling Mike that I was sorry for what I said at the hospital, after I saw Kieran’s comatose body. I told him my Devil never hurt me, that I made it look like I fought to escape.
The way he looked at me afterward, like I was a whole different person, made me feel like shit. And then I told him that if he said a word to my dad about it, I’d tell my dad that he tried to do inappropriate things with me.
A threat that, in hindsight, should never have come out of my mouth, something I did regret saying, now that I had time to think about it.
Maybe I just wasn’t a good person.
How else could I explain the fact that I was so intrigued by Fang—someone who made murder instruments for his own brother and made the queen of the criminals in this city a mask she could wear while she hunted for blood? He had two silver fangs in the place of his canine teeth, and he liked to use them. The man was weird.
And I couldn’t get enough.
Maybe my first kidnapping messed me up more than I thought it did. Not only did it give me a bit of Stockholm syndrome, but it screwed with my head and what I wanted.
Ugh, fuck this.
“Hello?” I said the word as loudly as I could, hoping but doubting I’d get an answer. Whoever took me made it clear already that they didn’t play by the same rules my Devil did, so I was all too aware I might not get out of this.
My Devil let me go, but these guys? Whoever they were, I might not be as lucky this time.
“Hello! Is anybody out there?” I shouted the question. “I’ll start singing Disney songs if someone doesn’t come in here—”
Funnily enough, the threat of catchy songs being belted out by me was enough to get someone to come in, and when he came in, the first thing I noticed was that his face was totally uncovered. The second thing I noticed was that the man wasn’t alone; a second man, much smaller in stature, had followed in behind him.
Neither man I recognized.
“Hi,” I said. “Can I just ask you a few questions? What—” I was going to ask what was going on, but the first man promptly backhanded me right across the face, hard enough to make me see stars for a few seconds afterward.
“We’re not supposed to,” the second man started, but he’s instantly hushed by the man who hit me.
“Oh, shut it. Like it really matters.” His dark, beady little eyes fell on me once more, and he bared his teeth as he leaned over me—letting me get a good whiff of his body odor in the process. Yuck—and added, “And you. Why don’t you shut the fuck up, hmm? This’ll go smoother for you if you keep quiet.”
My cheek still hurt, but that didn’t stop me from saying, “I’m just trying to understand—” But I didn’t get to finish that sentence, either, because again he hit me right across the face. I tried my restraints then, if only to remind myself that I couldn’t break free and dig my nails into this asshole’s eye sockets. The pain blossoming on my face would be negligible compared to the amount of pain I’d unleash on this dick.
I glared at the man who hit me while the phone of the second man buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen, and the look on his face immediately told me that something’s not going according to their plan.
“What is it?” the man who hit me hissed out.
“Boys out front spotted two cars. We may have company.” The second man glanced at me. “They might be here for the girl.”
“Impossible. No one knows we’re here. No one knows we fucking took her—” Though he tried to sound calm, he’s anything but, and I couldn’t help but grin as I watched the panic set in them both.
Was my Devil here, ready to unleash hell on these assholes for taking me?
But two cars… that would mean someone else was here too, so maybe it wasn’t my Devil after all.
“If you want to live, I suggest untying me and letting me go,” I said. “And if you want to die, just keep hitting me. When they see what you’ve done to me, they’ll make you choke on your own blood before filling you with bullets.”
The small guy actually looked like he was thinking about it, but the other man stopped him from reaching me. “Don’t even think about it. You stay here and watch her.” He reached into the smaller man’s waistband and pulled out his gun, shoving it down into his hands. “Be ready to shoot whoever comes in through that door if it isn’t me.”
As the smaller man took the safety off the pistol, the other man turned his glare to me. “We were paid to take you. My crew and I don’t appreciate anyone sniffing around, trying to fuck us over.” He stepped toward me and leaned over me once again, using his height to make me feel small, to try to intimidate me—I didn’t tell him it wasn’t working, though. “You better hope none of my crew gets so much as a scratch on them. If they do, the first thing I’ll do is come in here and wipe that fucking smile off your face.”
I took a page out of Kieran’s sarcasm and deadpan, “Ooh, that sounds kinky. Promise?”
He acted like he was going to hit me again, but beyond the door, somewhere out there, a shot rang out, followed by more shooting, and it stopped him from laying a hand on me again. He pulled his own gun out and raced out the door without so much as glancing back at me and the unimpressive man he left to guard me.
The man began to pace the length of the room, walking up and down it over and over. With every shot outside of this room, I could tell he grew more and more nervous.
“So,” I said, “now that the asshole’s not here, why don’t you let me go, and I’ll do my best to make sure no bullets go flying in your direction?” Personally, I thought it was a good bargain on his end, but he turned out to be more loyal than I thought.
With a shake of his head, he stopped pacing to stand beside me. “I don’t think so.” Though his hands shook, signaling his nerves, he still raised the gun and pointed it at the side of my face. If anyone else barged in through the door, the sight of him holding the gun against my right temple would be the first thing they see.
Hmm. Couldn’t say I didn’t try, then. I offered the guy a way out, where he could walk away from this, but he picked his side and he was sticking with it. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he chose poorly.
More gunfire out there, some shouting. Though the voices were muffled, they all sounded like men—numerous men who apparently got paid to kidnap me. One of my dad’s enemies, perhaps? Or did my dad want me to disappear again so his numbers could soar?
I did the only thing I could do: I waited. I waited for someone else to come walking through that door while I imagined taking the gun from the fool beside me and spinning it around, aiming it straight at his face and pulling the trigger.
I was a tad bit murderous. Go figure. That side of me had only grown as of late.
I hurt myself, so I was pretty sure I could hurt someone else. Inflict pain, maim, murder. My life, shit as it had been lately, pushed me to be this way. Mistrustful. Skeptical. So very angry at the world and at my dad.
But regardless of how pissed off I was, I could do nothing but wait. Seconds passed before the handle to the door began to twist, and I heard the man standing beside me suck in a quick breath as he pressed the barrel of the gun harder against the side of my head.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear but a blood-soaked man with nothing but a cold rage in his gray eyes, a man who flashed his silver fangs at me in a smirk the moment we locked stares.
Fang .
Wait. Fang? How did he get here?
That smirk of his made me feel things, and as he stepped further into the room, Fang cocked his head at the man beside me. Blood splatter lined his white skin, on his neck, on his face, but he held onto nothing; no gun and no knife, and it instantly made me wonder if those teeth of his got a workout as he fought his way in here.
“Are you sure you should be pointing that gun at her and not at me?” Fang’s voice came out low and deadly, his tone making it clear he still itched for a fight. “If I were you, I’d aim it at the person who’s not tied-up.”
It was true I should pay attention to the man with the gun beside me, but at the same time, I couldn’t take my eyes off Fang. The blood splatter suited him, made him look more than dangerous, and that smirk… I was struck by how much my lower gut fluttered.
Fang had a darkness of his own. It shouldn’t surprise me; I knew the man was peculiar, to say the least, but knowing he’d tear through men to get to me filled me with a sense of satisfaction nothing else in the world could.
I felt it, the moment the man with the gun hesitated. The pressure between my temple and the barrel lessened, and as Fang took another step forward, he must’ve decided it would indeed be smarter to point it at him and not at me.
But by the time he’d decided it, it was too late.
Fang moved fast, so fast it took my mind a few seconds to comprehend what was happening. He lunged at the man with the gun the same moment he swung that gun toward him and pulled the trigger. he took the man down to the ground effortlessly, the bullet having missed its mark. I turned my head to watch as he brought his mouth to the man’s neck and bit deep.
The man swore up a storm, and with a jerk of Fang’s head, part of his throat tore clean off.
Or, I should say, just tore off. Nothing was clean about the wound or the gush of blood that followed suit. Fang spat out the chunk of throat, along with whatever blood came with it, as he stood and kicked the pistol away from the gasping man.
All Fang said as he gazed down at the dying man was, “I told you so.”
The man was in shock, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his neck wound, but it was too deep, in too perfect a spot. Fang knew right where to bite to get to that oh so important artery that would let you bleed out in less than a minute if it was severed. You could see the man growing weaker and weaker as the seconds ticked on, and as Fang turned to me, I couldn’t help but feel a strange mixture of proud and turned on. Soon enough, the man was nothing more than a still-warm corpse, his blood pooling on the floor around him, adding another stain to the room.
“Fang,” I breathed out his name. “How did you—”
“Shh,” he soothed me, momentarily reminding me of my Devil as he lifted a hand to my face and gently ran his fingertips along my cheek. “There will be time for questions later, Princess. For now, let’s get you out of here.”
There would be no arguing with that… mostly because half of my mind was thrown back to that party, where my Devil finally came for me and made me his. What a night.
Fang swiftly moved behind me and worked on untying my wrists, gentle with me all the while. Once they were free, he knelt in front of me and untied my ankles as I rubbed each wrist. I didn’t understand how he was here, but he was right: there would be time for questions and answers later.
The next time those silver eyes of his glanced up at me, he stared at a spot on my cheek, the opposite one he touched before—where the other man hit me twice—and his expression darkened. “I’m sorry we did not get here sooner.” He set a hand on my knee while he gazed up at me, expectant and sorrowful, like he really wished he could rewind time and save me the pain.
I reached for him, and as I leaned forward, Fang did the same. Our foreheads touched, and my eyelids fluttered closed as I whispered, “It’s okay. I’m just glad you came.” I was seconds from asking who else came when the door to the room got kicked in by a muscular, six-and-a-half-foot tall mountain of a man holding a gun that must’ve seen quite the workout here.
Fang twirled around, leaping to his feet, ready to take action again, but his shoulders relaxed when he noticed who it was. “Ah, there you are. What took you so long?”
The look Mike gave him right then was one for the books. “I fucking told you not to advance until we cleared the room—”
“Yeah, and I elected to ignore you and go straight for our girl,” Fang declared matter-of-factly as he took me by the hand and helped me to my feet. I was a little unsteady, though whether that was due to the adrenaline of the entire situation or the fact that I was drugged, I didn’t know.
And hearing Fang say our girl gave me this warm, fuzzy feeling—a warm, fuzzy feeling that dwindled when Mike turned his hazel eyes to me. Though there were feet between us, not to mention a very protective Fang, I could see the fury in them.
Mike was pissed.
Pissed I snuck out of the house, pissed I put myself in danger, just pissed all around.
Then his gaze fell to my hand—which Fang still held onto, even after I was safely on my own two feet—and I began to wonder if, maybe, he was also pissed because he was a tad bit jealous.
“Why don’t you get all this sorted here and I’ll take her back to my place to clean her up? You seem like you’re… better at stuff like that than I am.” With a wink toward Mike, Fang pulled me along, and as we passed Mike, it took everything in me to pretend I didn’t notice the fire and fury in his expression.
Mike didn’t want to stay here and clean up, but at the same time, he didn’t say a word more, thereby letting Fang and I go on without him.
Still playing the brooding, pouting game, I see. He really was acting like he didn’t have me naked in his bed not that long ago. Course, that was mainly my doing, but whatever. The details weren’t important.
Fang knew his way out. He took me through a short hall, then out into what looked to be a run-down house where no one lived. The windows were boarded up, the rooms we passed full of nothing but bodies and blood now, no furniture to be seen. I counted at least ten men on our way out the door.
Ten men paid to kidnap me. A mini-gang. With how public my life had been lately, it made me think whoever orchestrated this had some pretty deep pockets.
We stepped out into the night air, and Fang brought me to his car, where he opened the passenger door for me and only let go of my hand once I was seated. As he walked around and got in beside me, I let my gaze linger on the house that I’d been brought to, knowing Mike was still in there with all those bodies.
So many men dead because of me, but that wasn’t what nagged at me. No, that honor belonged to Mike himself.