Chapter 65
I walkeddown the narrow corridor towards the sixth door on the left, just like Wolfe said. Looking around the club that is soon to be ours, I get an unnerving feeling in my lower stomach. There is something about Wolfe that I don’t trust. The way his eyes rake up and down my body when I walk into a room. Makes my skin crawl. I am distracted when I open the door on my left and walk into a white clinically clean room. I don’t remember seeing this when we had our tour.
And that’s when I see her.
Laid on a bed, strapped up and restrained.
Bloody and bruised.
My heart sinks in my chest, panic coursing through me as I rush over to her as quickly as I can to make sure she is okay.
“Oh my God Arizona, are you okay?”
I shake her gently, trying to wake her from her sleep.
“Ari, please wake up,” my voice cracks and I am terrified.
She stares, and it takes her a moment to open her eyes and realize that I am standing beside her. She blinks a couple of times, and that’s when I see how bruised her face really is. Both eyes purple and bruising, her nose, swollen and bloody, and her lips are cracked and split and covered in dry blood.
“Sage?”
I brush her hair from her forehead gently, minding not to hurt her at all, she has a Band-Aid on her head, and I’m not sure if that is from now or before she got here.
But I don’t understand why she is here.
Why has nobody come to find her?
Why have we not been told?
It seems she’s been here longer than a few days, and that makes me worry even more.
“Is it really you? Or am I dreaming?”
“It’s really me”. I choke on my words.
“How did you find me?” Her voice is hoarse, her eyes darting around the room in a panic as she looks for Wolfe I’m assuming.
“Me and Dex had a meeting with Wolfe. Do you remember the club that we looked out whilst we were in Vegas?”
She nods.
“This is where you are. We flew to Vegas to sign the paperwork for the club. I needed the toilet, so I excused myself in the meeting and Wolfe told me where to go,” I pause for a moment and just stare at her. She is a shell of herself. “But I got so distracted when I was walking, I must’ve opened the fifth door and not the sixth.”
She’s placid and dopey. Has he been drugging her? Fear prickles at the top of my spine and my worried eyes sweep over her body, her bump, then I am back on her eyes.
“Does anybody know that you are here Arizona?”
She shakes her head from side to side, and I don’t miss the way that her bottom lip trembles, her chin wobbles, and her eyes are filled with unshed tears.
“It’s okay, I can get you out of here, I’ll get Dex to distract Wolfe and then I can sneak you out.”
“You won’t be able to do this, he has eyes everywhere.” She sucks in a breath, And I don’t miss the shudder on her intake. I turn around and see the flashing camera. Shit.
“If you want to help me undo my restraints loosely and give me something that I can attack Wolfe with,” she sucks in a breath, “but don’t make it obvious,” her eyes skitter to the corner of the room before they’re back on mine.
I don’t like the idea of leaving her here, but she is right if I get involved in it I have no idea what Wolfe could do to me or Dex or worse, Arizona.
“Go back to your meeting with Wolfe, pretend that this didn’t happen and get Dex to call Keaton or my dad.” Her voice is trembling, her hands shake. “Promise me, Sage, promise me that you will do as I’ve asked, and that you will walk out of here and forget that you ever saw me, but please get the message out.”
I give her a confirming nod.
Loosening her restraints, we make it look like she is still attached to the bed, but she’s not. I pull out the bottom drawer of her bedside unit and find a mixture of silver surgery tools. My blood runs cold at the thought of what they’re in there for and it’s not even worth thinking about. I slip the scalpel into her hand, and she tucks it up the sleeve of her gown.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
“I am,” is all she replies with, and I can see the fire in her eyes. She’s got the hunger in her belly, and I know that she will not let him win.
Walking out of that room was the hardest thing I have ever done. Hated that I had to leave her, but she was right. I needed to get back to my meeting. I had already been gone too long and I’m sure Wolfe would’ve been getting suspicious by now. I gave Arizona one last look before slipping out the door. I walk into the correct one for the ladies room. Rushing in and out, I wash my hands and then make my way back to where Wolfe and Dex are waiting.
“Did you get lost?” Wolfe asks me and I don’t miss his snarky tone. I give him a kind smile.
Kill the fucker with kindness.
“No, not lost, just took a little longer than I expected,” I take my seat back next to Dex and waited for them to finish up their conversation. The paperwork was signed, and we walk out of the club hand-in-hand with a date to take over the club within the next three weeks. Wolfe follows us out and says goodbye at the door with a firm handshake of Dex’s hand and leans in to kiss me on the cheek. I stiffen as soon as his lips meet my skin, the way he makes me feel is indescribable. Lingering a little longer than he should, and I don’t miss the way his lips brush against my ear and I’m half expecting him to whisper something in there so only I can hear but he doesn’t. Dex tightens his grip on my hand, softly tugging me away. Wolfe steps back and away from me, clearly reading Dex’s silent warning, his eyes raking up and down my body once more, and that feeling of uncomfortableness resumes deep in the pit of my stomach. I hated walking away, knowing that I was leaving Arizona in that hellhole with him. But I promised her. I promised I was going to get a message to Keaton or her dad via Dex. As soon as I’m out of the club, I lead Dex outside the stuffy building and into the warm air of Las Vegas.
“Dex,” my voice is urgent as we continue walking towards where we parked. I needed to get far enough away from him.
“What is it babe?” His eyes bounce back and forth between mine.
I can’t help but look over my shoulder to make sure that I’m not being followed by Wolfe, and once I know the coast is clear, I stop in my tracks and place my hands on Dex’s chest.
“We need to get a message to Keaton,” the panic burns deep within, clawing at my throat, my heart is racing under my skin, it thrashes inside the depths of my chest.
“Temptress, you’re scaring me, what’s happened?” The concern is etched onto Dex’s handsome face, but I’m struggling to get the words out. I know what I want to say, but the sheer fear of leaving her in the hands of that monster is enough to cripple me with paralysis.
“Sage did something happen when we were in there?”
I shake my head from side to side, and I know that is a lie, but nothing did happen to me whilst we were in there.
“I need you to text Keaton and please do not panic when I tell you this,” I can hear the blood thumping in my ears, the noise sickening and my stomach twisting with anxiety at the thought of the words that are about to leave my mouth.
“Text Keaton what?”
“When I was walking to the toilet, I took the wrong door, when I pushed through it, there was a clinically clean white room with a bed, and it took me a moment to realize that there was somebody in that bed.” For just a moment, my eyes catch Dex’s as they bounce between mine, “Arizona was in the bed.”
I see the shock that masks Dex’s face, his eyes widening as the seconds pass, and silence consumes us for a second. His brows furrow, and I don’t miss the way he looks at me as if I’m telling him a lie.
“Are you sure?” Dex’s hands are on the side of my face as he tilts me up to look at him. My silent tears roll down the side of my face and his hands.
“I swear,” I swallowed down the bile that is threatening my throat, as I try to push the lump that has formed itself there back down. “It was Arizona laying in the bed, but she didn’t seem herself. She had bruises and blood, and she looked as if she had been drugged. She was in and out of sleep, and I promised her that I would get a message to Keaton. I have no idea how long she’s been in there for. I don’t even know whether they know that she’s missing. I mean,” I laugh, but I think it’s more of fear than hysteria. “Of course, they know she’s missing right? Especially Keaton, But I don’t understand how they’ve not found her yet...” my chest heaves, “they do know right?”
Dex pulls me close, my head resting on his chest, and I hear the sound of his erratic heartbeat racing under his skin.
“I offered to get her out, and she told me all I had to do was loosen her restraints,” I suck in a breath, “he has her tied to a bed, legs and wrists bound to a metal bed frame. She couldn’t move even if she wanted to.” Tears flood my eyes, my mind flashes back to the memory of Arizona, laying on that bed.
“All she asked me was for us to get a message to Keaton, and for me to slip something into her hand, so when Wolfe goes into her room, she can attack him.” I whisper the words out, because saying them out loud feels too harsh. It makes it all real.
“What did you give her?” He asked, concern lacing his voice as he presses his lips to the top of my head.
“I could only find a scalpel...” I pause and swallow the acid that burns my windpipe. “I don’t even want to think what it was doing in there, but I’m scared Dex. I’m worried for her. We need to get her out of there. Please, please can you text Keaton and tell them where she is. And if for whatever reason they don’t come, then we need to bust her out.”
Dex is already slipping his phone out of his back pocket, opening his messages and typing a text. Of course they would come, especially Keaton I mean the whole crowd would come for Arizona, I’m just hoping it’s a ‘we couldn’t find her’ more than ‘I didn’t want to find her’ situation. I know how these men can make deals for selfish reasons, and I just hope that Arizona was not at the center of one of them deals.
“The message has been sent,” Dex slips his phone back into his pocket and wraps his arms around me, enveloping me. “We will stay in Vegas just in case anyone needs our help, and if for whatever reason they don’t come, we will get her out of there.”
I look up at him, my eyes glisten with unsheathed tears, and I feel helpless in that moment. “You promise me?”
“I promise you.” And I know that Dex Rutherford never breaks a promise.