2. Domenic
Chapter 2
Domenic
It’s been hours since we realized Mackenzie was missing.
I keep going over everything that happened, analyzing every moment, wishing we’d done something differently. We should have insisted she come into the changing rooms with us, or one of us should have gone with her into the women’s room. We’d known this asshole professor had it in for her, but we’d let down our guard.
I pray we don’t live to regret it.
My father is calling in some favors with the local cops. He insists they’ll have caught whatever vehicle was used to snatch Mackenzie on camera and be able to figure out who it belongs to and where they’ve gone. I appreciate his optimism, but I wonder how much of it is being put on for Mackenzie’s mom. Lucia is beside herself, as we all are.
My brain keeps circling back around to the thought of that fucking professor having taken her. She’d stabbed him because he’d tried to assault her. She was only defending herself, but I bet he believed he was taking what was rightfully his. My fear is if he tried to do it once, and failed, he’ll probably try again. This time, he will make sure she can’t defend herself. He’ll be angry at her, too, and it will make him more dangerous.
The longer she’s in his grip, the worse things will go for her.
We’ve retreated to the den, seeing it as a place of sanctuary, to regroup and get our heads together. The tension in the air is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I feel like our combined anxious energy is enough to blow the foundations out of the entire building.
Tino paces the room. “I can call people in. My family has contacts. They’re basically military. They can swarm the whole area looking for her.”
I wonder how my own father would take to having Valentino’s men involved, but I’m not sure I care. I’ll do whatever it takes to get Mackenzie back, unharmed.
“How long will it take for them to get here?”
He twists his lips. “Twenty-four hours. Maybe less.”
My heart sinks. “It’s too long.” Then I give my head a shake. “But do it anyway.”
Mackenzie could be anywhere by now. If the professor has taken her, he could have access to her old passport, if she had one, and have taken her out of the country. With every hour that passes, she could be farther and farther away from us. I feel sick at the thought.
The urge to cut myself takes hold. My fingers itch with the need to pick up a blade and press it to my skin. I want to feel physical pain instead of this utter anguish that is tearing me in two. It’s like a hunger I need to sate, but I can’t give in. My focus needs to be on Mackenzie.
I turn to Kirill, who sits with his hands clasped between his knees, his head hung. He’s been quiet, and I know this is eating him up inside.
“What about your father, Kill?” I ask. “I know things aren’t easy between you two right now, but would he help if you asked?”
Kirill lifts his blond head. “Fuck, I don’t know. I’m not sure him focusing on our Duchess again is a good thing.”
“Lesser of two evils,” I say.
He presses his lips together and nods. “Let me think on it.”
“Okay, but not for too long. She might not have much time.”
The phone we found on the ground outside the spa beeps.
The three of us exchange a glance. Who would be messaging Mack’s phone?
“It’s probably Lola wanting an update,” Tino says.
I release a breath and nod. He’s right. Mackenzie’s friend from back home will be worried about her as well. She knows we have Mack’s phone, as we talked to her on it. It’s only normal that she’d want to check in to find out what’s happening. I’d given her my number in case she remembered anything important that the professor said to her, but she might have forgotten.
I pick up the phone and check the screen.
You’ll see me soon, my love, whether you want to or not. Pax.
I almost drop the phone in shock as I stare down at the message, my heart thundering. I don’t understand. If he’s the one who’s taken her, why would he message her phone? He must know she doesn’t have it.
“What does Lola want?” Tino asks.
I continue to stare down at the phone, trying to piece together what this means. “It-it’s not her.”
Kirill gets to his feet and takes a couple of steps closer. “Who, then?”
“It says it’s from Pax, which I assume to be Paxton, but…”
Tino frowns. “Paxton? As in the professor? What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, if he’s taken her, he’s already with her. Why would he tell her he’s going to see her soon?”
“Maybe whoever has taken her works for him,” Tino suggests. “Maybe the son of a bitch sent them ahead to snatch her, and they just haven’t told him that she doesn’t have her phone?”
But Kirill shakes his head. “Not possible. If they let her keep her phone, the professor would know she’d just use it to call for help. No, he’d have instructed them to destroy it. It means he can’t know she’s been taken.”
Understanding sinks in, and I swallow hard. “So, that means the professor isn’t the one who has her. Fuck.”
Is this good news, or bad? I honestly don’t know.
“What’s the number on the phone?” Kirill asks.
Finally, I tear my gaze from the screen. “It’s blocked. I wish it wasn’t. I’d call the fucker back and tell him exactly what I think of him.” Something else occurs to me. “If the professor says he’s going to see Mack soon, then it means he must be close to Verona Falls.”
Tino chews at the inside of his mouth, considering this. “How does he know where she is?”
I try to remember what Lola told us. “Something about finding her mom’s car, and a branded pen. He obviously has his contacts, too.”
“Shit, so we need to watch out for him as well? What if he finds her before we do?” Kirill tears his hand through his blond hair. “If he doesn’t have her, who does?”
I don’t even want to think about that. “There was always a possibility the professor wasn’t behind her going missing,” I say. “Mackenzie’s mom had Mack’s dad killed because he’d brought bad people into their lives—people who’d threatened Mack’s safety. It was part of why Lucia got back in touch with my dad.”
“Your dad knows who these people are, is that right?” Kirill asks.
The planes of his face are sharp like glaciers, the blue of his eyes glinting. His fists are bunched at his sides.
I nod. “Yeah, he should. It would make sense. If they are part of our world, then they’re aware of the university, so they’d know where to find her. Maybe they followed us to the spa?”
Tino presses his knuckles to his lips, still pacing. “But if her mom and your dad paid Mack’s dad’s debt, why would they still come after her?”
I take a breath. “Maybe they just took a liking to her? Decided they wanted her, no matter what.”
“Fuck. This can’t be happening. This. Cannot. Be. Happening.” Tino lashes out, his fist connecting with the wall. Pieces of plasterboard crumble.
His knuckles are bruised and grazed. It doesn’t help anything, but I know exactly how he feels. I’d tear down the entire building with my bare hands if I thought it would bring Mackenzie back again.
“We need her,” he says quietly, his voice like distant thunder. “ I need her. It’s like someone has torn out a piece of my soul. I keep tormenting myself with what she might be going through. What if someone is hurting her?”
We both know what he means by “hurting.” The thought of another man’s mouth on her skin, or fingers or cock pushing inside her pussy while she cries and screams, rips me to shreds. I torture myself with the idea of another man’s semen inside her, spilling down her throat or filling her womb. I feel sick at the idea.
No, it’s too much.
“I never told her I loved her,” Tino says.
I shake my head at him. “Stop it.”
He doesn’t. “None of us did. Why the fuck not? Why didn’t we tell her every waking second? Because we do, don’t we? We’re obsessed with her. We need her. We love her.”
His dark eyes are glassy with unshed tears.
I duck my head, suddenly ashamed of myself. “I don’t know,” I mutter.
But I do know. I hadn’t wanted to make myself weak because of her. I hadn’t wanted to be vulnerable. What a fucking idiot I’ve been.
“We’ll tell her,” I assure him. “The minute we get her back, we’ll tell her we love her, okay? That she’s everything to us. That we can’t function in this world without her, and we’ll give her everything she could ever dream of. That she’s ours forever.”
“We should have protected her, but we failed,” Kirill says. “We let her down.” He presses his lips into a line then scrubs his fingers across them. “She’ll hate us now. This happened under our watch. How will she ever trust us to keep her safe again? That’s what a man should do, keep his woman safe, and there’s three of us, and we couldn’t even do that. Maybe she’d have been better off with someone else.”
Silence settles around us. Will she hate us? I don’t even want to think about what kind of trauma she’ll have been through if we ever get her back. Will she blame us for it?
“We’ll make it up to her, okay?” I tell him. “We’ll treat her like a fucking princess. We’ll make her love us again, no matter what.”
“And if she tells us to leave her alone?” Kirill says.
I shake my head at that. “No. She has us. We’re hers, and she’s ours. That’s just the way it goes.”
We take what’s ours.
“We need to go and find my father.” I hold up the phone. “He needs to see this. He needs to know who we’re dealing with.”