Prologue #2
I practically slammed into the guy. “Please, they’re after me!” I yelled frantically as I pointed to the van. I wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t just some random, reckless delivery driver, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The van was less than a hundred feet from me and coming fast.
When the man didn’t respond, I tried to push past him, but he grabbed me by the upper arms in a painful hold.
And that was when I knew.
He hadn’t been coming out of one of the shops because he worked there.
He’d been waiting for me.
“No,” I whispered as pure terror ripped through me with violent force.
I opened my mouth to scream again when the man holding me punched me in the face. The blow left me reeling and I hit the ground hard. I tried to get my bearings as pure panic clawed through me, but I wasn’t fast enough.
A second blow left me too stunned to do anything at all. Several pairs of rough hands grabbed me as the world spun. I was lifted and thrown onto a cold, metal floor. More hands, or the same ones – I wasn’t sure – held me down as the van’s door slid shut.
It’s happening again.
Tears streaked down my face. “Please, don’t!” I begged, but that was all I got out before a piece of fabric was jammed into my mouth and tied behind my head. I flailed my arms and legs, but they were bound with plastic ties within seconds.
“Get his phone,” one of the men said.
I was quickly searched and let out a harsh sob when my phone was yanked out of my pocket.
“Toss it,” I heard someone say and then I heard a window opening.
And with it went my only lifeline.
I began crying uncontrollably, but my captors didn’t take any pity on me. Instead, one gruffly said, “Shut the fuck up,” and then he covered my head with some kind of hood, pitching me into darkness.
They left me alone as I rolled onto my side and sobbed into my gag. My hands were bound in front of me, but the second I lifted them to try and get the hood off, I felt something sharp at my throat.
“Do it and I’ll cut you. He said bring you back, but he didn’t say shit about doing it in one piece.”
I froze as the tip of the blade trailed down my throat. When I felt it snag on the first button of my shirt, I stiffened. Then it was popping the button off.
The second button followed.
Then the third.
I squeezed my eyes closed and let out a moan of denial.
“Knock that shit off, Spears.”
“The order was to bring him back. Didn’t say we couldn’t have some fun along the way. It’s a long drive to Chicago.”
Bile rose in my throat. They were taking me to Chicago?
Despair had me folding in on myself, not caring about the knife anymore. There was only one reason they could be taking me back to Chicago. Father might be dead, but there were plenty of men who’d be happy to take his place.
I stopped listening as the men argued and searched out that place inside my head where I wouldn’t hear them anymore. There’d be no hood, no gag, no van…
Alstroemeria… friendship.
Amaryllis… splendid beauty.
Anemone… fading hope.
I let out a sob when I realized it wasn’t working.
From the time I’d been handed a book with stunning pictures of all kinds of flowers, along with their meaning, I’d recited the list of flowers in alphabetical order whenever I’d needed to block out what was happening to me.
But I could still hear the men bickering; I could still feel the floor of the van beneath me and the rocking motion that went with the vehicle taking turn after turn.
The gag was still there, as were my bindings.
I felt a keen sense of betrayal by my own mind as I lay there and tried to accept that I would never see my brother again. Because there was no way Dante was going to be able to find me a second time. It’d been sheer luck that he’d managed it the first time.
My body began to shake violently as this new reality crashed down on me. I had no idea how long we drove for, but it felt like hours.
“What the fuck?” I heard one of the guys say. “What is this asshole doing?”
The man sounded annoyed, and I felt the van slow.
“Just go around him!” one of the men sitting near me said.
“He’s in the middle of the fucking road,” came the response.
“Idiot probably broke down,” a third man grumbled.
There was a brief moment of silence as the van slowed even more, then someone yelled, “He’s got a gun!”
A split-second later came the squealing of the brakes. I rolled forward, then back as the van careened out of control. I heard a chorus of yells and curses, along with several popping sounds. One of the guys grabbed my arm as the sliding door was opened.
“Wait… wait—” I heard the guy named Spears yell, then there were another few popping sounds and then silence.
Complete and utter silence.
I lifted my hands to try and get the hood off but froze when a hand closed around my arm. I tried to scramble back, but the hold on me was firm.
“It’s okay,” I heard a man say, then he was pulling me to an upright position.
I could feel fingers at the base of the hood.
It was removed a few seconds later and despite it being dark outside, my eyes still felt the need to adjust. There was enough light from the dome light inside the van to make out the man who was working to release the gag.
I let out a sob of relief at the familiar sight of the dark hair, brown eyes that almost appeared black, and bearded face that was just inches from mine.
Vaughn.
“It’s okay, Aleks, I’ve got you,” Vaughn murmured as he got the gag off and dropped it on the floor of the van.
The combination of terror and relief mixed in a symphony of emotions that I couldn’t control and before I could stop myself, I lifted my bound hands and looped them over Vaughn’s neck. I tucked my nose against his throat and breathed him in to prove to myself he was really there.
He still had the same scent – some kind of woodsy smell mixed with musk and just a hint of butterscotch.
I wanted to laugh at that.
The brutally dangerous man loved butterscotch.
And it was how he’d gotten me to trust him when I’d first met him, because he’d shared his butterscotch candies with me.
In secret.
Because I hadn’t been allowed to have candy.
Or anything else.
I couldn’t form words as I clung to him. He held me against his big, warm, strong body, making me feel even safer. I could have stayed there all day, but Vaughn gently eased my arms up over his head and settled them in front of me.
And that was when I noticed the bodies.
Two in the back of the van with me, two in the front seats, and one just outside the door on the ground.
The ones whose faces I could see had their eyes open and perfectly shaped holes dead center in their foreheads. There wasn’t even much blood.
I was dimly aware of Vaughn tucking the gun in his hand into his waistband and then pulling a small utility knife from his pocket. He cut through the ties at my feet, then pulled me to a standing position.
“Are you hurt?” Vaughn asked as he quickly scanned my body, then settled on my face, which was no doubt bruised from the punches I’d taken.
I shook my head and then lifted my shoulders so I could wipe my wet face on my shirt sleeves.
And that was when I realized my hands were still bound. Before I could ask Vaughn to remove the plastic ties around my wrists, he grabbed my arm and led me from the van. “We need to get moving,” he said. “Someone could come along at any minute.”
Wasn’t that a good thing?
I felt off-balance as he steered me toward a sedan that was parked in the middle of the road.
I had to lean into him to keep myself from stumbling, and I was glad when his arm went around me.
He was considerably larger than me and while his bulk should have scared me, Vaughn was the exception to that general rule.
Vaughn was the exception to a lot of rules.
While I’d initially thought him to be just another one of Father’s guards who’d become infatuated with me, he’d been different.
He’d never once made a move on me, and when things had come to a head in Father’s study the night Magnus and Dante had shown up to rescue me, it had been Vaughn who’d saved us all.
I’d ended up stabbing Father in the back – literally – when he’d been preparing to shoot Dante.
Dante had still gotten shot, but only in the shoulder.
But then Father had turned the gun on me.
And that was when Vaughn had appeared, and I’d watched Father’s eyes go wide as a bullet had torn through his neck.
Blood had spurted everywhere, and he’d collapsed onto the very desk he’d made me bend over on.
Vaughn had shot the other two guards in the room before I’d even been able to process what was happening, then he’d calmly walked up to me and helped me stand from where Father had knocked me to the ground.
He’d touched the spot on my face where Father had marked me, then he’d shot Father in the head.
I’d never seen Vaughn again after he’d gotten me, Magnus, and Dante out of the house.
But I’d dreamed of him often.
Almost nightly.
Strange dreams I didn’t always understand.
But that I enjoyed just the same.
And now he was here, saving me again.
Vaughn led me to his car and got me settled in the passenger seat.
He walked around the front of the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.
I turned and held out my hands as I said, “Can you… can you take me home, please? I don’t want to wait for the police.
Dante will be worried… he’ll… he’ll help us explain what happened to the police. ”
Vaughn got the car started, then turned to look at me. There was enough light from the touchscreen in the dashboard to see his face.
And I didn’t like what I saw.
In fact, it had fear skating through me.
Fear that turned to a sensation that I could only describe as agony as a sense of betrayal hit hard and fast.
“Vaughn,” I whispered as I jutted my hands toward him a bit, desperately hoping I was wrong. “Please untie me and take me home.”
Tears began flowing down my cheeks long before he turned away from me and put the car in gear. Long before he set his eyes on the road ahead of us. And long before he confirmed my worst fear with seven little words that cut through me like the sharpest of blades.
“I’m sorry, Aleks, I can’t do that.”