Chapter 47 Zander #2
Her eyes track my movements, and I see the moment she understands as they go wide.
“No, please, no.” She wraps an arm around her stomach as if that will save them. If I actually wanted to hurt her, it wouldn’t do a damn thing.
“I really don’t know. He didn’t tell me,” she chokes out in a rush as I continue slowly walking toward her, using the anticipation to get her talking.
People are so predictable. Sometimes, the idea of harm is enough; sometimes you actually have to deliver pain, but no matter what, everyone has a weakness, and it’s my job to find it.
“Who?” I shout, well past the point of giving a fuck who might hear us. Someone could come in right now, but they wouldn’t be enough to stop me. Nothing short of getting answers to find Jade will do that, and considering Ashlynn has those, she's shit out of luck.
I see the answer in her eyes as she stares at me, but I waste a moment praying she won’t say what I fear she will, only to be disappointed the moment she opens her mouth.
“Ivan.”
Her voice is nothing more than a pained whisper, but she might as well have screamed it from the rooftops with the way it hits me.
My rage gets the best of me as I lunge forward, pressing my knife against her neck.
I’m careful not to actually cut her, but fuck if I don’t want to.
She hurt Jade, my Doll. This bitch delivered her to the one monster Jade fears, the man who destroyed her whole life.
The same woman who Jade spoke so highly of betrayed her in the worst fucking possible way.
“What have you done?” I hiss through my teeth, trying to get a hold of myself as she cowers before me.
I’ve never felt what Rick does. He always describes his need to fight as if it were its own living thing, an anger that lives inside of him that takes over, as if he doesn’t have control of it.
I have complete control of my need for blood.
I enjoy it, and use it to get what I need, but right now…
Right now, I understand what Rick means, but I’m not sure I can hold back the way I know I need to.
Jade wouldn’t want me to hurt her, though.
The second the thought crosses my mind, I know it’s true, and it takes some of the edge off.
“I didn’t want to. I promise, I didn’t mean for this to happen.
All I’ve ever wanted was for Jade to be safe,” she cries.
“I tried to think of a way around it, but I couldn’t.
I wasn’t going to do it. I thought I could…
” She hiccups and presses her eyes closed hard, squeezing more tears out before she looks at me again.
“The moment I saw her, how happy she was. It was all I ever wanted, but she insisted.”
I see the truth in her eyes, but that doesn’t make this better. Jade is still gone, and Ashlynn’s the only one who knows anything.
“I swear I don’t know anything,” she mumbles after a moment of silence as I try to decide what to do.
“Shut up!” I roar, and she sniffles but snaps her mouth closed.
“Who took her? When did they take her? How long ago?” I ask, trying to get any information she might have that could be useful.
“I didn’t see them. Ivan said I needed to get her alone, that he would have her drink spiked, and she would be easy to take down.
Then I had to text the number he gave me, open the window to the room I was in, and he would do the rest. The guy came in the window, but he was all in black.
He grabbed Jade and was gone in less than two minutes. That was probably twenty minutes ago.”
My mind races as she rambles on.
“What did you use?” I ask, but she just stares at me as if she doesn’t understand English.
“What did you use to knock her out?” I clarify with a sigh. She can take orders from Ivan, but simple questions are too hard.
She’s probably in shock. I tell myself, trying to convince myself to go easy on her, that Jade would want that.
“Chloroform,” she says, and she must see the confusion on my face because this time she clarifies on her own. “She let me.”
Of fucking course she did.
Damn it, Doll.
I pull back, letting my arm drop to my side, watching Ashlynn for a moment, trying to put this version of her together with the one that Jade spoke so highly of.
But I can’t; they just don’t fit. People change, though, and it’s not always for the better.
Sometimes, life wears people down instead of building them up.
Ashlynn and Jade are a perfect example of how different people can be, even in the same environment.
“Wait, where are you going?” she calls after me as I open the door and head back through the bedroom.
“To get my girl back,” I call over my shoulder without pause. I don’t have time to waste with small talk; she clearly doesn’t know anything else.
The guys are standing around the couches by the time I make it back. I can see their unease, the tension that’s pulled so tight they might snap even before I reach them.
Trent sees me first, a smile turning his lips up for a moment before he really sees me. I can feel the scowl on my face, and the moment he sees it, he’s heading toward me. The others are quick to follow him.
“What’s wrong?” he asks even before he’s reached me, but I watch as he glances around, and I know he knows when he doesn’t find her.
“Jade’s gone,” I tell them, saying the words I’d hoped to never fucking hear again.