2. MASON
MASON
I instantly feelsick as a paralyzing fear grips me when I don’t see her and the only thing here is her necklace and the car. Warning bells are ringing in my head as I look over the scene before me. Something bad happened here. There’s no way that this was just an accident. Somehow, I just know it.
There’sa huge dent on the back of her car. Let”s just say that kind of damage couldn’t have been caused unless someone intentionally hit your back bumper. I hate to even think of this as a possibility, but someone definitely ran her off the road and then took her. Fucking hell! I told her not to run off by herself but does she listen? Hell no.
Islump down onto my ass right there on the side of the road and pull at my hair in frustration, willing myself to calm the hell down before I have an aneurysm or some shit. It just seems like we keep going one step forward only to take a million steps backward again.
“Fuck, Hunter! We need to find her!” I yell at him from where I’m still sitting on the side of the road. He’s still at the bottom of the ditch by her car looking around the area. I don’t know what the fuck else he thinks he’s going to find down there since we haven’t found anything besides her necklace.
Idon’t know why she thought leaving the suite and going out by herself was such a good idea. I’m guessing she forgot about the last time she was freaking kidnapped. I almost lost my mind then and I’m not faring any better now.
Whythe hell doesn’t she ever listen to me? She knew she wasn’t supposed to go anywhere alone but she decided to disobey me yet again. First, she left the country and then she left the hotel by herself while Hunt and I were distracted to go God knows where and now she’s fucking disappeared. Did she not remember that some asshole was still after her?
Icould pull out all the fucking hair from my head with all the worry and troubles this girl gives me. Then again, I do deserve everything she’s dishing out. I just wish she wouldn’t make reckless decisions in the process.
Plus, I can’t really blame her for wanting to get away from me since all the shit she found out today would make anyone go crazy and want to escape from it all. The only downside of that shit is that she’s left us worried about her. AllI want to do is comfort her and make sure she’s good. When did life get so complicated with no end in sight?
“Fuck!” I yell out at the top of my lungs, just wanting to vent all of my frustrations at the empty fucking road. I look back down at the crash site for the millionth time since we got here and feel my heart ache at the thought of losing her again. That can’t fucking happen, not when we were just finding each other once more. She’s my entire world and I can’t live without her anymore.
Nope! I’m not going to let that happen. Someway, somehow I’m going to find her and it doesn’t matter what it takes, I’ll do anything to get her back and I’m not going to let some asshole get in the way of that.
Andjust like that the anger inside me intensifies. The anger that someone out there thought they could just take her and get away with it. This anger is exactly what I need to get through this and hopefully it will help me focus better on finding her.
I’mgoing to have to resort back to the cold and heartless bastard I had become when I thought she betrayed me since that’s the only way I’m going to get through this without losing my fucking mind. Hopefully, it’s going to be exactly what I need to help me focus better on getting her back.
“We’re going to find her,” Hunter says as he finally walks over to where I’m sitting. He sounds determined as hell, anger coating his voice. I know his words are meant to reassure me but they don’t. I’m so fucking close to panicking already.
“How the hell are we going to do that? The necklace with her tracker is here instead of on her fucking neck where it should be! Some asshole took her, and I’d bet it’s whoever the dickhead stalking her was. The two sets of tire tracks are a dead giveaway that she wasn’t alone here,” I tell him, not really wanting to say the words out loud because of the rage I feel just thinking about what might have happened here, but also knowing that I have to voice my thoughts out loud if we’re going to come up with a plan to find her.
“Yeah, I think so too. Look at the marks in the grass. It looks like someone was dragged and then there’s some blood up ahead on the side of the road where I’m assuming the car stopped and was waiting,” he says pointing and when I look at what he’s showing me, yeah, it doesn’t exactly paint a good picture.
“What if I don’t find her? Or what if we get to her too late? Man, I won’t fucking survive if anything happens to her,” I tell him, getting a little choked up. I can’t even believe that this is happening right now.
“She’s a survivor. I mean if she can survive you and your fucked-up bullying, then she can survive anything anyone has to throw at her,” he says and I don’t miss the sneer in his voice. ThoughI don’t say anything in response to his dig at me since his words are warranted. “However, I won’t lie to you… I have no idea what condition we’ll find her in since we have no idea who took her and why. AllI know is that you need to keep your shit together because she’ll most likely need you when we find her.”
Inod my head at his last statement because he’s right. I need to keep it together for her. When we find her, she’s going to need all the support she can get and I’m going to make sure that I’m there for her.
“Right. No more losing my shit,” I tell him, my voice tinged with all the resolve I can muster.
“Let’s get back to the hotel. I have some calls to make and there’s nothing else we can do here,” he says, and I agree. He helps me get back up to my feet since my legs feel like they’re being weighed down by lead before we both head back toward the car.
Hegets into the driver’s side, which is a good idea since I’m not in the right frame of mind to even think about driving right now. In a matter of seconds, we’re speeding away from there.
Assoon as we get back to the hotel and up to her penthouse suite, he walks into his room and comes back out with a burner phone. I lift a brow at him.
“Calling my brother. Carter along with his friends will know what to do or at least how to start looking. You already know what they do so I’m hoping we’ll be able to use their expertise. They’re all good at their own thing and when combined it works wonders so I’m hoping with all of their help things will go faster and they’re our best bet right now,” he tells me and I nod since all of what he’s saying makes sense.
Therewasn’t a lot on his brother CarterBlackwood but from what I got, well, let’s just say he and his group of friends are one of the best in the business and we can definitely use all their skills and expertise right now. My girl’s life literally depends on it.
Idon’t even care that they’re assassins. Sometimes you have to do what you have to and who am I to judge especially when I’m going to kill those fuckers who my father used to help him set this shit up in the first place.
Justthinking about my father right now makes me want to fucking rage. Oh, but he’s not off the hook. Oh no, I’m going to fucking kill him if it’s the last thing I do.
Ijust want to find my baby and bring her home safely first. Hunter and I are both in the sitting room, on one of the couches, as he dials the number before putting it on speaker. A moment later a deep masculine voice comes over the line.
“Hey, bro, I got the alert that you went off the grid a little while ago. What’s going on? Everything good?” Hunter asks Carter.
“Yeah man. We found Adelaide a while back but there was so much shit going on, I didn’t get to update you. She was supposed to be dead and since she wasn’t every asshole in the business was after her it seems,” Carter says.
“What the fuck? What the hell is happening with you guys? And make sure you keep my annoying friend safe.” Hunter says jokingly.
“Not to worry little bro. It’s all taken care of now. Those fuckers didn’t stand a chance against us, not even her fucking psycho stepmother,” he tells us.
“Damn it sounds like there was a bloodbath somewhere,” Hunt says.
“Oh, there was and it was glorious!” Carter says, chuckling through the phone. “We’re all safe now just got some loose ends left to tie up.”
“Well, I’m glad you guys had fun. Tell her I miss her ass,”
“Will do. Now what can I help you with? You never call when I’m off the grid unless it’s an emergency. Is everything okay with you?” Carter asks, sounding serious now. Well even more serious than he was a second ago.
“I need some help from you guys. I don’t have your range of connections to do this on my own. Well, Mason and I don’t exactly have the type of connections you guys do. Adelaide’s friend, Winter, has been kidnapped. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with Adelaide this time or if it’s this mysterious person that’s been stalking her for a while,” Hunter explains.
“What do you mean you’re not sure if it’s connected to Adelaide?” Carter questions.
“Right, I forgot you don’t know. This happened while you guys were deep off the grid so I couldn’t reach you at the time and then things have kind of been busy since. Okay, so after Adelaide disappeared from Ravenwood and after you guys visited, Winter was kidnapped by some Russian assholes looking for Adelaide because they saw them together in the video and pictures that Winter posted for her birthday. They thought they could get to her through Winter but I got to her in time. Only, she was just kidnapped again and we’re not sure if it’s related to Adelaide or if it’s her stalker this time… but my gut is telling me that it might be the stalker. I need your help with this because we’re not dealing with some small-time idiot here. Big bucks are involved in this one…” Hunter explains before trailing off.
“I’ll get in touch with my contacts,” Carter says and I breathe a little sigh of relief. I haven’t said a word so far since Carter came on the phone because I don’t know what to say if I was being honest. I feel a little lost right now.
“One other thing. This is very important to me, bro, and I need to find her as soon as possible. Remember when I said I had a sister in Ravenwood? Winter is my sister,” Hunter tells Carter.
“You know you’re always a priority, bro, don’t worry. Even if she wasn’t your sister, you know when you need help with anything, the guys and I have all got your back. But what the fuck is up with our family always having trouble following us around like this?” Carter asks, chuckling.
“Guess we’re just cool like that,” Hunt says.
“Alright, I’ll get the guys up to speed on this since things have pretty much settled for us. Where are you and Mason right now?” Carter questions.
“London. It’s where she was when she was kidnapped,”
“We’re back in London, too, bro. You guys should get over here so we can put our heads together,” Carter says.
“Oh, that’ll make things easier. We’ll be there tonight or tomorrow. We have some shit to take care of first,” Hunter tells his brother, and he says that’s fine before they hang up.
“Get that look off your dumbass face,” he tells me with a roll of his eyes. “LikeI said, we’ll find her. My brother has never let me down before.”
“I have no doubt that we’ll get her back, but I just hope we do before they do any kind of damage that we won’t be able to undo,” I tell him, letting out a sigh.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that. But if it does, then I’m sure that if there’s anyone that can help her, it’d be you,” he says.
“When we find her, I’m going to lock her ass up for the rest of her life,” I grumble and he chuckles.
“Good luck with that. She’d most likely scratch your eyes out,” he says, grinning still.
“At least she’d be safe and her ass won’t be in any danger,” I huff out.
“Well, I might have to agree with that. I’m going to make some more calls to a few of my other contacts,” he says as he picks up his regular phone.
“I’ll do the same,” I tell him before we head into different areas of the penthouse to make our calls. I call one of my investigators that I know doesn’t have any dealings with my father.
“Hello,” he answers on the first ring.
“Hey, it’s Mason,” I say into the phone.
“Hello, Mr. King. What can I do for you?”
“I need you to start a search for WinterCrowne. AndI want it under wraps. Use whatever resources you need to but I don’t want my father getting wind of this under any circumstance,” I tell him. But then again, the asshole might already know since he’s been behind my misery from the beginning. And after what I know now, I’m pretty sure he’s behind this.
“I’ll get right on it, sir, not to worry,” he says before we end the call.
Sohelp me God, if he’s doing this, I’ll end his ass. First, he killed my mother and now he’s fucking with my girl? I don’t have any concrete evidence whatsoever but the more I think about it, and after everything I heard from those two assholes in the cemetery, I just know he’s involved.
Twohours later, both Hunter and I are back in the living room just sitting there, staring at the wall. We’ve both been silent for a while, which is probably for the best since my mind is occupied with only thoughts of her.
Ihate sitting here and not doing anything because it’s making me feel useless. I want to be out there running around the streets looking for her. Something that will make me feel useful.
Huntand I both have called everyone we could trust not to say shit to anyone else since trust is a hard thing in our positions but we do have a few people that have earned ours.
I calledGray and the guys on our secure line. Ever since crazy things started happening, we made sure all our lines were secure so we wouldn’t have any issues whenever we had to talk. I needed to update them before their asses showed up here if I didn’t check in. While we were on the plane, I sent them a text to let them know where I was heading.
Graywas understandably upset and freaked out and I had to do all I could to reassure him that I’ll find her and bring her back to safety.
Ialso had to make sure that he was staying in my apartment across the hall from Winter’s because there was no way in hell I was letting him stay at the mansion with our fucktard of a father. Screw his ass!
Thesilence finally gets to me and I begin to feel unsettled and need to do something else besides sitting here. I need to dispel all this raw energy running through my body and there’s only one way to do that.
“Did you get the two idiots from the cemetery already?” I ask Hunter, breaking the silence between us.
“I was wondering when you’d ask,” he says with a smirk.
“How’d you know I would?”
“BecauseI know you’re as bloodthirsty as I am right now. Why’d you think I told my brother we’d be there tonight or tomorrow? Knew we were going to do this sooner rather than later. SoI had my men pick them up and carry them to one of my brother’s warehouses,” he says with what I can only call an evil smirk on his face.
“Let’s go then,” I say as I waste no time getting to my feet and then we’re out the door a moment later.