Chapter 13
JADE
I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but my body, it was wearing down, breaking from the events of last night. Rubbing my face, I let out a yawn, finding it dark outside as I push away the container and bag of food I left on the bed. I was so exhausted, I forgot to put it on the nightstand.
I spent a while thinking about my son, in between trying the damn windows, hoping I could jump down into the bushes and then run wherever my legs would take me.
But there are men everywhere. Armed, I’m sure. They’d never let me go, even if I were to get past the damn window.
“Ahh!” I scream, tugging at my hair.
My entire body aches, my throat throbbing. The tears, the pain I’ve spent my life trying to hide is nearing the finish line. It’s hard to keep it all locked away, feeling alone every day. It’s too much. Robby is by himself and I’m here. Helpless.
I grab the pillow, soaking my tears into it. It hurts. I want to be free. I want to live a life with my son, the way I never got to.
My shoulders rock as I cry silently, knowing no one will hear me. No one will see me. No one ever does. I’m alone. As always.
My friends and I have been on the road for the second day now, living our best life. I’m using some of the money I saved up from working at a music store close to home. I’ve been there since I was sixteen, so I have some cushion money.
Both Elsie and Kayla come from a lot more dough than we ever had, so their parents have funded their adventure. Elsie’s mom is a plastic surgeon and Kayla’s father owns a few wineries. Their parents were more than willing to help me out, but I refused, wanting to pay my own way.
I left some extra cash for Mom, so that way she can use it if she needs it. She hates taking money from me but sometimes she has to. Supporting a family by herself hasn’t been easy, and it was part of the reason I began working.
Elsie switches on the radio as soon as we get back into the car from having just eaten at a nearby diner.
I look over my shoulder, back at the restaurant where a man, probably ten years older than me, wouldn’t stop talking to us. He was giving me major creep vibes. He’s still there, watching our car from the window.
I shiver, every hair on my arms standing on alert. Finally driving away, I ignore the remnants of the eerie feelings left behind by that man.
“I love this song!” Elsie bops her head to the tempo, her fingers drumming on her jeans-clad thigh, her long black hair flipping around the tops of her shoulders.
“Me too,” Kayla chimes in from behind us, curling her arms around the back of my seat.
With the deserted stretch of the two-way road in front of us, I take us to our next stop, a popular karaoke place across state lines. We should get to the city in a few hours.
But suddenly, my Jeep stutters, and slowly the car rolls to a stop.
“What the hell?” I holler, jerking my head toward Elsie, her eyes marred with the same confusion.
“Shit,” Kayla whispers as we all hop out, noticing the hood with smoke billowing out of it.
“Let me call for a tow.” Elsie rummages through her bag, finding her cell.
“Oh my God,” she mutters. “There’s no reception.”
I swallow harshly, a chill running down my spine.
“We’re so fucked,” Kayla practically cries, her trembling fingers going to her lips, worry etching her gaze below a set of thick brows.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I reassure, clasping her hand with mine.
But it isn’t okay. Not at all. We wait on the side of the road for what feels like an hour before we see a car. When we do, it’s like seeing a light in a dark tunnel, but we don’t yet know that while climbing out of one, we are about to drown in another.
“Stop!” we shout, running into the middle of the road, jumping up and down with our hands waving in the air.
The black SUV gets closer, drifting to a stop.
“Thank God!” Elsie says, Kayla breathing a sigh of relief, and I feel it too.
Finally. We’re saved.
But when the driver’s door opens, when I notice who gets out, my chest grows heavy, my pulse drumming so loudly, I don’t hear a word he says, but his mouth, it’s moving.
The man from the diner.
I grow dizzy as he approaches, black spots flashing in and out, yet I still see that huge grin on his face. When two others step out of the car, that’s when full-on panic sets in. They’re older than him, maybe in their forties.
“What seems to be the problem, ladies?” the younger man casually implores, while another marches over to my Jeep.
“Just some car trouble.” I force a smile, my legs growing shaky and weak, a thick ball of anxiety slamming into my stomach.
“Lucky for you,” the guy next to my Jeep says. “I’m a good mechanic.” He strides around, pops the hood from inside, and before we know what’s happening, the other older man grabs a hold of Kayla’s light brown hair, his arm curled around her neck, her back to his front.
She screams, eyes widened in full-on terror, kicking him, attempting to claw her way out.
“Please, let her go!” I cry, tears raining down my face, and I’m unsure whether to run or to help her somehow.
They only laugh, the other two setting their sights on me, their glares darting to Elsie behind, and I’m bathed in the most paralyzing fear.
My breaths harshly pummel out, my eyes bulging as I step back, needing to get away, but knowing I have nowhere to escape. The man holding Kayla retrieves a gun from his pocket and knocks her on the side of the head, her eyes rolling before she goes limp.
“Run!” Elsie shouts, her voice drifting from the rear. My heartbeat thrashes with every quickened beat, the men crawling nearer now, slithering slowly, knowing they will have us. Yet I run anyway, because running is all we have left.
But we don’t get far. A bullet rips into Elsie’s calf and she falls instantly, sobbing on the concrete as the man from the restaurant drags her away.
Her teary brown eyes are the last thing I see as someone knocks me on the head from behind, my world turning hazy, a voice saying, “The boss is gonna love you,” before everything goes black.
ENZO
The following day, after stopping by work and hanging with Dante for a bit, I got a text from Marissa asking to hang out, which is code for—please, Enzo, bang my brains out.
I would, under normal circumstances, but we’re definitely not in normal anything right now. I told Marissa I was busy working, hoping that gets her to lay off. She can be persistent as fuck though.
The women at the dance clubs all know me for my reputation and they’re not shy about wanting to experience it for themselves. These girls tell their friends and those friends bring more friends…
But my focus is elsewhere. I’ve got a hostage in my home who hates my guts.
Well, that is when she’s not playing mind games, like telling me everything between us was real.
How the hell am I supposed to believe that when some other man’s tongue was down her throat, one she swore was her boyfriend.
Yeah, didn’t need that fucking visual again.
I’m torn between wanting to hold her in my arms and wanting to rip off her clothes and punish her for ruining what we could’ve had. It was worth trying. She was worth trying for. Now—it’s too late.
After I left the office earlier, I called Colleen, our personal shopper, who hooked me up with all kinds of clothes and more girly shit than I’ve ever seen in my life. I guessed on the sizes, but Colleen won’t have a problem with exchanging any of it. I hope this gets Joelle smiling.
Readying to enter the room with the six bags I’m holding, plus some food, I stick the key into the door and shove it open.
She sits up as soon as she spots me, the same glare on her face, the one I’m becoming too familiar with.
“Hey, I brought you some clothes and stuff,” I say, placing the items on the floor at the foot of the bed.
She crosses her arms over her chest and my eyes instantly zero in on her tits, those nipples hard beneath her tank top.
I grind my jaw.
Fuck. Stop looking.
One of the containers of food is empty, sitting open on the nightstand
At least she’s eating.
I clear my throat, my gaze dropping to the bags as I retrieve some of the clothes—dresses, leggings, shirts, shoes. I got her too much shit, considering we won’t be going anywhere, but she can take them with her when I send her away.
But the thought of her leaving, fuck… It sets a pain in my chest. I shake it off, not wanting to feel this way for a woman who never really gave a damn.
Getting sick of her silence, I walk up to her, a shirt clutched in my fist, a thumb tipping up her face. “You can say, thank you, Enzo. That was so nice of you.”
She scoffs, shoving my hand away. “Thank you, Enzo. Thank you so much for kidnapping me and not letting me leave. You’re all kinds of wonderful. I can’t wait to introduce you to my mom. She’s gonna love you.”
My lips wind up at the corners. “I bet she would. Maybe we should call her and ask.”
Her face drops, eyes widening. “Ahh—no. We—we can’t,” she stammers, quickly shaking her head. “Don’t ever do that.”
I can smell the fear rippling off her.
But why?
I clasp her cheek. “Babe, I wouldn’t even know how to. And I wouldn’t do that, not unless you wanted me to. I’m not here to hurt you.”
Her brows drop with the frown settling on her face. “You say you want to help me, so help me. Let me go, Enzo,” she pleads. “That’s how you can help! Every moment I’m in here is a chance that the person I love will be killed.”
“Fuck, Joelle!” I roll my thumb over her mouth, my chest tightening. “Tell me who it is. I will find them and bring them back to you. And whoever is after them, will die. Believe that.”
“I can’t take that risk.” She exhales a long sigh, gazing up at me with a shadow of her pain.
Lowering with a bend, I kiss her forehead, my eyes falling shut before I right myself.
“And I can’t take the risk of the Bianchis killing you.
As soon as you step a foot out of here…” I look back at her.
“They’ll find you and kill you, and whoever you care about.
So if I can keep you safe, then I damn right will. ”
“You don’t understand,” she pants with a soft cry.
“Then you have to help me understand.”
“Just go.” Tears stamp over her voice as she roughly shoves them away.
“Baby. Talk to me.”
“Go!” The word rips into me like a knife. “Leave!” She gets off the bed, pushing at my chest with her palms. “Get the hell out of here!” She shoves harder, but I haven’t moved an inch. “I want you to fucking leave!”
I place my hands over hers. “I’ll go. I’m sorry. I mean that.” Her breaths climb out rapidly, her eyes level to my chest as I continue. “I’d do anything for you, Joelle, even protect you when you don’t think you need it. I hope you get that I’m doing this for you.”
“You’re doing this for you!” She finally stares up at me. “Don’t act like any of this is for me.” She pivots, returning to the bed and gives me her back.
With nothing else to say between us, I leave her, hoping like hell she finds it in her heart to forgive me one day when she’s alive enough to do it.