Chapter 6
KADE
I didn’t plan to do this myself, but here I was, kidnapping Soren out of her home under the nose of her husband.
I didn’t trust anyone to do this but me, knowing someone else would fuck it up. This was too important of a mission for it to not go perfectly.
Getting past the patrols of minions Jude had circling the house was a pain in my ass, and I was lucky to avoid getting caught. Now, getting out would be another story, one that I wasn’t looking forward to.
I’d kidnapped people before, but my heart couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt as I pulled the hood over Soren’s head and she thrashed to get free. I knew her image of me would only get worse from here and I was being every bit of the monster she thought I was.
It didn’t take long before she stopped and relaxed, as if she was already done and tired of fighting—or maybe it was the chloroform beginning to work quickly.
She went limp against the bed, hair splayed out in a heap of golden blonde mess.
I took the hood from her face and couldn’t help but think about how peaceful she looked.
If the dark circles under her eyes were any indication, I would guess that this is the best sleep Soren has gotten in a long time.
Fuck.
I couldn’t feel pity for her. Even with the rage blossoming in me at the sight of her and all the pain she had endured close up, I couldn’t allow myself to. I was here on a job, and that’s it. I had to detach myself—had to keep the switch of heartlessness turned on.
That meant I needed to turn off this obsessive beast within my chest and get us both out of here safely before we were found.
I was incredibly shocked that Jude stayed oblivious to any of the commotion in here, nor did he notice me breaking in. That just goes to show how little of a fuck this man actually cares about his wife. I mean, her own room? With no extra precautions whatsoever?
What a tool.
Although, if I were her, I wouldn’t be too upset about not having to share a bed with him. With the way he acted around her during the meeting between our families, he was a real douche. And by the looks of it he was one who couldn’t keep his hands or his venomous words to himself.
Could spot that a mile away.
But maybe I knew nothing about her. Or him. Maybe he was an absolutely perfect gentleman to his wife, and she was sleeping in here because he snored.
I wanted to burst out laughing at the impossibility of that thought because the chances of that were slim to fuck all.
But just as I thought about the lack of precautions Jude had in place, I heard the creak of a floorboard in the hallway outside of Soren’s room.
Shit.
I paused my motions for a moment and waited to see what the person on the other side of the door’s next move was, and gauge how much time I had left before everything went to hell.
After a few moments of stilled silence, I took the gamble and decided to get the fuck out of here as fast as I could before I had to find out.
I lifted Soren in my arms quickly, the fact of how light she felt in my grasp not escaping me—so light that I felt like at any moment she could wither and blow away in the breeze.
I couldn’t, and shouldn’t, feel sorry for her, and I didn’t even know I was still capable of feeling that way for another human.
But I fucking did. I pitied this girl.
She was just a pawn in a game much bigger than she could imagine.
I looked around her room, knowing that the bedroom door was no longer an option, and peered out the double doors, which led out to a small balcony.
Quietly walking over towards it, I noticed the latch was undone and luck was on my side as I gently nudged the door open. Mercifully, it didn’t make a sound because as I peered over the balcony’s edge, one of Jude’s men was walking just beneath it.
I had no fucking idea how I was going to get out of this situation, but I hadn’t grown up in this life not being able to get out of a sticky situation.
Even if I had to kill every person in said situation, I’d do what I had to do.
Just as the door to Soren’s room opened, I threw her over my shoulder and began to climb down the balcony towards the ground just as the guard disappeared around the corner of the house and ran as fast as my legs could carry me to my car.
After practically throwing Soren in the passenger seat, and turning the key in the ignition, the only thing I noticed in my rearview was the sight of a dark silhouette standing in her bedroom window.
Soren laid unconscious in my passenger seat, a light snore coming from her as she slept. I really wish I didn’t have to knock her out, but how do you calmly convince a person to come with someone who broke into their house?
I’d have been lucky to leave that house in one piece if I had taken the time to try to sweet talk her into this plan. Especially with someone coming so quickly down the hallway—I’d have a bullet in my head before I even uttered a single word.
No matter how miserable she may be in her life, I still knew there was no way in hell she would have walked out of that house willingly.
Nobody ever does anything without knowing the price of what it’ll cost them.
The streets are quiet, accented by barely lit street lamps as we drive through them to my house. I’m going on thirty-six hours of no sleep and know when I finally get the chance to sleep, I’ll be dead to the world.
For the first time in my life, I decided to turn my phone off and hope to God that nobody lost their shit in the meantime.
My house loomed darkly in front of me, and once I make it through the gate, I pull into the garage rather than in front. Wouldn’t want any nosey neighbors seeing my precious cargo.
Not that they’d get close enough to see and live to tell the tale, anyway.
I nod to the men I have standing guard outside the garage door of my house, my father already wasting no time on upping security.
Matthias ordered it as soon as he told me of his crazy plan, saying we needed extra men at every house.
We know Lilah and Jude will blame us, but they’ll have no idea who did what.
It could have easily been any of us. Though I knew Jude would know exactly who was behind it if he really put his thick skull to work and truly thought about it.
“Welcome home, sir,” my personal bodyguard Isaac says as I walk through the side door with Soren in my arms. The man is completely unfazed by any of my shenanigans, and this doesn’t seem to be something that will ruffle his feathers, either.
You, my friend, have seen some shit.
I knew if I asked Isaac to tell me about some of his military stories, we’d be talking for days on end.
Again, my friend has seen some shit.
The look in his eyes was evidence enough of that.
Usually he was a wraith, hiding quietly in the shadows while also keeping an eye out, just as I liked it, but every once in a while he liked to make an appearance. He just always seemed to have terrible timing and caught me doing something particularly sketchy.
Like carrying an unconscious woman in my arms.
“Isaac,” I finally returning his greeting and swiftly kicking the door shut behind me. “I assume you got my message about preparing the guest bedroom at the end of the hall.”
“Of course sir,” Isaac nodded, arms crossed in front of him in typical Isaac fashion.
“Perfect,” I replied before making my way up the stairs, Soren still unconscious and peaceful looking.
Despite my arms being full, I somehow managed to open the door.
I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room before walking through the doorway.
Soren jostled in my arms and I felt my blood heat unintentionally at the side of her nightgown riding up her thighs.
If the little fabric she was currently wearing could even be called a nightgown.
It was proof of how pitiful my sex life had become when just a flash of skin from an attractive woman was enough to get me going.
I laid Soren down gently on the bed and took the quilt from the chaise next to the fireplace and covered her with it. I was practically tucking her in like a damn child.
I again took in how peaceful she looked as she slept—how gentle her snores were, how her plump lips were slightly parted, and how her long hair laid behind her head like a halo.
And I tried to ignore the bruises and cuts that littered various parts of her body that came to light once her makeup was gone. This was her true face, and as I took her in, I noted that all of her secrets and pain were out in the open for me to see.
And from the look of the split lip she was sporting, the pain was recent.
I felt the beast inside me grow stronger at the sight of it and vowed to burn anyone to the ground for so much as looking at her the wrong way again.
She was in my house now and under my care.
She was mine.
I hadn’t been able to save my sister from getting caught up in the evil of the crime underworld, and I refused to sit and watch another innocent soul snuffed out by it.
Against my better judgment, and unable to fight the pull any longer, I pulled a chair up next to her bed and took a seat, crossing my arms over one another and my right ankle over my knee.
Watching her sleep, paired with the darkness surrounding us, didn’t help and soon I slowly faded away into unconsciousness as well.