Chapter fifty two
Riven
The world stopped making sound for a second. Not metaphorically. Actually. Everything in the basement went completely silent except for Abby breathing too hard at the bottom of the stairs.
Gone.
The word hit my skull and shattered something important. I stared at her. Didn’t blink, didn’t fucking breathe.
Gone
No. No no no no-
“You’re lying.” My own voice sounded wrong. Flat and empty. Abby looked like she wanted to cry.
“I’m not.” The gun was still in my hand. I became aware of that suddenly when Shane slowly stepped closer like he thought I might shoot somebody. Maybe I would.
“Riven…” He said carefully. I ignored him.
“What do you mean gone?” Abby swallowed hard.
“The room was empty when Isla got back from getting coffee.”
Coffee. Coffee. My brain latched onto the stupid fucking detail immediately because the alternative was unraveling completely. I left for maybe an hour. Maybe less. And now? She was gone.
No. Not gone. Taken.
The realization detonated through me instantly. Olympus. I moved before anybody could stop me. The basement door slammed open so hard it cracked against the wall upstairs while Abby shouted my name behind me. Didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except getting back to the hospital.
My car keys slipped from my fingers twice trying to unlock the fucking car because my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Breathe , I told myself.
But I couldn’t. My chest hurt. Thoughts crashed together violently in my skull so fast they barely made sense.
They took her.
You left.
You left her alone.
This is your fault.
They’re gonna kill her.
You should’ve stayed.
You should’ve fucking stayed-
I punched the steering wheel hard enough to split skin across my knuckles before peeling out of the clubhouse lot like a fucking maniac.
Rain hammered the windshield. Red lights blurred, street signs blurred, everything fucking blurred except the overwhelming certainty that I had just lost her again.
The drive to the hospital took seven minutes. I made it in four. The emergency entrance was chaos already with cops, hospital staff, and security. The second I saw the empty ambulance bay, something primal took over. I barely remember getting inside.
One security guard tried stopping me near the elevators.
Tried. I shoved him into the wall hard enough to crack drywall before taking the stairs three at a time.
Nadia’s floor looked wrong immediately. It was too crowded.
Doctors clustered near the nurses station while Isla sat in one of the hallway chairs, pale and shaking.
The second she saw me stand at the end of the corridor, guilt twisted across her face so violently I nearly lost my fucking mind.
“No.” The word came out hoarse. Isla stood abruptly.
“Riven-”
“No.”
Because if she said it out loud, it became real. I walked toward Nadia’s room slowly. The closer I got, the worse it became. The door was open. The lights were still on. The monitor was still beeping steadily beside an empty bed. Empty.
My vision tunneled instantly.
No. No no no no no.
I stepped inside the room. Her blanket was on the floor. One IV line ripped loose and was dangling beside the bed. My knees nearly gave out anyway.
“You can’t leave me,” I whispered.
The room tilted slightly. I grabbed the edge of the hospital bed hard enough that my stitches from the tunnels reopened beneath my sleeve, but the pain barely registered. Behind me, Isla was crying now.
“I only left for ten minutes-” I spun so fast she physically flinched.
“Ten minutes?” My voice echoed violently through the room.
“You left her alone for ten. Fucking. Minutes?”
“I didn’t know-”
“You knew they were watching us!”
“I’m sorry!”
Sorry? Sorry didn’t matter. Sorry didn’t bring Nadia back. Something inside my chest started caving inward. Not panic. Not anger. Abandonment. Raw and ugly and unbearable. My head turned emotions catastrophic sometimes. Every loss felt permanent. Every absence felt like death.
And Nadia? Nadia was the worst one because she was the only person who ever made the fear stop. Now she was gone again. My hands started shaking uncontrollably. Shane appeared in the doorway behind Isla with Deck and Abby close behind.
Everybody looked terrified of me. Good, they should be. Because I was seconds away from becoming something ugly. Deck stepped carefully into the room.
“We found a nurse downstairs.” I looked at him sharply.
“Alive?”
“Barely.” That hope died instantly.
“She said two people wearing surgical masks wheeled Nadia out through the east elevators.” This was professional, clean, fast. Planned. This wasn’t random. They waited for me to leave. The realization hit like a knife.
“They were watching me.”
Nobody argued. Because obviously they were. I dragged both hands through my hair, pacing violently across the room.
Think. Think. THINK.
Where would they take her? Underground? South side? Another Olympus site? The tunnel system. No, that was too obvious now. My thoughts spiraled harder.
What if she woke up?
What if they killed her?
What if she thinks I abandoned her again?
“Riven.” Shane’s voice cut sharply through the panic. I looked at him.
“Breathe.”
“I am breathing.”
“Barely.” He wasn’t wrong.
I suddenly realized my fingers had gone numb. My heart pounded so hard it physically hurt. Panic attack, great. Perfect fucking timing. I stumbled backward into the chair beside Nadia’s empty bed. Everything felt too loud suddenly, too bright, too sharp.
“She thinks I left her,” I muttered. Abby frowned immediately.
“She was unconscious.”
“You don’t know that.” Silence.
Because honestly? None of us did. What if she woke up confused and alone while strangers dragged her out of the hospital? The image made me. nauseous. Deck crouched beside the ripped IV line near the floor, then frowned.
“What?” Shane asked. Deck held something up carefully.
A folded piece of paper. My stomach dropped instantly. Olympus, it had to be. He unfolded it slowly. Only one sentence was written across the page in neat black ink:
HEIRS SHOULD NOT BE RAISED SO FAR FROM HOME.
The room went dead silent. Rage hit so hard my vision blurred.
Not just anger anymore. Hatred. Pure. Violent.
All-consuming. Because suddenly I understood exactly what this was.
A message. Not for the LBC. Not for Stonebridge.
For me. They took Nadia because Olympus still believed she belonged to them.
Not to herself, not to this town, not to me.
Mine. The thought was irrational. Toxic and possessive. I didn’t care. Something snapped loose inside me completely. I stood slowly. Shane immediately recognized the look on my face.
“Riven-”
“I’m gonna kill them.”
Nobody spoke. Because the terrifying part? I meant it calmly. Not emotionally. No screaming. No punching walls. Just cold-blooded certainty. I looked at the empty hospital bed one last time. Then at the note in Deck’s hand.
Heirs should not be raised so far from home.
Fine. If Olympus wanted Nadia back so badly? I’d burn their fucking home to the ground to get her back first.