Chapter 52
Chapter Fifty-Two
Latham
We have been so distracted with packing everything, it’s not until a feeling of unease settles over me that I notice Bella hasn’t returned.
Stopping, I look over at Xavier, who is having way too much fun playing with her panties and her box of toys instead of actually helping.
At that moment, I realize I also can’t feel her through the bond.
Dropping the contents of the drawer into a box, I stop.
“How long ago did Bella go to the office?” I ask, and Xavier stops his playing around and looks at me.
“She isn’t back?” Xavier says as I wander into the living room.
Blaine has packed the entire room, including the kitchen.
“Wait. Can you feel her?” Xavier asks, and I shake my head.
“But I removed the taint. He couldn’t have found her,” Xavier says, looking at me.
“Unless he already knew where she was?” I tell him.
Blaine is already out the door before I can even finish that sentence.
Misting, I beat him to the office as I peer around, but nothing looks out of place until the smell of blood reaches my nose.
The bell above the door rings as Xavier and Blaine enter just as I move around the room to go check out the back.
Something catches my eye, making me look toward the foyer desk to notice a pool of blood, some already congealing. My heart beats quicker in my chest for a second, thinking it belongs to Bella until I realize the body is male and belongs to the landlord, Jack.
“Cast it,” I say, looking at the others as I replay what’s happened here, looking for clues.
“I swear I have seen him before,” Blaine murmurs as we watch the heavily tattooed brawny-looking man cover Bella’s nose and mouth with a cloth.
My stomach sinks as she goes limp in his arms before he tosses her over his shoulder.
Seeing that explains why I can’t feel her; her waking mind is no longer awake.
So, I follow him, letting the cast guide me as he walks out the back of the office to the alleyway behind the apartment complex.
He places her in the backseat before climbing in the front and taking off.
“Where have I seen him before?” Xavier mutters.
“It’s the body I trapped Leviathan in when he was chucked in the purgatory,” I snarl.
“He got out?” Blaine asks.
“Obviously, but I want to know where he took her,” I tell them.
My brother and I have had an estranged relationship since Myra. And I have locked him in the purgatory against my father’s will.
“We need to find her.”
I have a sickening feeling history is about to repeat itself. That, to him, this is no longer about wanting Bella but some sick sort of entertainment and revenge to get back at me.
* * *
Bella
Groggily, I wake up inside a moving car.
I am in the backseat, and I can hear the engine roaring loudly and Tank singing along to the tunes.
Remaining still, I peek around and notice my handbag has fallen down behind the driver’s seat.
I feel sick and nauseous. I have no idea how much time has passed.
My vision blurs as I try to reach my hand into my bag for my phone without alerting Tank that I am awake.
My fingers feel inside and move the contents around.
I can’t find my phone, only the books I have placed in it.
As I slowly withdraw my hand, my fingers brush up against the vial Addie has given me.
Slowly pulling it out, I glance at it before looking at the front of the car.
Tank’s fingers drum on the steering wheel as he navigates through the city, and I feel the sharp turn onto the highway leading out, feel the change in the road under the wheels.
I unscrew the cap carefully while I keep my eyes on Tank.
“About time you woke up, sweets,” Tank says, eyeing me in the rear-view mirror.
“Looking for this?” Tank laughs, holding up my phone. He then chucks it out the window. “Not long now, love, and Latham will understand how wrong he was with taking what belonged to me. He won’t get away with it a second time.”
I jam the vial between the seat and backrest, pushing it in as I watch him.
“They’ll come for me,” I murmur, sitting up, my head still a little cloudy.
“That’s what I am hoping for,” he laughs.
We are headed out of the city before pulling into a suburb I recognize along the beachside.
We are headed to my family’s old home, and panic wells up inside me.
Why would he take me here? Adrenaline courses through my veins, and I lurch forward in my seat, grabbing my handbag.
Tank’s eyes go to me, but he is too slow to catch on as he turns the corner onto my old street.
I loop the shoulder strap around his neck and pull.
He struggles to rip me forward, and I push my feet into the back off of his seat, trying to strangle him with the straps, when he jams on the brakes, sending me flying forward, and my knee smashes into my face, nearly knocking me out.
My vision blurs temporarily, and my jaw aches where my knee connected when he unravels the strap.
His growl is vicious as he tries to rip my bag from my fingers, making the contents spill over the back floor when the strap breaks.
Reaching down, I grab the hardcover book in it as he turns in his seat to reach for me before smashing it into his face. Startled momentarily, I strike him again, rage filling me as I repeatedly hit anywhere I can.
“That’s a signed copy from Maria Warren. And I just ruined it on your ugly head, you fucking asshole,” I scream breathlessly, smacking him repeatedly.
The sound of his fingers breaking as I smack his outstretched hand makes him groan, and as I lift the book to hit him again, I notice the tip of his finger bend back awkwardly.
He snarls, snapping it back into place before climbing out of the car.
I scramble to the other side, trying to unlock the rear door, but it have the child lock on.
When he rips the door open, I try climbing in the front, only for him to yank me back through the gap by my hips.
I kick and claw at him, trying to fight him off, when his fist connects with my temple twice, three times, making my head spin as pain rattles through my skull. My vision turns hazy before everything goes dark.
“You’ll pay for that,” I hear Tank snarl before losing consciousness.