Chapter 27
XANTHE
After my last student leaves for the day, I stop at the bookstore before heading home.
A favorite author of mine has a new release out, and I want it in paperback.
When I walk back to my car, a man is standing against it.
A tall, very muscular man. He looks to be about fifty, maybe a bit older, and call it intuition, but I know straightaway that he’s not a good man.
“I’m sorry, can I help you?” I ask, frowning.
“Yeah, actually you can.” He smirks.
I’m about to pull my phone out and call Ghost when another man comes up behind me, and a cloth is shoved in front of my nose and mouth.
And then it all goes black.
I wake up looking into gray eyes.
But they aren’t Ghost’s.
These gray eyes are similar, but they are on a hard, weathered face filled with hatred. “Xanthe, welcome back.”
“Who are you?” I ask, my voice cracking, but I think I already know.
“I now go by Henry,” he says, pulling a chair up next to the bed I’m lying on, and sitting. I try to move, but my right wrist is handcuffed to the bed. Henry smirks. “Wouldn’t want you going anywhere now, would we?”
“What do you want with me?” I ask him, trying to calm down my racing heart.
Ghost will come for me.
I know he will.
I just have to stay alive until then.
“I never thought I’d see the day when my son fell in love. I didn’t think he was capable of it, to be honest. But when I got out of prison and saw it with my own eyes, I knew he now had a weakness.”
So, I was right.
The man in front of me is Ghost’s father.
The cruel man who blamed his son for his daughter’s death.
The son, who was also a child and wasn’t even home when the tragedy struck.
A weak, heartless man.
“What do you want?” I ask again, swallowing hard.
“Money. He pays me, I give you back.” He shrugs, looking pleased with himself. “I’ve seen the money the club has. They aren’t short on it. A hundred thousand will be nothing for them.”
Wow. He really is a piece of work.
I tamp down my anger and try to remain calm. “Have you told him that you have me?”
“I just sent a message to the clubhouse. I have no doubt he’ll be calling me soon.” He chuckles and then gives me a slow once-over. “You’re a good-looking woman. Classy. What are you doing with him?”
“He’s a good man,” I say quietly, looking down at the handcuff on my wrist.
Henry laughs without humor. “He’s weak, just like his mother was. She passed away when I went to prison. Couldn’t even keep herself alive without me.”
“How did she die?” I ask, out of curiosity, because Ghost never told me.
He goes silent. “She took her own life. Alec didn’t tell you?”
Alec.
My heart hurts for the little boy who had to grow up with this cruel voice in his ear. No wonder Ghost always thinks I’m going to leave him. It’s why he thinks he doesn’t deserve me.
“No, he didn’t.”
Henry’s eyes go cold and intense. “He should have been locked up all these years. He brings nothing but trouble wherever he goes.”
“Then why are you coming after him now? You could have left Rest Falls and never looked back,” I ask before thinking.
He grabs my arm, his grip borderline painful. “My daughter is buried here, and I’m not leaving her. She was the only good thing in my life.”
“I’m sorry.”
He seems to have put Charlotte on a pedestal, the golden child he lost, and made Ghost the enemy.
I’m sad for their whole family because it seems like everyone got hurt in life, but Henry here could have stepped up and become a good father to Ghost, even after their loss.
Instead, he blamed him so he wouldn’t have to face the truth.
He should have been watching Charlotte that day.
If anyone is weak in their family, it’s him.
“Alec told you about her?”
I nod. “Yes, he did. He loved her very much.”
He reaches out and grips my neck, squeezing. “You don’t know anything about it. Just because you’re his whore, don’t think that you’ll ever understand him.” He lets go, and I sag back onto the bed, while he starts to pace. When he storms out of the room and slams the door, I let my first tear fall.
How long am I going to have to wait here?
Are there other men here?
The thought makes me feel sick.
I swallow past the lump in my throat. What will the MC do? I doubt they’re going to simply hand that money over, because then Henry will keep using me against Ghost, pulling this bullshit.
I suppose that’s club business and up to them.
I need to stay alive.
I try to get my hand out of the cuff, but it doesn’t budge, nor does trying to break the chain. I get off the bed and stand up, looking around for something I can use. But aside from a window and a desk, the room is empty. It almost looks like a hospital room.
I don’t know where they took me or how long I was out.
But I do know one thing for sure.
Ghost is going to come for me.
And Henry is going to regret it.