Chapter 17 #6
“I think she was set up,” I say, my fist resting above my mouth as I enter her home address into the car’s GPS.
Mara fucking Brooks. No wonder Cole is partnering with her.
Both have the motive to eliminate Ella and me.
He must have thought he had won the lottery.
What did she promise him? The chances of Ella’s dad truly having a night emergency the one time she is away seem thin, but not impossible.
We will get there and sort things out, pack her bags, and move her…
home. Where she is meant to be. The ride seems never-ending as I keep calling Ella, texting her a hundred messages without her answering any of them.
This is not like her. This is not like us.
Why can’t I reach her? What have they done to her?
My temple tightens, and I hold my head, pressing hard with the heel of my palm.
If they take her, if they hurt her…I do not know how to do this, life without her anymore.
I used to, but now that I have tasted colors, I cannot live in the darkness.
Going way past the speed limit, Matt enters her street and parks with screeching tires in her driveway as I jump out of the car, Glock in hand, index on the trigger, ready to blow their faces off.
The house seems asleep, with no light visible.
Do I knock on the door or shoot the handle?
Well, Ella might be in danger, so shooting the handle it is.
With the silencer on, the sound of the gunshot still pierces the air.
The handle falls down, and I push the door with my foot, Matt right behind me.
Is she here? I am not one to pray, but at this very moment, I do.
Pray for my woman to be safe and here and waiting for me.
For a misunderstanding or a true medical emergency.
I pass through the large entryway. Cole could be here, holding Ella at gunpoint.
Or am I just imagining things, and her dad is truly in need of her?
Passing by the large living room with cream couches, marble floors, and a painting of the four of them, without Ella in it, posing like kings and queens used to, I check the kitchen. Still no one.
“Over there,” Matt murmurs, coming back on our tracks and carrying through the corridor where a door is slightly open.
That must be her dad’s. She told me he wasn't upstairs with her and her sisters. She will be there. She will be there, okay, and safe and alive. I push the door, expecting everything but Mara Brooks. Sitting next to who I gather is Ella’s dad, sleeping on the bed, covers up to his chest. I glance all around. My girl isn’t here.
“Where is she?” I seethe, pointing the gun at her.
“Mr. Ashford, I was expecting you.”
“Where. Is. She?”
“Please put your gun away. It makes me uncomfortable and, given your situation, is quite useless.” I step closer and closer, rounding the bed until I am standing above her, barrel kissing her forehead.
“Ella isn’t here,” she says, and I can hear her smile. “Would you like to talk to her?” Unlocking her phone, she hands it to me. It is a video call. Live. I step back, my heart exploding like it has been shot a hundred times.
Ella is curled up on her side, in nothing but her white underwear, lying on concrete, shivering, half her hair glued to her face.
As the camera comes closer, a hand removes those strands from behind her ear, patting her cheek like an animal as tears streak her face and blood covers her skin.
The cut seems to come from her brow, bleeding over her face, throat, and shoulder.
And a familiar voice, all too familiar, echoes, “Say hi to your Prince Charming, little bird.” Her forearms go up as she uses them to hide her face, exhaustion and terror written on her expression.
“Ella,” I call her. “Ella, I’m coming,” I say it again as I watch her come alive, searching for me in the room, blinded by the light, unable to differentiate reality from this call.
The video call ends, and I throw the phone at the floor, grabbing Mara Brooks by the throat and squeezing the life out of her. She gasps, a sneer coming into place.
“If you kill me, you’ll never find her.”
“What do you want?”
“Everything.” I squeeze her tighter and tighter until the realization that I do indeed need her to find Ella flashes before me.
Releasing her, I watch her for the snake she is, wishing I could unalive her at this very moment.
“All your assets, companies, savings, buildings, everything transferred to Cole Vodianov or…”
“Or?”
“Or you’ll never see her again.”
“How could you do that to your own daughter?”
“She’s not my daughter. Never was. Just a mistake from my husband’s past. I’m glad Emily found you driving her back, so I could offer her in payment, even though I still don’t understand why a man of your caliber would settle for her, but…
” I step back, my hand twitching with the urge to slap her, but I will not, because Ella is waiting for me somewhere and I need to find her more than I need air to breathe.
“Once you’ve done all the transfers,” she snaps, handing me a card with a phone number, “he asked me to tell you that she was very pretty, and that if you were to fail your task, he would keep her to himself.” I snatch the card, white noise pulsing in my head as if I were underwater.
Rounding the bed, I stop. Ella’s dad. It is my duty to make sure he is taken care of now that she cannot.
With two fingers, I check his pulse at the jugular. Regular. Alive.
“If you kill him, Mara, I will make sure to come back with Ella and burn you alive. You hear me? Alive.” My words strike me by how natural they got out.
A shiver passes through her, even though she tries to hide it.
I am not the man I thought I was. All along, I have been fighting my true nature.
There is violence in me. That’s a fact I will have to deal with, but I am not my father.
He hurt people who did not deserve it.
I will use it to punish those who saw it coming.
My girl is being held hostage because of me, and they want my life’s work in exchange for her freedom.
Every brick I have spent decades building.
Every square meter of my city I fought the Vodianovs for.
Every political hand I greased, every reputation I crafted from the sheer number of hours I put in, all of it meant to avenge my family, only for them to steal it from me.
Checkmate. Losing my own game.
The room narrows, the ceiling falling toward me as the floor seems to disappear beneath my feet.
I blink, crack my neck, and smell the scent of wisdom gripping me.
I thought vengeance was my purpose. But given the simplicity of this decision, I gather my mind was made up the day I met her in my office.
There is no life worth living without her by my side.
Even if it means losing everything. Even if my guts twist at the thought of surrender.
Nothing in this world, nothing, will ever match the magnitude of her.
“I’ll do it,” I declare harshly, Mara’s eyes widening in surprise.
“And then, when I get Ella back,” my index pointed at her, “I will come for you, Mara. I will hunt you until you and your daughters cannot walk in Westhaven without looking over your shoulder. I’ll ruin you until you become an outcast, a speck of dust long forgotten.
” Exiting the room with Matt resting his back in the hallway, I explain everything to him as we go back to the car.
I should be agitated. I should be mad and off balance.
Except stillness grips my brain, leveling over my skin and heart.
The situation is too dangerous for my emotions to interfere.
I am not a man anymore.
I am an animal, hunting.
“They have her,” I tell him as we drive to the office.
No blackmail or dirt could be enough to undo that.
He wants me to pay. I will pay. No amount of money could ever compare to her.
I will be a poor man if it means finding her, because I am made of grit, and men like me find ways to build themselves all over again, even after losing it all.
I can give him everything and live, but if I lose Ella, I will be as good as a dead man walking.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to give him everything I have. And then I’ll get her back.”
“What if…”
“There is no what if. Ella needs me, and I won’t let her down.” He falls silent, as if getting ready for a major military intervention. We drive back to the office, the dark of the night mimicking my thoughts.
Everything I have spent my life building.
Everything I have earned, and my family before me.
I will give him everything because none of it matters.
Only she does.
And right now, my Ella is hurt and crying and thinking I will never come to her rescue, that this was all an illusion, because that is how well I know her heart. But I am coming, Ella. I vow it, my princess. I will find you, even if it costs me everything.
So wait for me, sweetheart.
Hold on.
I’m coming, Ella.
I’m on my way.
Read Book 2 to know what happens next…