Chapter 2 - Elena
My head still spins when the cold air hits my face, sending a chill running up my spine.
It feels surreal how quickly everything shifted, and how a typical night went completely sideways.
I’ve hosted hundreds of events, from galas and charity auctions to exclusive evenings for high-profile guests. I curate, I organise, and I manage the chaos gladly. I do it all while my brothers handle their business with the city’s elite.
Nothing catches me off guard in my territory. But tonight, that fact changed thanks to the man who grabbed me.
Everything happened too fast for me to make any sense of it. There was no warning, no intuitive prickle at the back of my neck, and no way for me to claw my way out.
One moment, I was greeting a few familiar faces near the back of the club, preparing to sneak away for air. Next, a hand clamped over my mouth, and an arm locked around my waist. I was dragged through a back hallway, and the entire world narrowed to those flashing lights and the muffled music.
I didn’t even have the chance to scream, and I certainly couldn’t reach for my phone. I couldn’t call my brothers, who are going to lose their minds once they realize I’m gone.
A cold front moves through me at the thought. They have no idea what happened to me. No idea that I’ve been here…tied up, gagged, and shoved onto a grimy chair in a place I don’t know.
The more I think about it, the harder my stomach twists as rage and fear curl together, acrid and too heavy for my liking.
At first, seeing that man come in made me think I was being rescued. That maybe my brothers did know, and they had sent someone to get me as soon as possible.
But as the conversation went on, that thought dissolved, along with the hope that clawed in my chest.
And now, I’m digging my heels into the pavement outside, stumbling along the way. His hand is around my arm, hauling me toward a black car parked behind the warehouse.
Just like the one who took me from the club, I don’t know this man either.
His face had been a blur to me before, while the fear had its tight hold on me, eyes bleary with fury simmering beneath the surface. But now, I see the sharp angles, the dark hair, and even darker eyes. His stubble is faint but there, almost accentuating the strength of his features.
He’s big, broad-shouldered, and unsettling in a way that has every alarm blaring inside my mind.
Dangerous is an understatement. He’s probably insane, too, and definitely someone I don’t plan to go quietly with.
Even if my brothers keep me shielded from the bulk of their business, I’ve been around enough of their associates to know a man who’s riding on his convictions, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve what he wants.
He might’ve pulled me out of there, but that doesn’t mean he has good intentions. He could be worse.
The longer that idea lingers in my mind, the harder it is for me to stay quiet. So I twist, trying to wrench my wrist out of his grasp.
“Let me go,” I utter, pulling harder until I slip away.
But he’s fast, grabbing me all over again, but this time, tighter. It’s almost effortless for him, and that makes my stomach lurch.
“Don’t start,” he growls, not bothering to look at me.
“Don’t start?” I return, brows furrowing as I continue to struggle against him. “You’re dragging me out of some hellhole, taking me to your car, and you think—”
“I said don’t,” the man cuts in, looking down at me with a warning glare. “I don’t have time for you to make this difficult. So stop talking and move.”
Glaring right back, my blood is far too hot from the terror of a night I’ve had to care about how intimidating he is. Or how painfully strong his jaw looks from this angle. “I don’t know who you are.”
“Good.”
I grit my teeth. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He just sighs, pulling me closer to the waiting car. “That’s too bad.”
I blink back at him in pure disbelief. I know I’m pushing my luck, but does it really matter when my life is already on the line?
“You’re crazy…I don’t even know your name, and you want me to cooperate?”
“I’m not asking you to trust me,” he says with a flat tone, grip adjusting on my wrist as he glances over at the vehicle, as if assessing how much farther he has to take me. His eyes pin me on the spot, but his expression is otherwise neutral. “I’m asking you to get in the car so we can leave.”
No part of me is prepared to do that, so I push against him again, fighting him every step.
His grip on my upper arm tightens, not painfully, but enough to make my cheeks warm with frustration. God, he’s strong. Strong in a way that’s oddly fascinating and terrifying.
The way he doesn’t react as I pull against him is almost humiliating in a way, as if all my fitness classes have amounted to nothing at all.
Still, it’s enough to annoy him.
“Stop moving,” he mumbles, tone cold.
“No.”
With a sharp exhale, and in one swift motion, his arm hooks around my back, and he hauls me off the ground faster than I can get a sound out. His shoulder presses into my gut, knocking the breath from my lungs.
I blink through my surprise, dragging in a deep breath as I’m forced to watch the ground beneath his boots. “Put me down!”
He doesn’t. Instead, he walks straight to the car, now unencumbered by my resistance. He moves with ease, popping the rear door open with one hand before depositing me inside like I weigh nothing at all to him.
My back hits the seat with a soft thud, and my hair falls across my face, forcing me to push it back. I sit there, completely breathless and more outraged than ever.
For one mortifying second, I feel just how easily he overpowered me. How it really is nothing to him at all.
Before I can fully recover my dignity, he leans in just enough for shadows to cut across his face, turning the gleam in his eyes even colder. His voice drops low, shaking me to my core. “Anything else you want to try?”
There are many things I want to try. Many words I want to hurl at him. But I don’t…not while he looms over me like that, taking the breath right from my lungs.
I narrow my eyes at him, wishing I had some sort of upper hand here. But I cross my arms and lift my chin. “No.”
His lips barely pull, showing me only a flicker of a reaction. “Good.”
The door slams shut, and I force myself not to flinch. I sit there stock-still, hearing the muffled crunch of gravel beneath his boots while he rounds the vehicle like he’s simply chauffeuring me around for the evening and not abducting me just like the other man had.
My eyes track his every step, still able to feel the phantom pressure of his hands on me, along with the terrifying lack of control I had when he lifted me.
I don’t like being helpless, especially not while I’m aware of what happens in my family’s world. Of what men like him are capable of.
Wordlessly, he slips into the driver’s seat, closing the door with a heavy thud. The car fills with the heady scent of leather, a deep and rich cologne, and something distinctly him.
He doesn’t look at me while starting the engine, as if he’d rather not see me. Still, I glare at him even while he ignores me.
After a few minutes of silence that feels far too suffocating and tense, I can’t take it anymore. Maybe I should shut my mouth, but that’s not who I am. Not when this could be life or death for me.
“So, what am I supposed to call you…Vic or Wyatt?”
His jaw flexes, as if bothered by the question, but he still doesn’t look at me. “I don’t care.”
“You don’t care.”
“No, I don’t.”
He keeps driving like he didn’t just respond with the emotional capacity of a rock, and I huff out a disbelieving sound.
“Most people usually care what name they go by,” I begin slowly, more like I’m speaking to a child than a grown man. An armed man, at that. “And for some reason, you have more than one.”
“I’m not most people.”
“I’m gathering that.”
His glance through the rearview mirror is brief but sharp, and in that fleeting exchange of eye contact, he almost looks familiar to me. “Then stop asking stupid questions.”
My mouth falls open at that, prepared to snark back at him, only to be cut off by his irritation.
“I just got you out of a situation you weren’t going to walk away from, so forgive me if I don’t feel like entertaining you.”
I don’t know why, but that stops me in my tracks, and my mouth snaps shut.
Heat creeps up my neck before I can stop it, but not from shame.
I just hate that he has a point, and I hate that I owe him anything at all.
At least, depending on what he plans to do with me, whether I’m indebted to him remains to be seen.
Shifting my attention to the car window, I refuse to look back in his direction for as long as I can.
My pulse finally begins to settle as the road stretches on ahead, bringing us closer to the heart of Vegas, but my mind is nowhere near calm.
Even if my immediate panic has ebbed thanks to him being surprisingly passive, I have the chance to see him. To really, truly see him.
The man who just carried me to his car like it was nothing, and one with enough muscle to make a nun fold, flexing when he grips the steering wheel. One with broad shoulders straining beneath his jacket, and a jawline that seems even more intense from this angle.
Paired with his indifferent, unbearably grumpy attitude, he’s infuriating. And, to my dismay, exactly my type if that even remotely mattered in this moment.
God help me…I’ve been abducted by the sexiest man I’ve ever seen.
Sinking deeper into the seat, I try so hard not to look at him again, but it’s almost impossible.
I notice the small things I have no business noticing: the scar across his knuckle, the seemingly intentional length of his hair, and how he keeps checking the mirrors like he’s scanning for threats.
He’s alert and focused, and far too dangerous in a way people only become after surviving things they refuse to talk about.
Something about him makes my stomach tighten, and it’s not entirely from fear.
Both in an effort to keep warm and hide, I cross my arms over my chest, and I pull my eyes away when I feel his gaze on me.
In my peripheral, I catch as he reaches for one of the dials on the dash, turning it slightly. Soon after, a light wave of heat pools into the back, and I resist the urge to scoff.
Admittedly, it helps. But I don’t say anything.
“You’re glaring.”
“I am,” I confirm without hesitation. “Take a guess as to why.”
To my surprise, a vague, yet amused breath slips from his lips. “I don’t think I need to.”
My irritation crawls higher again, and I swallow back the urge to dig myself into an even deeper hole.
He isn’t wrong at all. I’m glaring hard, but I can’t help it, and he entirely deserves it.
When his eyes fall onto me again, he continues, “I know you want to ask something…just spit it out.”
I have tons of questions, far too many to speak at once, but I manage to settle on one.
“What do you even want with me?”
He doesn’t even need to consider his answer. “Nothing.”
My brows furrow instinctively, and I hold his gaze. “Then why take me?”
At this, he exhales a long, slow breath, then his tone reaches me, sounding more serious than I expect. “Because leaving you there wasn’t an option.”
This makes me pause, and my chest tightens.
He says it like a fact, without any hesitation, like saving me from that man was non-negotiable for him.
But it still doesn’t make any sense.
“Why?” I ask, quieter than anticipated. “You don’t even know me.”
“No,” he says simply, eyes locked on the road now. “I don’t.”
And that’s as much of a response as I get. Still, the edge in his voice hints at more that he’s not saying, even if he refuses to.
While he drives, I study him longer, trying to decipher the darker parts of his expression. The quiet something going on within him that he won’t share.
This grumpy stranger with what seems to be the weight of the entire world on his shoulders saved me. Not with smooth chivalry, and not as some noble deed. He was rough and annoying about it, but he still did it anyway.
And now I’m stuck in the back seat of his car, not knowing what to expect.
I don’t trust him, even if he doesn’t seem like the other man. But for the first time since being dragged away from my own event, I don’t exactly feel safe, but no longer doomed.
It isn’t much, but it’s something.