Highest Bidder Collection - Lauren Landish Page 0,329

ask him as I pick up the slate block, and the edges seem sharper to me than they ever have before.

Charles shrugs, “It all depends on what you’d like.” He takes out his phone, tapping the screen and bringing up Brooks’ information. “He’s predictable. If you’d like it to look natural, that can be arranged. I suppose it just depends on when and where.”

I nod my head once, debating on what to respond, but Charles interrupts me, “We have a problem.”

There’s an urgency in his voice that makes me sit up straighter. I wait for him to continue as he watches the phone, his body stiff.

“Where’s Arianna?” he asks me.

“She should be at my place s-”

“He was at her place. He changed his routine. He went to her house.”

My hands grip the edge of the desk. “He’s on Fourth Street?” There’s only one reason that Brooks would go there. I take out my own phone and message Arianna to text me back and stare at the screen. Willing her to text me, but nothing comes.

I can’t wait. “When was he there?” I ask Charles, my voice fighting to hold back the panic I feel. She’s been gone for hours. My thumb taps across my phone and I call her. The phone rings and rings, but there’s no answer. Everything in me stills, he’s gotten to her.

Charles nods his head as he taps on the screen of his phone. “Three hours ago.” I hang up the phone and realize that’s right when she left. He was watching her. I call her again. Ring. Ring. Ring.

“Where is he now?” I ask him as my ice-cold blood slowly pumps through my veins.

“His place.”

“On Andrews?” I confirm, already grabbing my keys off the desk and leaving for the door.

“Yeah,” Charles says as he grabs his coat and comes up behind me.

“He has her. I know it.”

Charles nods his head, throwing on his coat as I open the door.

“You’re coming?” I ask him.

He nods his head once, the mask of indifference on his face morphing as he smiles at me. “I can’t let you have all the fun.” His humor does nothing to ease me. Right now nothing will make me feel as though I haven’t already lost her.

“We’ll get her back, Zander,” he tells me as he places a hand on my shoulder.

I don’t answer him. The door closes behind us as I stalk to the elevator with purposeful strides. I’m not letting him take her. I’ll kill him first.

Chapter 28

Arianna

Whoosh!

The sound of the whip sings through the air before lashing against my bare back. Crack!

A strangled scream rips from my throat, echoing in the hollow basement as blazing pain shoots up and down my flesh. I weakly struggle against my binds, sweat beading my brow. I’m suspended, naked, held up by chains hanging from the ceiling.

It’s useless to fight. My head lolls to the side as my aching body screams at me to do something, yet I’m too weak. I never had a chance. I woke up in this position, and every ounce of my body is sore from fighting.

Despair consumes me.

The only thing I feel is pain.

I scream and scream again until my voice is raw and cracking, shaking against my binds, my back on fire. After several agonizing moments, my head drops forward and I hang limp against my bindings, my limbs trembling as a cold sweat breaks out all over my body. I don’t know if he’s going to hit me again, but I don’t even know if I’ll even feel it, my vision blackening around the edges.

“I gave you everything,” Danny says behind me, his boots thudding against the cement floor as he paces behind me, his voice filled with utter contempt.

My eyelids open at the sound of his voice. He hasn’t spoken since I woke up. My voice is sore from screaming, from begging and pleading. I can feel the cool air blowing over the open lashes and it stings with a pain that’s indescribable, but even that isn’t enough to scream over. The only movements, the only sounds I have the energy for are those that are instinctual. And even then, it’s dulled by exhaustion.

I lick my dry, cracked lips. “Danny... please,” my voice croaks as I cry weakly, tears streaming down my hot face. “You don’t have to do this.” I think I say the words, but my eyes are so heavy, my body so weak and the pain so unbearable, I’m not certain of anything.

“He