Bitter Queen (Advantage Play #4) - Kelsie Rae Page 0,68

of control, and I can’t stop it.

Then I’m hit from behind and tumble to the ground.

“Hmph,” I grunt as the air whooshes out of my lungs. He climbs on top of me, caging me in with his weight.

“Please,” I beg.

He backhands me with all his strength, making my ears ring and my head snaps to the side.

“I told you”—he squeezes my neck with one hand then searches in his pocket for something with his other one—“not to run.” A syringe comes into view, and he pulls the yellow lid off the needle with his teeth before spitting it onto the grass.

“Please––”

Plunging it into my neck, I flinch away from him. But it’s too late.

My eyelids flutter.

Then the world fades to black.

31

Diece

Gun in hand, I search the north side of the estate, scanning the premises for anything out of place.

But it looks…fine.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I pull it out then press it to my ear. “Yeah?”

“Get back here. We have a problem.”

“What is it?”

“Q’s missing.”

I freeze. “Where is she?”

“We don’t know—”

“Fuck!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

A voice continues echoing through my cell, but I don’t hear a single word as I rush to the entrance of Kingston’s house then barrel up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Q’s bedroom door is cracked open, but it slams against the back wall as I shove it open with too much force. As my pulse races even faster, it doesn’t stop the truth from hitting me square in the jaw.

She isn’t in the bathroom. She’s not hiding under the bed. Her closet is empty too.

She’s gone.

Shoving aside the terrifying truth that’s glaring at me, I stalk toward the security room and find everyone already there. They’re surrounding the monitors while Lou plays back every second of footage that’s been recorded over the past twenty-four hours.

Unfortunately, they don’t tell us shit.

“Where is she?” I growl.

“We don’t know,” Kingston returns, though his attention stays glued to the screen.

“How do we know she’s gone?”

“He took her,” a quiet voice announces. Huddled in the corner of the room is the kid. Will.

Within three steps, I grab the neckline of his T-shirt and drag him to his feet before shoving him against the wall.

“Where. Is. She?”

“I don’t know. He just…he took her,” he cries.

“How do you know?”

The smell of piss permeates the air before Dex wrenches me back and shoves me away from the kid. “Back the hell off, Diece. He doesn’t know shit.”

“He knows she’s gone.”

“Because she snuck into his room to check on him,” Dex returns. “We found a rope hanging off the balcony. We think Sei climbed the trellis then hid the rope in the vines to use for a quick escape before searching for Q. When he found her, he threatened to kill Will if she didn’t go quietly.”

“Fuck!” I yell again, slamming my fist against the wall.

Grabbing the neckline of my shirt, Dex shoves me against the wall. “Listen to me. You have every right to be pissed right now, but we’ll find her.”

“When?” I spit back at him. “How? We’ve been searching for weeks to find Sei but haven’t turned up shit. How the hell are we going to find him before he touches her? Before he tortures her all over again?”

He shakes his head back and forth. “I don’t know. But we will.”

“Get the kid out of my sight. Now.”

Dex’s booming voice yells, “Regina!”

The pitter-patter of footsteps follows his demand before a disheveled Regina rushes into the room with a silky, black robe clinging to her skin.

“Go get Will some milk or something,” Dex finishes. “And clean him up. We’ve got shit to do.”

With a gulp, Regina pulls Will into her arms then ushers him out of the room without a single word.

“It isn’t his fault,” Lou mutters while continuing to search for answers on the monitors.

My fear for Q feels like it’s strangling me, but I drop my chin to my chest. Q would kill me if she knew I took my frustration out on a kid. It was unacceptable. Shame fills my lower gut fighting for dominance over my anguish as I mutter, “I know.”

“Go search the south side of the property. See if you can find anything. I’m going to keep looking for any footage, but he cut the power and jumbled our connection.” He pauses before adding, “The bastard knew what he was doing.”

I feel like spiders are crawling along my skin. Like I’m being dragged to the damn shed.