an uneasy truce, so it’s shocking to not see any of his security team in the hotel room and in the hallway.
“Where is your team?” I ask.
“I don’t need a team. It’s just you and I.”
“You don’t think I’ll run?” I say, running my hand over the leather of the couch in one of this suite’s two living rooms.
“No, you won’t run. You know I’m your only hope of finding Declan and keeping those you love alive. If you run, our deal is off, and I’ll go after your kids, as was my initial plan. Alas, I’ve gone soft. I want you to suffer, not your kids.”
“You do realize your beef is with my father, not me, right? I’ve only met my father once.”
Corbin puts his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. “I know, but your father is dead. It’s only fair that you pay for his sins.”
I shiver as he stares at me.
“So once this is all over, you’re going to keep me as your sex slave until I eventually die?”
“Would it be so bad? If I remember correctly, you were the one who willingly sucked my cock.”
“I did that to get the next clue. To find my child! Not because I enjoyed it, you fucking pig!”
He smirks, enjoying seeing me rattled up. “I don’t want you as a sex slave. I have other plans for you.”
He walks over to his suitcase and pulls something out before handing it to me. It’s a first aid kit and a change of clothes. My clothes are bloodied, and I still have an open wound from where I stabbed myself.
I take the clothes and head into one of the six bathrooms in the penthouse hotel. I don’t know why Corbin decided to get us such an expensive hotel for the night. It makes me nervous about what is going to happen next.
I shower, tend to my wound, and get dressed quickly. Every second we waste is another second my son is in danger.
He could be dead, that voice in my head says. If he is, everything we’ve all sacrificed for would be for nothing.
He’s not dead. I refuse to believe Declan is dead.
I step back out into the living room where I left Corbin, but I don’t find him.
“Corbin?” I ask, shouting down the hallway, and my ears turned up trying to listen for him. I half expect him to have brought his entire team up to the floor while I was in the shower. Instead, I find him out on the large patio that overlooks the city with a drink in one hand.
His eyes scan me up and down, but not in a hungry way. It’s annoyed, more in a way that tells me I interrupted him deep in thought.
“What were you thinking about?” I ask.
He motions for me to sit, and he takes the chair opposite mine. Most outdoor furniture is stiff and scratchy, but this chair feels like I’m sitting on a cloud.
“Your father,” he says. He finishes his drink, once again staring off into the distance. I don’t think he’s going to tell me whatever he’s thinking about, but then he turns back.
“I think it’s time you and I tell each other everything we know.”
“You go first,” I say.
“I will because you need to realize that we aren’t on different sides, you and I.”
“I sold my soul to you in order to keep my children and husband safe. I think you and I are on as far of opposite sides as we can possibly get.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Tell me about my father.”
“When I first met your father, I thought he was a nothing. I thought he had a few connections to drug dealers, but I didn’t think he was much more. He didn’t seem that powerful. Honestly, I thought he was an addict himself. He was always a bit on edge, twitchy, with red shot eyes. Realizing I misjudged him cost me everything.” He balls his hands into fists, full of anger and frustration at himself as much as my father.
He’s silent for a while and then nods his head in my direction. I realize he’s expecting me to tell him what I know about my own father.
“You know more than me. He didn’t raise me. I only met him once, and it was to tell me about the fucking treasure, the bastard. He’s the one who took two of my kids from me, wasn’t he?” I don’t know why I expect Corbin to know, except that he