know where to look. The two men sitting in the front? The two men sitting on either side of me? Or just straight ahead on the road before us? Yes, I’ll go with the road. It’s the safer bet.
With my hands in my lap, I squeeze my shoulders together, trying to make myself as small as possible. When my eyes wander, and I look out to the side window, I catch Damon’s eyes on me. Even when he sees me looking, he keeps staring at me, and I don’t know how to feel about that. It’s like he doesn’t care that I caught him watching me, which intensifies the anxiousness that I’m already feeling.
“Xander tells me you’re twenty-one?” Damon finally breaks the silence. His voice is just as dark and ominous as his brother’s.
“Yes.” I nod my head, not understanding why my age is being brought up, yet again.
“We’re almost there,” Xander announces. “Lean forward.”
“Huh?” I twist around to look at him, but he is already pushing on my shoulders, forcing me to lean forward.
“Put your hands behind your back,” he orders while digging for something in his pocket. My eyes catch on a pair of cable ties, only then, do I realize what he is up to.
“I won’t run…”
“That’s not the point. Just do it,” he growls, and I slowly bring my hands to the small of my back. Every inch of my body is shaking. I’m not sure if I’m scared of him, or of what’s going to happen next. Xander grips my arms and fastens the cable ties around my wrists to the point of pain. The plastic cuts into my skin, but I don’t complain.
With my hands tied behind my back, I awkwardly and uncomfortably lean back against the seat. Neither of the Rossi brothers says anything to me, and once again, the car is blanketed in silence. We drive a few more minutes before pulling up to a large parking lot behind an abandoned warehouse. Oh no… I’ve seen movies.
I know the kind of shady shit that happens at abandoned warehouses, and it’s nothing good. We circle the building like sharks, and I catch sight of another fleet of vehicles.
That must be Zane.
My heart starts beating faster and my throat swells. Am I really going to see him? What am I going to say? What is he going to say? Will he be mad at me? I never thought this would actually happen, so I never prepared myself for the scenario.
All my internal questions are cut off when I feel a hand on top of my head. Before I can turn to see who is touching me, the hand ruffles through my hair. Like a ten-year-old boy would do to a girl to make her mad.
“Hey! What the hell?” I whine, trying to move away from the hand.
“Can’t have you looking all put together and shit. You were my prisoner after all,” Xander explains. When he is done making a knotty mess of my hair, he takes the fabric of my shirt and rips it around my shoulder and down my arm. “There you go. That’s better.”
I look over at him, dumbfoundedly. “So, if they ask about where you kept me, should I lie? Maybe make up some dungeon?”
Xander smirks. “Smart girl, you are, though there isn’t any need to make it up. There is a dungeon at my place, and as far as everybody knows, that’s where you were kept.”
“Got it.” I nod, just as the car is put into park.
The front doors open first, the guards climb out and open the back doors. Damon is the first out. When I scoot toward his door to slip out, Xander grabs me by the arm, tugging me toward his door instead.
Sliding across the seat, he pulls me out of the car. My feet land against the concrete, and I suck in a precious breath of oxygen, almost as if I hadn’t been breathing the entire drive here.
Xander doesn’t give me a chance to prepare myself and starts walking toward the caravan of vehicles. Good thing he has an iron grip on my arm because the first step I take, I trip and almost faceplant. Xander pulls me up, and I fall in step beside him.
As soon as I lift up my head, I spot Zane and another man, off in the distance. My entire body locks up and my heart tightens in my chest.
He’s really alive.
Our eyes connect, and even from a distance, I can