as I tap on Phoenix’s contact that I have had saved since we were young. All I could do was hope that he hadn’t changed his number. “Please!”
The phone rings a few times and then goes to voicemail.
I try again.
Same thing.
“Fuck!” I rake my fingers through my hair. It’s sticky and matted.
Looking at my hand, I see red stains. I’m bleeding. But there is no time to focus on that. I have to help Xander.
I clamber to my feet. I’m a little wobbly but who cares? I don’t. It doesn’t even matter that I don’t have shoes on. Heels would only slow me down. I run to the front door, grab for the first set of keys out of the dish and haul ass to the garage.
Clicking the unlock button on the remote, I search for the one that beeps to open for me. It’s my father’s Tesla and it is going to get me to the Iazetti home, fast!
Dropping into the driver’s seat, I wait impatiently for the garage door to finally open. The car is already in gear and I peel out as quickly as I can with squealing tires and a pounding head.
Thank God Xander’s house isn’t too far from mine.
Going eighty through the residential neighborhood, I nearly sideswipe about five cars. But I don’t, and that is what matters. All I care about is getting to Phoenix and letting him know that we have to save his brother.
My heart is going as fast as the damn car. All I can hear is the sound of blood rushing throughout my body. It gushes and pulses as I huff.
Tears of relief spring into my eyes as I slam the car in park on the street in front of the giant mansion.
I made it.
I don’t even bother turning off the engine or closing the car door as I leap out of the driver’s seat. I don’t have a single second to lose.
Who knows how long Scarface has had Xander and what he has been doing to him this entire time?
Fuck! Why did I have to pass out?
Slamming my fists on the door, I scream for someone to answer.
“Charlotte?” Mrs. Iazetti yanks the door open, her eyes wide. “Where is Xander.”
I don’t answer.
“Is Phoenix here?” I bellow, trying to keep my knees from giving out from under me.
“Charlotte, what is going on?” she yells, gripping my shoulder. “Sweetie, you’re bleeding!”
Her eyes are swarming with worry as she tries to get me to talk to her, but I don’t know how to tell the kindest woman I have ever met that her son was just kidnapped in front of me. How do you tell a mother something like that?
“Please, I need to talk to Jase or Phoenix. Please!” I push past her and run for Mr. Iazetti’s office.
They have to be in there. They always are.
Throwing open the door, I find all three of them sitting around the desk in the middle of the room. Their conversation halts as they all look over at me.
“Charlotte?” Mr. Iazetti leaps to his feet as I burst into the room.
“They have Xander!” I wail. Bile rises in the back of my throat and I clap a hand over my mouth to keep my shit together before I lose it all over the office floor. I feel like I am going to faint. How can this be happening?
What the hell is even happening?
“What do you mean? Who has Xander? Weren’t you supposed to be at your family’s gala tonight?” Phoenix rushes for my side, gripping my wrist. As he shakes my arm, I finally look at him.
With tears streaming down my face, I break into an explanation that I don’t even believe. It all seems so surreal. “The guy with the scar. He broke into my house. Blaine Montrose is in on it. They attacked us. They have Xander.”
“How long ago did they take him?” Jase’s face is twisting from rage to concern with every second, like a pendulum ticking back and forth. “Fuck!”
“I’m not too sure,” I admit before glancing down at the time on my cellphone screen. It’s eight thirty. The gala has already started. Fuck. “Not more than an hour or so. They knocked me out. I woke up and came straight here.”
“You did the right thing,” Mr. Iazetti replies to me.
“The man with the scar, is this him?” Phoenix shoves his phone in front of my face, holding up a picture of Scarface. It looks like a surveillance photo, far away