and a little blurry, but I would know that scar anywhere.
I nod violently. “Who is he?”
“Do you have any idea where they took him?” Jase snarls as his fist slams onto the desk.
“Wouldn’t I have led with that if I knew?” I scream as Mrs. Iazetti comes into the room.
“Xander?” she whimpers, her lips trembling. “He wasn’t acting like himself today. What is happening?”
“Nothing good, Gaia.” As Mr. Iazetti looks to his wife, his eyes soften. “But don’t worry. We’re going to handle this once and for all.”
Phoenix grabs my shoulders, yanking me in front of him, forcing me to look him dead in the eye. “Is there anything else, Charlotte? Any other detail that can help us find Xander?”
I shake my head. “I told you everything that I know. Why is this guy following me? What does he want with Xander?”
As Phoenix’s jaw tightens, I see the slightest hint of panic start to bubble up behind his normally stoic façade. “We’re going to take care of this and you’re coming with us.”
“What?” Jase flies up, sending the chair behind him careening into a wall. It crashes against a bookcase, making me jump a little. My nerves are shot, I am completely on edge. Everyone is.
“There is no way in hell we’re bringing her along for this,” Jase continues. “She’s a fucking liability! She always has been. Without her, Xander wouldn’t have been vulnerable enough to be taken! This is all her fucking fault and both of you know it!”
“Phoenix is right, Jase. We need to bring Charlotte with us. If Rossi has been following her this closely, she’s important. How important to this plot, we don’t know yet. But I have a feeling that we’re about to find out.”
“I am going, too,” Mrs. Iazetti grabs for my hand. “If she is going, I should go, as well. They have my baby!”
Mr. Iazetti’s shoulders tense as his eyes dart from me to his wife. “No.”
“What do you mean no?” Her chest puffs out as she pulls her spine up straighter. “He’s my son, too!”
“I need you to stay here. I don’t need one more innocent person to worry about. We are already going to have to protect Charlotte and get Xander. I can’t be worried about them taking my wife as leverage, too. You’re not coming and that is final.”
Mrs. Iazetti deflates next to me. I can tell she wants to keep protesting but she understands that she needs to trust her husband on this one.
“Bring him home,” she mutters, going over to Mr. Iazetti. As she puts her small hand on his stubble-covered face, my heart shatters even more. She’s just a mother pleading with her son’s father to save her baby’s life. No mother should ever have to do something like that. None of this is fair — especially to her.
“I promise.” Mr. Iazetti kisses her wife’s cheek as Phoenix’s cell rings.
Putting it on speaker, Phoenix answers, “Yeah?”
“If you want to get him back, you need to go to the Library on Tenth and Andrews. That’s where they have him.”
“Who is this? Lorenzo?” Phoenix shouts.
“You need to hurry. He doesn’t have long.”
The caller hangs up and Gaia crumbles to the floor.
My heart can’t take this. It is breaking more and more with every passing second.
Was this all of my fault?
Did I put Xander in danger just by wanting to be with him?
Was this why he kept telling me that we couldn’t be together?
Did he know that something like this was going to happen?
“Oh my God! That’s where the event is being held. It's already started!” I yell. “My car is running out front. Let’s go!” Shoving the keys into Phoenix's hand, I stare at him. “He needs us.”
“We need to get you cleaned up first,” Marco breathes out. “Gaia?”
Xander’s mother pulls herself up and grabs my hand. “Come with me.”
In the small powder room off the foyer of their home, Gaia gets alcohol wipes and a travel makeup case out of the cupboard.
“Are you all right?” I ask as she starts to wash the blood off of the side of my face.
“I trust my boys to bring Xander home in one piece,” she states, almost robotically. The tears welling up in her eyes tell a different story.
After Gaia finishes cleaning up my wounds and covering up the evidence with makeup, she wraps her arms around me. “Thank you for loving my son.” Her words catch in the back of her throat.
Gripping her tightly to me, I whisper, “I