“I understand.” I kissed her knuckles again and thought of what we’d spoken about in relation to her moving in with me. “I’m still holding you to moving to Chicago.”
“I know you are.” She smiled. “I forgot to ask you why we couldn’t just move to LA. I like my house by the beach. We first kissed on that beach.”
“I wanted to do more than kiss you on that beach.”
“Yes, I remember very well.”
I pulled her into my lap and admired her smooth golden legs. “You want me to go to LA, I’ll go. I hate it there, but I can love it for you.”
She ran her hands over my jaw and leaned down to kiss my nose. “I never hated Chicago. You love Chicago, and I think of it as home. We like Italy too. I think I see me here.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded and smiled. “Look at us. I think we’re planning the future.”
“I like that. I want it with you, but you must promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” She searched my eyes.
“Dancing. You have to find yourself. You have to promise me you’ll find a way to do what you love most. You might not be able to go to Julliard, but you mentioned teaching, and I’m certain you can still dance if you want to. Just find a way.”
She nodded, and it warmed my heart.
However, a buzzing sound made my heart shy away again. It was her phone on the nightstand. A text had just come through.
She looked to it and froze but moved off my lap to look at it.
I watched her pick it up, tap in her password, then her hands started shaking and she screamed, dropping the phone.
I jumped up instantly and picked it up.
On the screen was a picture of Victor with Gigi. Gigi’s face was black and blue, and around her neck was the signPlayer 1. Victor had a big smile on his face, like he was taking some fucking selfie.
Chapter 9
Luc
* * *
“I’ll live. I’m just waiting for some meds, and then I’m on my way,” Maurice told me. He coughed, and it made a static sound on the phone.
He’d taken a bullet to the chest. It grazed the side of his chest, but I knew he couldn’t be okay. Not okay enough to be on his way. I would have preferred for him to stay in the hospital.
“You need to stay.”
“Luc, this is one time I’m not listening to you. Fucking idiots used knock-out gas to get in the house. They took my girl and killed all the men who’d been standing guard, but it seems like they wanted to keep me alive.”
I sneered hearing that. Victor was one damn son of a bitch.
“It’s all part of this fucking game.”
“Oh yeah, I don’t doubt that one bit. That bastard left me behind to tell you what happened. I saw the gas and instantly knew what was going down. Gigi was in her room reading her cards and casting some protection spell over the place. I’ll tell her it didn’t work when I see her.”
I’d known Maurice long enough and well enough to know that when he joked about something like that, it meant he was deeply hurting.
“We’ll get her back,” I promised. I knew over the last few weeks from our conversations that he’d taken a shine to Amelia’s friend. Gigi, the good witch who could charm anyone. They’d better not hurt her.
My brain was numb because I knew that if Victor had her, anything could happen to her. We’d tried calling the number the text came from, but to no avail. We’d also tried tracking it with our contact from the CIA, but nothing. The number wasn’t registered to anyone, and there was no trace on its location even though the phone was supposedly switched on.
