Through heavy, blinking eyes, I saw him grab the knife again, raising it high above his head. I tried to move, to stop him, but I couldn’t. The drug was too strong. I passed out before I could see the blade come down.
PRESENT
The music was deafening, pounding through the walls as if the entire house was vibrating with it. People milled around in costumes—witches, devils, skeletons—faces painted in macabre colours, their laughter and chatter blending into the chaos. I shifted, my foot knocking against a broken glass on the floor. It had been dropped earlier when Ainsley came on my fingers. I could still smell her on me, and if everything went well tonight, she would be spending the night at my place. Her friends would be too drunk to notice she wasn’t with them.
My chest tightened. For a second, I’d thought I was too late—that the one-eyed bastard had taken her. The thought had haunted me as I sped here. But the minute I stepped into the house, I spotted her. My eyes locked onto her figure in the sea of costumes, relief flooding through me.
But that relief was short-lived.
Because then I saw it—the real situation. Some asshole was trying to dance with her, his hands gripping her too tight, hismovements too forceful. Her discomfort was clear, but the prick didn’t seem to care. Rage flared in me, a dark, boiling anger that nearly sent me charging towards him. My fists itched to connect with his face, to knock him out cold right then and there. But I’d forced myself to stay put. I didn’t want to do it with so many people around. I had to wait until she shook him off. Because if I went there, people would stop me from punching him till the ground swallowed him.
When she finally managed to pull away from him, I made my move. I was on him in seconds, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and dragging him out of the crowd, far from the prying eyes of the party. The moment we were out of sight, I taught him the lesson he deserved. Several punches to the gut, another several to his jaw, and when he was down, I snapped his legs for good measure. I wasn’t just annoyed. I was furious. He was lucky I didn’t do worse.
I wasn’t sure why I was still alive. I half-expected to be dead after what happened some hours ago—the last thing I remembered was that man, the one with the eyepatch, raising the knife above me. The drug he’d injected me with had knocked me out cold for six hours. I’d woken up in the hospital an hour ago, dashed out of there with no knowledge of my helper, and went back to get my bike.
But I wasn’t dead.
And now that I’m not, that one-eyed bastard better pray that he is. Because the next time I find him, I’ll put him through hell.
The longer I stood here, the more the buzzing in my ears became deafening. My eyes flicked to the direction Ainsley had disappeared with her friend. It’d been twenty minutes, and they were still nowhere to be seen. The music felt louder, the beat a chaotic rhythm against my pulse. I waited a few more minutes, each second stretching into an eternity, before I finallycut through the crowd and made my way to the back door. Something wasn’t right.
I reached for the handle, about to yank it open, when the door flew towards my face. I jerked back just in time to avoid getting smacked in the nose. Jade stumbled in, half crying, half angry, her voice breaking between sobs. I recognised her immediately, despite her face being a smudged mess of paint and ruined makeup, streaks running down her cheeks like a bad joke.
But she was alone.
Panic hit me like a wrecking ball.
“Where’s Ainsley? She wouldn’t leave me alone. Where did she go?” Jade’s words tumbled out, frantic, her wide eyes searching mine.
My heart stopped. The earth spun.
I bolted outside, barely registering her cries as I spun around in the cold night air. She couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t be taken. My mind raced, desperate to find a reason that wasn’t the one threatening to suffocate me.
“Where was she? Where did you last see her?” My voice sounded foreign to my own ears—desperate, hollow.
Jade stared at me, confusion clouding her features. “She isn’t with you?” Tears spilled from her eyes as she muttered something about how the night was turning into a disaster, but I wasn’t listening.
My fists clenched. I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly to get her to focus. “Look at me. Focus.” My voice was harsh, almost a growl. My heart was thundering in my chest, and every fibre of my being was screaming at me to move, to find her. “Where is she?”
Jade blinked rapidly, finally snapping out of it. “I told her to get me wipes from the car...but she never came back.”
The car. My blood ran cold. “For how long?” I muttered, already piecing together the puzzle I didn’t want to solve.
“About nineteen minutes.”
I cursed under my breath and bolted, leaving her behind as I made a beeline for the cars parked in front of the house. I knew which one was theirs. I’d seen it when it was parked at Ainsley’s—a white sedan. When I reached it, the doors were locked, and she wasn’t inside. My gaze dropped to the ground, scanning for any sign.
The car key.
I grabbed it, trying it on the door to confirm it belonged to the sedan. The locks clicked open. Fuck. My heart drummed louder as I crouched, my eyes sweeping the area. Then I saw another—her silver wig, abandoned near a nearby car. I reached out, picking it up with trembling fingers. Not far from that, I spotted the wipes...and her phone, shattered, crushed.
But it was the half-full syringe that made my blood run cold. He’d injected a little of it into her.
The air whooshed out of my lungs as anger, frustration, and pure terror collided inside me. I gripped the syringe tighter than I should have, my knuckles white. He’d used it on her. He’d taken her.
I was furious at myself—furious for knowing he’d be here and still letting him get to her. She’d been gone for nineteen minutes, and I hadn’t noticed. Nineteen fucking minutes.
But that one-eyed bastard had underestimated me.
