I pace my room, sickness overwhelming me. Either sweet Macy has robbed me, or the fuckers have been in here and stolen all my stuff so I have no way of leaving. My pulse thunders through me. I’m fucked. I’m so fucking fucked. I have no money, no passport, no phone.
With adrenaline coursing through me like never before, I storm from the room, doing the only thing I can. “Where is all my stuff?” I cry, ready to fight for my freedom.
Jagger looks up at me from his place on the sofa, amusement dancing in his eyes as he tilts his head. “What stuff, flower? You will need to be more specific.” The asshole smirks back at me, a sick sense of pleasure in his voice.
Fuck him. Fuck all of them. The other two are watching me as well, all of them settled in the living room. Cruz has his feet up watching a fight on the flatscreen, while Jagger and Asher are in the recliners, both with a cold bottle of beer in their hands.
“My phone is gone!” I practically scream back.
Asher casually throws back his drink. “Is it?” He looks puzzled, but this time I know for sure it’s an act. The smug asshole is playing with me.
I cross my arms over my chest protectively. “Yes. And I know you assholes know something about it!”
“For your safety, flower,” Jagger snips like it’s no big deal and I’m the one overreacting.
White-hot fury pumps through me, and I see red, fixing my furious glare on him. “Give. It. Back.”
Jagger places his beer on the coffee table and stands, closing the gap between us in one large stride. “You’re in no position to demandanything from me.” His eyes narrow, and he looks me over like seeing me for the first time.
“I can’t believe you were just going to take off,” comes Cruz’s voice from behind him. He is standing now, backing up Jagger, and so is Asher. The three of them together like this look like a force to be reckoned with. But tonight, I’m not letting them intimidate me.
I flick my angry glare toward Cruz. “Who says I was?”
“The packed bag in your closet,” Asher chimes in, sounding just as disappointed as his brother. Ahh, more games, more acting—they are just messing with my head, trying to act sad about it.
My chest aches at their disappointment, but I don’t owe them anything. “I’m not staying here as your hostage,” I spit back, so ready for a fight.
Jagger motions to the front door. “You’re free to go anytime.” He grins all crazy-like. But even the way he says it, I know I’m not.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Give me my stuff then and I will be out of your way.”
Jagger looks over his shoulder at his brothers. “Do either of you know where Daisy’s packed bag and phone might be?” he asks, his tone way too relaxed for this tense situation. It makes me want to fly across the room and slap him, hurt him the way Dante’s words hurt me so deeply to hear. Tears threaten, but I won’t let them free; they have taken enough from me.
“No idea.” Cruz shakes his head, his lie crushing me in a way I didn’t think it could.
Asher shrugs. “Sorry, little princess, I haven’t seen it.”
Sickness churns in my stomach. What the hell is going on here? Is this some fucking game to them? I take a shaky step back from Jagger, my eyes still locked on his because I have no clue what he’s about to do. I have no clue what I’m about to do. An erratic energy swirls throughme as I stare back at them. I thought I knew them, thought I was someone to them.
Adrenaline surges through me, making me feel crazy, erratic, my eyes flicking from Cruz to Asher to Jagger. I have to get away from them, with my stuff or not. Cruz has the same look on his face as the first night I met him, cruel and slightly deranged. Asher looks me over with a coolness I haven’t seen before; it’s a little scary even, his charming pretty-boy features nowhere to be seen. And Jagger—well, he has this air of intimidating confidence about him, a sense of power in the way he’s towering over me that tells me I’m screwed. They know what my plan was, and they’re not going to let me go.
My heart races, and sweat trickles down my back. In a snap decision, I turn on my heel and bolt.
Chapter 36
Don’t Let Go
Myheartraceslikemad as I make it to the front door. With a shaky hand, I grip the handle and pull the heavy door open. Sprinting out into the hall, I look left and then right.
“Daisy,” Jagger’s furious growl follows me, stealing my time to think.
Instead of going for the elevator, the obvious choice, I run right past it and into the stairwell. Cold air hits me in the face, sending a shiver down my bare legs and feet. Why the hell didn’t I put shoes on beforeI left my room?
I take the stairs two at a time. The smooth, flat surface is easy to climb in bare feet. I go up, not down, hoping to trick them. And since I can’t feel or hear any of them behind me yet, I might just have a chance to make this work. Hopefully, it was the last thing any of them were expecting, and my head start gives me an advantage to find someplace to hide. I stride up the stairs as fast as my bare feet will take me and head back out onto the floor above.
I’m immediately hit with the smell of fresh paint and find a construction zone, not a long hallway with apartments like I assumed I would be walking into. Walls and doors are missing, and builders’ plastic stretches over the floor, walls nothing more than timber frames. I can see from one end of the floor to the other. Shit.
I glance over my shoulder to find I’m still alone, then look back up the length of the vast space, searching for a place to hide. My name sounds from the stairwell, a haunting sound that has my feet moving again. I stop running when I stumble upon a janitor’s closet on the far wall of the building. I throw myself in there, closing the door behind me. It’s been emptied at some stage but still holds the distinctive scent of bleach.
