“So, after you pulled your naïve and noble switch, and I saw Cillian’s interest in you, I approached your father. No one would hire him after he’d pulled what he did, so he offered to help lure you out in return for a higher-level position in my company.” Thorin laughed again. “You never make deals when you’re desperate, though.”
He truly had sold me out.
My stomach dropped. How much of my past was a lie? When had he grown this amoral? Not that he’d been a champion of justice growing up, but he’d been kind to me. He’d loved my mom. He’d never talked about work much at home, but I knew it had sawed away at him sometimes. However, I never would have thought he’d sell me out. Never. It was like the man I’d known my entire life had been bodysnatched, and now I’d never get the answer as to why, because he was dead.
The two men on either side of me jostled elbows often enough to remind me they were there, and my breath snagged. Their proximity made my skin crawl. Their grip on my arms ensured I wouldn’t be able to bolt away, even though we were in the middle of a moving car.
“We got lucky you took the bait, though,” Thorin said. “Our window with Cillian was closing, but it looks like we’ll get everything we want. He’s run out of time.”
“What does that mean?” I asked as Thorin wheeled into a vacant warehouse parking lot. The huge building was tucked out of sight, surrounded by larger ones that cast deep shadows over the lot. I’d expected him to drag me off to Spectacle Casino at first, but that would’ve been a lot harder to conceal in the middle of the day. Enough people streamed in and out of Casino Alley that someone would’ve noticed armed men smugglingme inside. Guaranteed he planned to move me elsewhere once nightfall hit, though.
Thorin never answered my question, simply pulled to a park and then hopped out of the car. The guy on my right opened the door, since clearly we’d be moving at any moment. My mind hummed, just maintaining the static, and my body felt like it belonged to someone else. Thorin walked up to the other guard, who’d been sitting in the passenger seat. “Keep him here for the time being. I’ll call when we’re ready for the transport.”
He then strode to the driver’s seat, all while my guards jostled me out of the back. They dragged me from the car, and I didn’t resist, because right now I’d rather be with them than alone with Thorin Glass.
Bang.
The sound of the gun going off echoed in my memory, even though I’d barely registered it at the time. Over and over and over again it played. A sound that would haunt me in my nightmares to come. If I even survived this.
Thorin hadn’t been affected in the slightest.
“This way,” one of the guys said, giving my arm a tug. I was too lost in my spiral to even register, and my feet moved on automatic. Thorin’s car roared to life again, and he zipped out of the parking lot.
I wished I could warn Cillian. Find a way to tell Amelia more. I hoped she’d heard enough of what had been said while the phone was on that at least she could try to protect him. The idea that my naivete might have hurt Cillian made my stomach spasm again.
My father had sold me out.
The concept was unthinkable, and the situation had unfolded so fast I barely had a moment for the reality to settle in. Yet if I survived this, the betrayal would haunt me for a lifetime.
I should’ve questioned him more instead of blindly trusting. I’d gotten myself into this situation, and I had to live with the repercussions. Shame rolled through me. And now Cillian faced trouble because of it too. After he’d set me free, this was how I repaid him.
My stomach churned.
The warehouse smelled like must and sawdust, and one of the guards flicked a light on, the stacks of pallets making it appear like any other warehouse in the city, rather than my temporary holding cell. They guided me over to a small office, switched on the light, and shoved me in.
The guard who led the way turned toward me and pulled out zip ties. He let out a grunt, grabbed my wrists, and bound them together, then crouched to do the same with my ankles. The squeeze of them made me itch, made me want to scream, but the sight of the gun in the holster at his side kept me still. Kept me silent. I’d seen the result of that firing earlier today.
“I’d sit if I were you,” he said, giving an up nod in the direction of a chair beside the desk. “It’ll be a long wait.”
The guard to my right grabbed the chair and pulled it underneath me, and I lowered myself onto the seat. It squeaked from the sudden weight, but my legs were shaky enough that I didn’t want to try to stand again. Once I settled, the three guards left the room and shut the door behind me.
Leaving me in utter silence.
The room was simple and small, clearly an office that didn’t get used too often. A chipped wooden desk sat beside me, the walls the sort of paste white that made reminded me of glue, and the floor an unremarkable gray. My skin crawled at the lack of distraction—my mind was the last place I wanted to be.
My mind just kept screaming the same loop on repeat, one I needed—desperately needed—to silence.
A few muffled sounds of what could be conversation sounded outside the room, but then they tapered off. I skimmed the desk for anything that might loosen the zip ties, but they’d put me in a spartan sort of holding cell. Which made sense, but I cursed their preparedness.
I settled back in the seat and stared up at the ceiling. This morning, I’d woken up in the bed of the man I loved after a night with him that I’d remember for the rest of my life.
Then I’d left the Spires, and it had all gone downhill from there.
The one thing that had been awaiting me on the outside was my father. And he’d sold me out to Thorin fucking Glass. Had his resistance when I first offered to take his place been feigned? Hot liquid stung my eyes, but I didn’t bother to restrain the tears. They streamed down my face, and I couldn’t even wipe them away. No one was here to see them anyway. It had been him and me against the world for so long, and I struggled to wrap my head around what had happened in those brief moments in his apartment. That ultimately, he’d valued his own comfort before mine.
Enough to turn me over to Thorin Glass.
The sight of him on the floor flashed in my head, and my stomach convulsed again, but there was nothing left to vomit up. I was starving at this point, my whole body feeling weak from lack of sustenance and sheer exhaustion after the adrenaline crash, but there was nothing I could do in here.
