“You didn’t think you could get away from me that easily, did you?” he asks, running his hand over my jaw. I have to resist the urge to jerk away from his hand in case it infuriates him enough to hurt me. “I have people on my payroll everywhere, and they were quick to tip me off when you showed up with your bodyguard to get married. Had someone follow you to the hotel and bribed the front desk clerk into giving me your room number.”
“Roarke will kill you.”
I cry out as pain shoots across my cheek, the backhanded slap echoing through the small room. It wasn’t unexpected, though. I know better than to taunt the man. Then, I feel a trickle of blood down my cheek. Yuri still has his hand raised, and I notice the large garnet ring on his finger, the likely source of the cut on my face.
“Your father and I had a deal,” he hisses, those dark eyes turning venomous. “I helped him acquire a business he’s been eyeing in exchange for you. I saw you with your parents at a gala years ago and knew then I had to have you. I had to bide my time and…make sure I was available, but it was worth the wait.”
I freeze. “You bought me.”
I realize now that Bella and Gia were never an option, and it offers me a little relief that they are safe. Christ, how could my father agree to this? What business was more important than his daughter?
“I don’t give a fuck that you’ve already whored yourself out to that man. Though you now belong to me. You’ll pay for that, of course,” he growls, grabbing my chin painfully and forcing my eyes to meet his dark ones. “I would have come up for you if you hadn’t come down. I was ready to kill that bastard for touching what belongs to me. I still might, but maybe another time. Tonight, I will teach you a fucking lesson for thinking you could cross me.”
A shiver rolls through my body, and I experience fear unlike anything I have ever felt. My mind wanders back to the man sleeping upstairs, and my chest clenches painfully at the thought of never seeing him again. I should have stayed in bed with him. But then, his life would have been in danger if I hadn’t left.
Whatever happens next, at least I saved him from that fate.
Chapter Eight
Roarke
I wake with a start, but not from a nightmare, I realize with surprise. I don’t recall the last time I simply fell asleep. It’s been ages since I went to sleep without staring at the ceiling for hours or downing pills before I found sleep. And I know who to thank for that.
I reach out to touch the spot next to me, and my eyes shoot open when I find it empty. She’s not in bed with me, but I don’t panic. At least not yet. A gut feeling tells me she’s not anywhere in the room, but I figure she’s probably in the bathroom.
I’m not a deep sleeper. Fuck, normally, I would have heard the mattress shift or even the door open, but I slept through that. Knowing she’s not in the room, I still get up and go to check the bathroom, unsurprised to find it empty. One look at the living room area tells me that she’s not there either. “Elena?”
Now, I start to panic.
Fuck, she probably went out for some air, which is definitely not the smartest thing for a genius girl like her to do. There are people out there who want nothing but to harm her. A single glance at the bedside clock tells me that it’s only eleven, which means she couldn’t have been gone for long.
I slide into my pants and shirt, not bothering to button them as I grab the gun I had Conor bring me after the wedding. I slide it into my waistband and grab my phone, set to activate the tracker I had planted on her phone when I started out as her bodyguard. Then, I remember she left it behind at her parents’ house.
“Goddamnit!” I curse, dialing my sister’s number. It rings three times before she picks up.
“Shouldn’t you be celebrating your nuptials with your wife? It’s the middle of the night,” she whines. I hear rustling, as if she’s shoved covers over her head. “Not everyone is a night owl, Roarke.”
“Elena is missing.”
“What?” That seems to snap her out of wanting to go back to sleep.
“I woke up, and she’s gone.” It probably sounds dumb saying it out loud, and if it were anyone else, I wouldn’t be as worried. But Elena is currently hiding from her family and the man they want to sell her off to. I don’t care if I’m overreacting.
“I bet she just went out for a walk,” Fiona offers calmly, but I hear her climb out of bed. “You’re probably worried over nothing.”
“Perhaps,” I say with a nod, pacing helplessly in my room. “But I still need you to hack into our hotel’s security and tell me where she is.”
“On it,” she chirps. I hear the clicks as her fingers fly across the keyboard. “Just give me a few minutes. It’s not easy to crack into the security of such a secure hotel, but…got it!”
My heart jerks in my heart. “Tell me, Fiona.”
“Searching,” she hums, the sound of her fingers tapping the keyboard breaking into the call. “Okay, let’s see here… Yes, there she is getting into the elevator.Aw, she’s wearing your jacket, how sweet.”
“Focus, Fiona.”
“Right,” she mutters, clicking frantically. “Okay, she’s going down to the lobby. She steps out, and…”
“What? Fiona?”
