So, I’m used to his harshness. I don’t usually mind it. But right now, I want to punch him in the face.
I avoid that impulse by taking a sip from the glass of whiskey that’s been sitting in front of me, untouched, for the past hour.
“No one wants a feud,” grumbles Vale. “The Cole clusterfuck could’ve happened to anyone we hired. Their job was to get the nanochip, and they kept their end of the bargain. Now, it’s gone, and we’re fucked.”
“But we don’t know that Lucy…” I begin.
“We know Lucy better than the pet,” objects Logan. “In fact,we don’t know the pet at all. And the simplest explanations are usually the right ones. Let it go, Damien. I know you like her, but let it go.”
“I don’t give a fuck about her,” I snap, a little too hotly.
Vale raises an eyebrow.
“What’s next?” I ask quickly, trying to recover from my outburst. “Did you find out where the girl lives?”
“Better than that: we foundher,” says Logan. “She’s in a car on her way here as we speak. I told them to bring her to my office. Igor is already there.”
My blood goes cold. It feels like someone’s just drop-kicked me in the stomach. This isn’t how it was supposed to happen.
After all my months of waiting, everything’s unraveling in front of me. Fuck.
Now, she’s on their radar. On Vale’s radar.
If he has his way, I know what awaits her. And it isn’t good.
I do my best to suppress the protective instinct that’s flared up inside me. I need to figure out how to keep her safe without appearing weak. Without giving Vale something to latch onto.
“I’m going to take a walk,” I mutter. “I need some air. Don’t do a thing without me.”
Logan looks at me, concern flickering in his eyes. He may be an asshole, but deep down, he has a good heart. Out of all of them, he’s the one who always has my back.
“Look,” he says, “you’re right. We don’t know anything. We won’t kill her unless we’re absolutely sure.”
Well. That’s a consolation.
“In any case, we’ll wait for you,” he promises. “She was surprisingly energetic, so they sedated her, a small dose to keep her unconscious while we assessed. That way, they didn’t need to keepthe handcuffs on her. They were worried she’d hurt herself.”
What the fuck. They touched her without my permission. They drugged her.
It takes everything I have to keep control of my rising anger.
“We had no time,” he says defensively, as if he can read my inner thoughts. He probably can. “As soon as Lucy realized what the girl had taken, she called the guys waiting in the car. Another minute and it would have been too late.”
I nod shortly, trying to keep a mask on my face. What’s done is done. No use showing them how much it angers me. What I need to focus on is protecting the girl. Making sure things go my way.
Still, as I leave the room, I can’t help but insist, “No touching her until I get there. Got it?”
And I know that at least Logan has understood my unspoken threat.Don’t touch her... or else you’re all dead.
3
Seraphina
The hood lifts and cold metal digs into my temple.
I blink, my eyes getting accustomed to the bright artificial lights. I feel weird, groggy. My stomach churns, and I wonder if I’m going to be sick. The headache slicing through me doesn’t help. How the hell did I get here? Was I drugged?
The cold metal against me cuts through the fog. I dart my eyes around, trying to understand where I am, and what’s happened.
