Someone is hurting her.
“Do they want a ransom?” I ask, my voice vibrating with anger.
“We don’t know,” Dad says calmly. Too calmly when I’m feeling like this. “But we need to decide whether we’re going to call the police.”
“No,” I answer immediately. No hesitation.
“No,” Jonah yells and runs to me, followed by Finn. “They’ll kill her, Jamie. He said no cops. We can’t call the cops.”
“They’re not going to kill her.” I open my arms and wrap them around Jonah. “They can’t,” I tell him because she’s going to be fine. She has to be. There is no me in this world without her in it too.
We lost Evan, and we survived. I won’t survive if she doesn’t.
“Jameson.” The room quiets as my grandfather walks in, flanked by two Secret Service agents. Still the biggest presence in any room, anywhere. “We don’t call the police. I’ve negotiated with far worse men than this. My team can and will handle this. They will get your fiancée and my grandson back.”
“How did you—” I start to ask, but Mom rests her hand on my arm and squeezes.
“I called him.”
“Jameson.” Grandfather stops in front of me, the kind of power most men will never know rolling off him in waves. “I need you to trust me.” He rests a hand on my shoulder, and I’m no longer looking at my grandfather. I’m looking at the man who was once the most powerful man in the world. “We will bring them home to you.”
He turns to one of the agents and nods, and the agent walks out of the room.
“Then what do we do? I can’t sit here and do nothing.” I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be calm when they could be hurting her. She’s got to be terrified. I told her I’d protect her...
“We wait.”
Ashton
“Shouldn’t she be awake by now?”
Oh God. I hold my breath and stay as still as possible, resisting the urge to run my hand over the throb in my neck where I’m guessing a needle went in. I don’t want them to know I’m not still asleep.
Right now, they’re leaving me alone.
I have no idea what they’ll do once they know I’m awake.
“How the fuck should I know? Did you dose her right?” I think that voice is the man who had Jonah.
Oh God, Jonah.
Is he here?
Wait... No. They told Jonah to tell Jamie.
They left Jonah behind.
“I used the same shit Petey Googs said he used.” That voice... That voice belongs to the man who had me. That voice is going to haunt my nightmares.
“You fucking dumbass. Googs used that shit on a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound guy. She’s not even half that. Christ. You better hope you didn’t kill her. The boss will fucking gut you.”
“What the fuck ever. He’ll still get his money. Her man is a pro baller.”
Money . . . They did this for money?
“Christ, you’re dumber than you look. They don’t give no shits he’s a King. His family’s money makes that look like chump change. His granddaddy was Harrison Cabot.”
“Who the fuck is Harrison Cabot?”
