One by one, everyone raised their glasses. “To Gabriel.”
Gabriel drained his glass in one gulp, his eyes flitting around the room, calculating how much longer he had to stay there.
Leaning in, I refilled his glass. “You did well, brother. Even if you cut the ceremony down to about a quarter of its usual length. Good thing everyone is still too stunned to have seemed to notice.”
At least it meant I could get out of here now, instead of wasting more hours sitting through a boring ceremony, pretending to be interested. It was nearing five in the morning, and I was ready to find Quinn, the urge getting stronger the longer I was away from her.
“Fuck you.”
Chuckling, I leaned back in my seat.
Time to get the life I want.
There was no reason for me to stay. And for the first time since I could remember, I left before anyone else.
I was walking down the long corridor, a spring in my step thanks to the weight that had been removed from my shoulders, when rushed footsteps sounded behind me.
“Liam,” Jude called, sprinting down the long hallway. “We have a problem.”
The smile dropped from my face. “What problem?”
“Quinn is gone.”
“What do you mean,gone?”
Jude ran a hand through his hair. He was out of breath, his usual smirk absent, replaced by a frown. “She went to the airport thirty minutes ago. Gunner’s men said they went with her, then watched her sit down at a café. One moment she was having a cup of coffee, and the next she was gone.”
Whoever took her would regret ever laying a hand on her. Because I was coming for them.
19
QUINN
When I saidI needed time away I didn’t mean this. I was more thinking of hiding out in my old apartment above my parents’ garage, not a dank basement.
The chain on my leg rattled with each movement, the cold metal digging into my skin. I was shivering, only dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. I’d lost my shoes somehow, and the cold floor stung my bare feet.
The last thing I remembered was taking a sip of my coffee, and then everything went hazy. And now I found myself sitting in the pitch-black, giving me no clue as to where I was or what happened.
My head throbbed, and my mouth tasted like bile. Had I thrown up but couldn’t remember? I was still half drunk and only had about three hours of sleep so anything was possible.
I ran my hands along the ground, deducing that I was sitting on a concrete floor. The chain didn’t reach far, allowing for minimal movement. The saying that things could always be worse was obviously true. I thought Liam lying to me and stringing me along was the worst thing that could ever happen to me. Guess the joke was on me.
How long have I been down here?My tongue felt thick, and I was dying for a sip of water.
Who would take me? And feel the need to chain me to the wall when, really, I pose a low flight risk?
As if my thoughts had conjured the boogeyman, footsteps stomped closer, and the door to my cell swung open with an ominous screech.
Two men entered, one waiting by the door holding a lantern, as the other approached me. They both wore ski masks, the low light casting the room in a horror-movie-worthy glow.
I met his gaze, my stubbornness winning out over my body’s need to shake like a leaf. “What do you want with me? Why did you take me? Where am I?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said, sounding like a cheap villain. “And here I thought I was the one in charge.”
Lifting my chin, I resisted the urge to raise my voice. “You took me against my will, and I want to know why.”
“And I want the Olysses bastards to be dead. Yet here we are, neither of us getting what we want.”
