No.
No, no, no.
They found me.
After two months of staying invisible, of jumping at shadows and sleeping with one eye open, Victor’s people finally tracked me down. And of course it happened here, in New York, because I was stupid enough to come back to visit my mother’s grave. Sentimental and reckless, and now I’m paying for it.
“I’m not going back,” I spit, still trying to wrench free even though I know it’s useless. “You can’t make me?—”
“We’re not asking.”
More men appear, blocking the alley entrance, and I realize with sinking certainty that I’m not getting out of this. There are four of them. Trained and loyal to Victor, and I’m one exhausted woman who hasn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in weeks.
I keep fighting anyway, because the alternative is giving up, and I didn’t spend two months running just to roll over now. I kick one of them hard enough that he grunts, manage to bite another’s hand when he tries to cover my mouth, but it doesn’t matter. They’re stronger, and they don’t care if they hurt me in the process.
They drag me toward a black SUV idling at the curb. The door opens, and they shove me inside. I hit the seat hard, scrambling immediately for the opposite door, but it’s locked. Child safety locks, probably. One of them slides in beside me, another in front, and Luca takes the driver’s seat. The doors slam shut, and we’re moving before I can try anything else.
“Where are you taking me?” My voice is shaking, fury and fear tangled together until I can’t tell which is which.
“Airport,” Luca says without looking back. “We have a plane waiting.”
“For where?”
“Somewhere you can’t run from this time.”
I slam my fist against the window, knowing it won’t break but needing to dosomething. “Victor can’t just lock me up. I’m not his property.”
“You’re his niece. That’s close enough.”
The casual certainty in his voice makes me want to scream. This is my life, my future, and to them I’m just a runaway asset that needs to be secured. It doesn’t matter what I want or what I’ve been through. Victor says come home, so they drag me back like a dog on a leash.
We drive in silence for ten minutes, weaving through New York traffic toward wherever this private airfield is, and I force myself to think past the panic.
They grabbed me off the street near a mob shooting. They have to know I witnessed it. But Luca hasn’t asked any questions about what I was doing there or if I saw anything. Hasn’t mentioned Cassian at all.
They think I was just a bystander. Wrong place, wrong time, caught up in violence that had nothing to do with me.
The relief is sharp and immediate, followed quickly by grief.
Cassian doesn’t know they took me. Probably thinks I ran when the shooting started, that I’m somewhere in the city, terrified of him now that I’ve seen what he’s capable of. He has no reason to look for me, no way to know that the Vances just reclaimed their runaway daughter.
Which means I’m on my own.
The thought sits in my chest like a stone.
“Victor’s still planning to marry me off to that old man,” I say, testing. “That’s what this is about, right?”
Luca glances at me in the rearview mirror. “Your fiancé died of a heart attack two weeks after you disappeared. When he found out his bride had run away.”
I blink. “What?”
“He’s dead. Has been for almost two months.”
The arranged marriage is gone. The alliance Victor wanted, the entire reason I ran in the first place—it’s already over. And I didn’t even know.
“Then why am I being dragged back?” I spit. “If there’s no marriage, no deal, what’s the point?”
“You embarrassed the family. Made Victor look weak. You think he’s just going to let that slide?”
