"If you're wondering why I'm here, it's because you didn't fulfill your end of the bargain," he tells me simply.
The gears in my head turn, trying to make sense of his statement. "You don't mean…" My eyes snap up to meet his. "You still want me tomarryyou?" I ask as if it's the most absurd thing I've ever heard in my life. And quite frankly, it is after all that's happened between us. "I willnevermarry you, Giovanni."
"I thought maybe you'd say that," he says, sneering. "But I have ways of making you comply to what I want," he threatens.
Tears fill my eyes as I shake my head, but he's right. If he threatens to harm me in any way, I will do anything he says to protect my baby.
He opens his arms and gestures with his hands for me to come to him. When I don't move, he tells me, "You can't escape, Adeline. I have guards surrounding the house. There's nowhere you can go where I won't find you. You have to know that deep down."
His fingers make a come-hither motion once more, and I cringe with how much I detest him. Reluctantly, I step forward and release a sob when he enfolds me in his strong arms.
"That's my girl," he whispers soothingly. "I knew you'd see things my way." Releasing me from his hold and grabbing my hand in a tight grip, he says, "Come on. We have a long ride ahead of us."
CHAPTER 37
LUCIEN
"SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT," I hear Jax announce from his seat across from me on the small private jet.
He's been watching the data on Adeline nonstop ever since we left, even though not much has changed.
I open my laptop and scroll through the program. "It looks exactly the same," I grumble. "She's in the same exact location that she was hours ago."
"Not the GPS. I'm talking about her vitals."
His words send me into panic mode, and I open up another window to check the data. I had been so focused on her location that I didn't even think about checking her vitals. How could I have been so fucking careless?
Cursing, I look at the elevated heart rate. I try to tell myself that it's nothing, but it could be something. Hell, it could be anything.
Until I have Adeline in my arms, I will never be able to rest or relax.
Jax peers up at me, his face etched with worry lines. "Do you think something is happening to her?"
I narrow my eyes at my cousin. Over the past few days, his concern over Adeline together with his infatuation before I was shot are all leading to one conclusion and one conclusion only.
JacksonlovesAdeline…maybe even as much as I do.
In fact, he might even be in love with her, for all I know.
She's so damn easy to love. How can I even really fucking blame him?
Look how easily I fell for Adeline. My beautiful girl wormed her way into my cold, dead heart, and I think she did the same thing with Jax, perhaps just in a different way.
Maybe I shouldn't have dangled Adeline in front of him like a piece of forbidden fruit. He's obviously been craving a taste of her, but he knows better. He knows I'll never share her.
Clenching my hands into fists, I close my eyes and rein in my anger and temper as it flares deep inside me like a volcano getting ready to erupt. I can't take my frustration out on Jax right now. I need as many allies on my side as I can get. And if he feels that strongly about Adeline, then that means he'll fight twice as hard as everyone else to get her back.
"Jax, she will be okay," I hear Katya whisper soothingly.
I look up just in time to see Katya lean over and place her hand over his. The strong, silent look that the two of them exchange paints a picture that is worth a thousand words.
Jax is clearly falling for Katya, and vice versa. And that instantly calms me somewhat. Katya will be good for Jax. Because he sure as hell isn't laying a finger onmy girl.
Once I get Adeline back, I'm keeping her. Forever. And she'll never be out of my sight again.
A beeping noise alerts me to a change in GPS coordinates, and my heart thuds loudly in my chest as I check the digital map.
The blip on the radar screen is moving.Quickly. She's in a car.
