“Ridgeway, you need to let me go.”
He snorted. “I don’t think I will. I’m sick and tired of everything being swept under the rug when it comes to the Davaros family. I looked the other way the time August was pulled over for a DUI, even after Felipe was caught selling drugs in university. But murder? No.” He stood abruptly, and all I wanted to do was close my eyes.
“Focus, Wynn.” A hard slap to the side of my face jolted me awake as nausea swirled through my stomach. “He killed my cousin. That was the last straw. I knew it, too. He used a disguise, but do you know how many witnesses there have been to this one guy being the last one with them? Same build as Julian. Someone even said they heard his voice and swore it was the prince.”
I had no idea if there were any witnesses or proof on Julian’s activities, and I doubted the royal family did either. Ridgeway was probably right that it had everything to do with the fact that Julian was a prince.
“What does any of this have to do with me? Your problem is with Julian.”
He huffed. “Oh, please. You’re his treasure, his shiny new thing that he adores. Hurting you means hurting him. Sure, Iwas just going to have you thrown in prison, but death will be just as good.”
He was going to kill me? “Is this because he got you taken off the case?”
His eyes flared, and he kicked the chair across the room, making me jump. “He killed my cousin. I lost count of how many missing people there have been on the islands. He’s a serial killer, Wynn, and you’re going to marry him. I have to stop you.”
“Me? I haven’t killed anyone.”
“You’re part of it.”
“And you’re unhinged!”
He gripped my neck, squeezed, and pressed me to the mattress. “I bet you like this, don’t you. Does he choke you like he choked Rona? Do you come from the feeling?”
I was going to die. I’d seen the same darkness in Julian’s eyes as he’d killed Bear.
“Ridgew…” It was getting harder to breathe, and dark spots were beginning to form in my vision.
“Your death will crush him,” he growled.
While heavy, I was able to lift my leg and with all the force I could muster, I knocked him off me. As soon as he hit the floor I gasped for air, desperate for it.
“You little shit.”
“If you kill me, he won’t stop until you’re dead.” My throat ached, and my voice sounded like I’d swallowed glass, but he heard me.
“When he finds me and I’m sure he will, I will be the one ending him. Stopping his reign of terror. Killing innocent people.”
“Innocent?” I chuckled only to be stopped by a cough.
“So suddenly you do know what he’s done.” He smirked, hovering beside the bed.
“Doesn’t matter, right? You’re going to kill me. But do yourself a favor and all these people you believe Julian so-called killed, check them out. How innocent were those people?”
“He doesn’t get to decide that!” he roared in my face.
“But you do? You’re saying they are innocent, and you’re chaining me here like an animal. Aren’t you the one playing judge, jury, and executioner?”
The sound of glass breaking caught our attention. He reached into the drawer in the nightstand and pulled out a rag and duct tape.
“Gotta make sure you keep quiet.” He shoved the rag into my mouth and secured it with the duct tape. It wasn’t helping my nausea, and I was certain if I threw up, I’d choke to death, so I did my best to breathe in and out through my nose and concentrate.
Ridgeway pulled a gun from his waistband and left the room, shutting the door behind him. I heard footsteps but nothing more. Was the glass breaking simply something falling? I had no idea where I was or how secure the place was. There were windows here, but they had some sort of black material covering the glass so I couldn’t see out. I suspected it was a house.
I couldn’t hear any sounds anymore, not even footsteps. It was too quiet, and I wasn’t sure that was better than the sounds of chaos.
I heard crunching and then a sort of slide to my left. One of the windows was slowly being opened. I didn’t move or make a noise. I knew it couldn’t have been Ridgeway—why would he come in this way? I also didn’t want to draw attention and have the fuckface come running.
Once the window was open, there was a masked person that climbed in, so quietly I barely heard them, followed by another and then another. One of them went to the bedroom door,another to the side of the bed, and the last came to me and carefully removed the tape and gag.
