“Where am I?” I ask, voice cracking. I try to swallow the emotion down like a shot of SokoloVodka, but it’s more like molasses—thick and sticking to my throat.
With the loud unstrapping of the Velcro, she replies quickly. “Wales.”
A cross between woe and vitriol consumes me, causing my heart to stammer in my chest, abnormal and thundering in my ears. “I won’t forget this kindness you've given me,” I promise her. She steps away from me once I’m restrained again. She disappears from my sight and the door slams shut. The sound of gas fills the room, and I shut my eyes as tight as I can, willing myself to go back to her in limbo. I chant her name for what feels like eons until finally…
“Hello, husband… I’ve missed you.”
My heart contracts.
Sabrina…
Chapter Six
Sabrina.
“This is fucking ridiculous. We’re on day eight of this. There’s no fucking way he took my husband to a goddamn island. Maksim can’t stand flying. He’d vomit,” I spew angrily as if Kane would care.
“Sit down and have some tea,” my mother commands, green eyes flaring, probably the same as mine.
I sit. Angrily, obviously. How can I be ofthisworld—my father’s world—and still understand nothing? How did I not know the Ainsworths hadthreeprivate islands? Kronos, Raven’s very large black Doberman, comes to sit beside me and puts his head in my lap. “Do we have eyes on Kane yet?” I ask Aleksi, petting Kronos’s head and then down his flank when he softly whines. He’s such a good boy.
Aleksi shakes his head. “I’ve tapped into the UK’s sky system with Fran’s help, but I haven’t seen him or his double since…” He can’t say the words.Since my husband was taken.
Don't break.
Parker rubs circles on my back, but there’s a string pulling me to look at Raven. When my eyes connect with hers, there is a sharpness to them. In her features. A weird part of me feels as though she’s planning and plotting right along with me. She’s a bit more pale these days, having just gotten over her illness, but the stare she’s giving me, full of hatred—while not aimed at me—alarms me as much as it fuels me.
She crosses her legs and leans forward, one arm crossed over her torso, her other elbow diagonally on her thigh. Long, dark chocolate and spider silk hair cascades over her shoulder, sleek and beautiful. She rubs the pad of her thumb along the inside of her middle finger, flicking her caramel gaze to the maps of the homes we’ve raided and back to me. But she’s…detached. Her pupils lose focus for a second, seeming to flicker, and her head tilts to the side, like she’s trying to figure it out for herself.
Her thumb stops between her knuckles, and she blinks. What is she not telling me? Her eyes go to the ceiling and back to me with another blink. She looks at the maps again. Blinks. Looks at me. Blinks. She resumes rubbing her finger with her thumb. The room has gone deathly silent. Jonas and Damon stare at her, smirks forming on their faces. Maverick develops the same smirk but begins to run his thumb under his bottom lip.
Raven blinks at the maps. Back to me. A small, very unsettling smirk begins to ghost across her lips. The way she looks right now reminds me of something Sofia once called her—“a broken little doll…”
I turn my head to Parker. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, babydoll. But you need to eat.”
I can’t handle food right now. The mere smell makes me sick. I shake my head at him. “I’ll eat later.”
“You keep saying that, but you haven’t eaten in days, babe.”
I’m about to spew venom. I’m about to aim my ire at the only other man I’ve ever loved, but Damon places a cup of tea before me. Ginger. Honey. I take the mug and have a sip. I doubt they’re feeding Maksim. How canIeat when they’re not feeding him? How canIsleep when he’s not here to kiss me goodnight? The cockwomble got me dependent on him to be able to sleep properly, and now Ican't. I can’t say these things out loud because it makes it all the more real.
Don’t break.
I look over at Aleksi, looking confused and dejected, then at Raven, who looks back at the motherfucking maps.
And suddenly Iunderstand. Pieces of a puzzle I’ve yet to solve come together, lying before me, connecting. I’m either losing my fucking mind or I’ve finally found it. My eyes snap up to my mother's gaze. “Mama… Is the Barclay Estate still staffed?”
Impeccable dark blonde brows arch, casually lifting a shoulder and letting it fall naturally with a shake of her head. “Not fully.”
I nod slowly and run my thumb along the rim of the mug and take another sip of the tea. “How long would it take you to get it ready?”
“For what?”
I stand, the madness in my mind spinning, laying claim to the wrinkles in my gray matter, stretching it to smooth it out, diving deeper as I reach out for Raven's hand. She stands and takes mine. “A lavish party, of course. We’ll have the drapes drawn, the ballroom cleared…”
“The ballroom?”
