Page 78 of The Silent Princess

Then another.

Am I still…

Alive?

Everything turns into nothingness.

I wake up moments later, in my underwear, with something sticky on my face. I tap it and look at my fingers. Blood. He hit me, and it opened my brow. Wet blood has run down my face, jaw, and shoulder, and dripped to the low of my belly. I am in my white cotton bra and underwear, lying on the side of my body on the concrete.

No mattress or blanket. Just this single neon shining too bright and no window telling me what time it is. Pointing at my face from the corner of the room, a camera, the end round, watching me like an orbit, a second presence, violating my vulnerability with its constant watchful eye. Nikolai, the man who did this, is no longer here, but I feel my head pulsing like he just hit me with a baseball bat. Clothes, gone. Cellphone, gone. I am going to die here, in this basement, in the city Tristan rules, under his gaze, but invisible. I will die here, alone, trapped; God knows what they will do to me if Tristan does not stop them.

I love you, Tristan, I repeat in my head.

At least I got to feel what it was like.

Even for a brief moment, to be loved.

Tristan

There is no one in this fucking manor, and I am cursing myself for wasting time being here tonight. I checked all the rooms, but even in his office or bedroom, I couldn't find him or anyone else. Surely, it would have been much more ideal to call him beforehand and set up an appointment for his assassination, but formalities are not to be applied to all scenarios. So I rush out of his freaking Russian-gold, dust-and-liquor-stinking place, the manor filled with relics from ancient times and plasma TVs in every room, along with pole-dance bars. Tasteful. Jumping out of the first-floor window, I land without crushing my knees, which I should not take for granted, given my thirty-two years. And in the midst of this, my main concern is that I cannot check on Ella. In a minute, I find Matt back in the car, sliding into the passenger seat with smoke that could be coming out of my ears.

“Let’s go.”

“Is he…”

“No. He wasn’t there.”

“Copy that.” The car moves back as he takes the road at full speed while I wait for the signal to show up again, allowing me to breathe. I will check on her and then go back to the hunt. Office. Strip clubs. Bars. I will find this motherfucker and end him. We pass by a bridge, water running underneath, streetlights illuminating the passage. We are four minutes into the drive when the signal connects again, and my heart stops functioning. My surveillance app glows red. Several texts and a dozen missed calls. From Ella and my surveillance staff. I open the app. My bed is empty of Ella as I read her texts with horror.

Ella: I’m home, emergency with my dad, please join me when you’re done.

Ella: On my way home, please answer. I need you, Tristan. I need you so much right now.

And the last one shatters what was left of my heart.

Ella: Help.

And she tried video calling, numerous times. But I was too fucking deep in my head for her to reach me when she needed me. Just when I thought I could kill the one person threatening her life, I was actually ignoring her cry for help. Where is she now? I try to call her, but it goes immediately to voicemail. My hand twitches. Jaw clenching. My thumb hovers over the screen for half a second before I call the security team watching my house. They answer on the second ring.

“Mr. Ashford.”

“Where is Ella?” I bark.

“Sir, we tried calling you. We heard movement behind the house. Footsteps, maybe someone running. We checked the perimeter immediately, but by the time we got there, there was nothing.” My blood turns to ice.

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“No visible breach. No alarm triggered. We thought it might have been an animal at first, but when we came back to the car, we replayed the front-camera footage.” My grip tightens around the phone.

“And?”

“She came to the front gate, sir. Ms Brooks. She looked around, checked the car, then left on foot. She was running toward the main road.” For a second, the world goes silent.

“She came to you,” I say, my voice dropping so low it barely sounds human. “She did the right thing, and none of you were there.”

“Sir…at that time, we were trying to prevent a potential home invasion; we had no idea it was her. We’re currently searching the area. Two men are on foot; one car is circling the neighborhood. We tried to reach her, but she is no longer visible on the cameras.”

“Find her.”