“
I can’t blend this version of the woman before me with my mother. She’s worn so many faces. First, she was the nurturer, the one who was our constant when Dad would be out on missions. Then, she was unreliable, drugs and alcohol dictating her actions, forcing me to become what she once was. Now. Now, she’s something unrecognizable, leading some fucked up version of a hostile takeover.
“I won’t do it,” I exclaim, returning her hard stare with one of my own.
She throws her head back, exposing her throat as she laughs hysterically before abruptly stopping, her face morphing, lips drawing tight as her eyes narrow and her brows arch. It’s like watching someone possessed.
Ignoring my rebuff, she sighs and states, “Here’s how this will work. You’ll take your place as the rightful head of the Bradford line and win the spot as the heirs’ wife, giving me what I sacrificed my life and body for. Do you understand me, you ungrateful b-?”
Her words cut off as the door she entered opens, smacking against the wall. A short, stout woman stumbles in, rushing in her direction.
“What is it, Paulette? Can’t you see I’m busy catching up with my daughter?”
I roll my eyes at her use of that word. I have no mother, so she has no daughter.
Paulette reaches her, signaling for her to lean forward. She whispers something into Seline’s ears, causing her to whip her gaze up to Paulette. Seline quickly turns in my direction as she jumps down from the table and yells, “For fuck’s sake! Can no one do anything around here?”
She’s stomping toward the door when I hear someone shout, “Seline, where are you, you traitorous bitch?”
And for the second time today, my body freezes at the sound of a voice so familiar I’d know it anywhere.
“Dad?”
AUGUST
Sam’s finally done something for the greater good for once in her life. She went and got herself kidnapped.
The Filiae Bellonae are either incredibly cocky or stupid. I haven’t made my final assessment on whether it’s the former or the latter. Liam upped our technology after Emma was taken, and her chip went offline. Once the girls were selected, they’re required to wear pins at all times. We replaced those pins with new ones that contain GPS locator chips, so even if they were sunk to the bottom of the ocean, we’d still find their body’s location.
It was too late for Emma, but once she’s home, I’m super gluing her to my side. She’s lucky I can’t find someone to make us one person.
When they took Sam, they led us right to them. It took a couple of days to work through some encryptions that initially blocked the GPS coordinates, bouncing them all over the world, making us think we were fucked again, but Liam called ten minutes ago saying he had confirmed the location with satellite and drone images.
“Are you ready?” Rowan asks, suited up in tactical gear.
We could’ve let Thomas and his team go in alone, but a snowball has a better chance in hell than they would’ve in convincing any of us, especially me, to stay behind.
Turning to him, I nod. “I’ve never been more ready in my life. Let’s play Catch or Kill. The person with the highest kill count gets to torture and kill Seline Bishop, and the person with the highest catches gets to have the Madeline skank.”
It might as well be a game because there’s no way this doesn’t end with the streets of Lincolnville running crimson.
I grind my teeth at the knowledge of her location. She was so close. I should’ve felt her.
“Get your fucking head out of your ass, Grant, or you’ll be left behind,” Sebastian orders, and I immediately focus, clearing my thoughts of the guilt I feel for not being there to stop this or find her sooner from eating me alive. I’ll never let her go again. Death himself would have to come for me, and I’d kill him too if he was in the way.
“Okay, there are over three dozen people on the property. We know Emma is somewhere on or below the basement level, which is why we can’t get the signal from her chip. Sam’s chip is shown to be on level four, right above the basement in this corner left room,” Thomas explains, pointing to the 3D image of the inconspicuous building.
The top ten floors make it look like a typical corporate office. The off-book blueprint we’re looking at now tells the truth. Below the ten-story building are four floors, a basement, and a sub-basement.
Thomas stands, bending to strap his holster to his thigh. Once his gun and knife are positioned, he rights himself and continues, “By the time we arrive, we’ll have all roads leading to and from LockCore Inc. under our control. The plan is to send in the Gamma and Sigma teams to secure the upper levels while the Beta and Delta teams secure the lower levels, clearing the way for Alpha team to breach the two levels on which Emma may be held.”
With the instructions provided and our plan laid out, we finish gearing up.
“Let’s go bring our girl back,” I state and head for the door, not waiting for the rebuff or concurring of any of the guys. She’s ours. Some of us are just further along in our acceptance and devotion to the fact.
“I’ve never been so ready to unleash pain on someone as I am right now,” Karl says as he steps up to the truck. He’s decked out in more knives than I even knew he owned. Lola sits on his hip, but the long-bladed machete sitting past mid-thigh and push dagger are two new additions.
“Try to remember the objective is to bring both girls home. Even if one of them is a raging bitch, we can’t leave her behind,” Sebastian reminds us.
Liam rolls his eyes and mumbles, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the bitch was part of this and planned it all from the beginning.”
Laughing, I nod in agreement. “Samantha Davenport is exactly the type of crazy to stage her own kidnapping so that everyone will pay attention to her.”
A derisive snort comes from the driver’s seat. Erik doesn’t seem to agree.
“You think she’d really kidnap herself for attention?” he asks.
“Have you met the girl?” Rowan quips back.
At least we’re in agreement that she’s conniving enough to get herself kidnapped. I’m just not sure she’s at the mastermind level to plan all of this, though. After the bullshit she pulled with Liam’s attempted kidnapping and Karl’s actually being taken. She was the reason they were outside in the first place.
“Focus! We can discuss the probability of Miss Davenport’s involvement at a later time. Right now, our goal is to bring them both home,” Thomas commands from the front of the armored truck.
The stubborn man refused to stay behind. He’s not one hundred percent, but even at a diminished capacity, he’s worth five of Erik, so he’ll be more than fine.
“You make sure you don’t go getting shot again. Emma will kill us if anything happens to you on our watch,” Karl half jokes.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s bring Miss Bishop home,” Thomas replies but reaches to adjust his bulletproof vest to cover the area he was shot. Whether it’s consciously or subconsciously being done, I’m not sure.
Needing a minute to refocus, I turn and peer out the window, watching as Calloway blurs into Lincolnville. My mind replaying the information Mr. Calloway shared after discovering Lydia’s doppelg?nger.
“
Emma was brought to Calloway for a purpose. One I can’t divulge. Just know she’s important, and we must get her home before it’s too late.”
His words are more ominous than they are helpful, leaving me to have more questions than answers. I already know she’s important, though I’m sure his reasons for wanting her back are vastly different from mine.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.