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“Stop! Stop hurting him,” I scream but that only makes Carlo laugh. “Nathan, please make him stop.”
“He’s fine,” he growls in my ear and the chill that runs down my spine is the exact opposite of how he used to make me feel.
I put a hand on his one in my hair to try and ease the pain coursing through my scalp, but he doesn’t budge. Carlo finally stops hitting Jake and I wouldn’t be surprised if his ribs were broken.
When Sam walks back in, my eyes are instantly brought to the rope he’s holding.
“No. Nathan let go of me,” my voice quivers as my whole body starts to tremble.
He sounds so cold when he talks to me, I barely recognize him. “Now, now. You haven’t forgotten what I told you, ‘Me, have you? I warned you if fell for him or let him touch you like I did I would raise hell. Jake should have said that I always serve my revenge very cold.”
The burning pain on my scalp brings tears to my eyes, one slips when he drags me with him to the living room. I hear Carlo command Jake to get up and after a few seconds of struggle, they both join us, Carlo pointing a gun at Jake’s head. Another whimper escapes my lips, squeezing desperately past my tight throat.
Nathan pushes me on the chair he’s just pulled away from the table but as soon as he’s not holding my hair anymore. I jump back up to go help Jake. I freeze at the click of a gun.
“You move, he’s dead,” Carlo sneers, making Nathan laugh.
“Fucking hell, I train them good, don’t I?”
I don’t know who he’s talking to, me or Sam, but I’m too focused on the gun at the back of Jake’s head and the way Carlo is holding him to care. He’s holding him like Jake would fall if he let him go. His lip is bleeding, his eyes keep rolling to the back of his head, and the two big bruises forming on his left temple and jaw explain why.
He won’t shoot him.
He will NOT shoot him. He needs him!
Rationality might be screaming at me but my body refuses to listen. All it knows is that danger is imminent and if I want to avoid it, I shouldn’t move.
So I don’t.
“Sit back down. I need you to be nice and quiet for me, baby,” Nathan orders.
I want to find Jake’s gaze. I want him to reassure me, to tell me it’s all going to be okay. I want him to be his cocky self and threaten to snap Nathan’s neck if he so much as touches me. But the more I look at him, the more dreadful I feel. His head is hanging in front of him, chin to chest and I’m dying to grab him in my arms. He’s dripping blood on the carpet. I can’t help but look at it. Nathan has officially decided to put action into his threats. The fight at Cal’s was nothing to him. This. This is what he does.
I sit back in the chair, quiet, tears drying on my cheeks. I’ve already accepted that tonight is going to be the worst night of my life. Up until today, it was watching my dad and brother get shot. I’ve grieved them, accepted that none of them will ever come back in my life. I kept on living and I fell in love. Now I’m watching the love of my life suffer at the hands of someone else. The pattern repeats itself and I can feel something break inside me. Probably my heart.
I watch as Sam comes to me with the rope, but I don’t say anything. I flinch when he ties my wrists and ankles to the chair, forcing myself to show nothing else. He’s ever so quiet, I barely ever hear him say anything except to Nathan or Rose, so I didn’t expect him to walk me through how to behave when you’re being tied to a chair.
I keep my gaze on Jake, praying that he stays awake. His head is lolling back and forth as he tries to look at me and he uncontrollably spits blood on the floor. The ropes are digging deep in my skin and I suddenly wish I was wearing more than one of Jake’s long tees.
When Sam is done, I can barely move anything. The asshole is good with this. He’s tied my waist to the chair too. As if a 97-pound girl is going to cause mayhem to three gang members. As I look at them again, I do wonder where Roy is. It’s rare to see Carlo without him. His face is still bruised from when Volkov’s men jumped him.
I see from the corner of my eye that Sam quietly settles by the window giving into the backyard and lights up a cigarette. The coffee table is the only thing separating me and the sofa Jake is sitting on, so when Nathan slams paperwork on the table I can recognize what it is straight away: the form to change guardians and household.
I remember thinking there weren’t a lot of criminals that could get away with anything and that Volkov was one of them. He used to run the city of Stoneview with an iron fist. Since being part of Jake’s life, I’ve realized that might be easier than I thought.
Nathan White can get away with anything.
Kidnapping.
Attacking a cop.
Home invasion.
Battery.
Hostage-taking.
Duress.
