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Mia hasn’t slept more than an hour at a time in the last six days. Six of the worst fucking days of my life, and that’s saying something with the last couple of weeks we have lived through. Mateo has been gone for six days. Six excruciating days of not knowing if he’s even alive. No one has been able to locate him or even gather any information on who took him. Mateo’s pathetic excuse for a father and mother have also disappeared off the face of the planet.When we find them, I will personally put a bullet through his Dad’s head.
My mind goes back to that day; I was sitting in my parent’s living room, contemplating what I would do next with the information I uncovered. Then I received a call from Raegan that had my heart pounding and all other thoughts vacating my mind.
I reached the gates of Mia’s house with blood pounding in my ears and sweat dripping down my back. The call I got from a hysterical Raegan had me peeling out of my parent’s estate and racing down the highway at speeds guaranteed to end my life as I rushed back to Mia’s.
Some unknown assailant has kidnapped Mateo, and somehow his father was involved. He was shot at close range, and we don’t know if he was still alive when they took him. Theo was laying waste to Mia’s house in a blind uncontrollable rage, and Diego was wounded. FUCK! How did this happen?
I walked into complete chaos; furniture was upended, glass shattered everywhere, and Diego, Carter, and Tom were trying to restrain an unhinged Theo. When I made it past the two security details into the main living space, my eyes focused on Theo. His face was purple with rage, his whole body straining against the hold of all three prominent men. Theo’s eyes were the darkest I have ever seen them, filled with terror and anguish. I wonder if he was partially reliving his own captivity.
By the time we got him contained and unable to hurt himself and others around him, I lost track of where Mia was. I found her in the home office with Isabella and the view that greeted me had me wanting to fall to my knees before her.
Sobs were wracking her whole body; tears cascaded down her face. Her beautiful blue ocean eyes were filled with untold horror and despair. The minute she saw me, it was like her whole body shuddered, and then she threw herself at me, trusting that I would catch her as she wrapped her limbs around me. The desire to tell her that I would always catch her and be by her side was so strong that I opened my lips so the words could float out, yet no sound escaped.
“He’s gone, Finn.” She sobbed into my neck. The sound broke my heart. My little killer queen, in my arms, falling to pieces, unnerved me. Is this the real Mia that I’m seeing? Is it possible that she has genuine feelings for us, and this isn’t just some treacherous game she’s playing?
“We will find him, Mia.” I cradled the back of her head with my hand while my other hand braced her body against me. All of her limbs were wrapped around me tightly like an octopus. Like she was trying to burrow her body into mine, and I selfishly welcomed it. Despite everything going on and everything I have discovered, I want her with a longing that will never be satisfied, even if I had a million years by her side. My mind was a spiraling circus of fears and horrors of what could be happening to Mateo, or worse, the thought that he might already be dead.
“Grandmother, that is not acceptable. There has to be somewhere we haven’t looked. Someone took him; we have to find him!” Mia shouts into the phone. It’s been like this numerous times a day for the last six days. Her demanding that Stella find Mateo, but as of yet, nothing has turned up. It’s like he fell off the face of the planet. No one has been able to find any information, and his body hasn’t been recovered. “We are Stratfords; no one can hide from us!”
“Mia, my darling, please, you have to calm down. You’re making yourself ill, darling. We are doing everything we can to find Mateo. No one is stopping the search.” Stella replies through the speakerphone.
I look around at the haggard and distraught faces in the room. We are all here, Carter leaning up against the wall, his face unshaven and lined with worry, his sling a stark contrast against his black shirt, a reminder that we barely survived the last time one of us was taken. Raegan and Isabella clutching to each other in comfort. They have been the only ones even remotely able to calm Mia down at this point. Both their eyes are swollen from all the tears they have shed. Theo paces to the other side of the room, like a caged lion, ready to devour anyone who crosses his path. He looks the worst of us, he’s unequivocally stopped sleeping, and his control is precarious on his temper. The only one missing is Diego. He’s once again out there searching for Mateo with his men. He hasn’t stopped searching for him since he arrived at Mia’s with the news of Mateo’s capture.
“It’s not enough, Grandmother. We need more resources; he has to be somewhere we have overlooked. They have to find him!” Mia shrieks, her hand digging into her hair and pulling on her strands. When I tried to forcefully restrain her yesterday, hoping it would help to calm her down, she left me bloodied and almost castrated me with her angry grip on my balls.Just the memory has a twinge of pain returning.
She’s lost weight in the last couple of days of not eating and sleeping. She is so pale that I can see the blue veins under her skin. Her eyes are swollen from her constant crying, and deep purple shadows stain underneath them. Her swollen, dry lips are once again bleeding from her continuous biting down on them. I have to try to get some food into her today. She can’t continue much longer like this without getting sick. If I thought she was bad when Theo and Carter were taken, I hadn’t seen how low she could go. She is self-destructing, and we are helplessly watching her do it.
My glance again turns to Carter; he’s not looking much better. I don’t think he’s slept much in the last couple of days, either. The guy has gone from almost dying from an overdose to having seizures, then being beaten, and almost dying at the hands of Vincent Saint-Lambert to this. I don’t know how he’s even still standing, much less functioning.
Mia presses the button to hang up on her grandmother and storms out of the room, heading for the front door.Damn it! Not this fucking again.I rush to my feet and race after her. “Mia, where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
She doesn’t even bother to acknowledge that she hears me, storming to the door, opening it, and heading for her Range parked in the driveway.Fuck, this shit is gonna get her killed.The Range is already damaged from her slamming into the gate yesterday in an attempt to leave the property. Tom refused to open the gate, and she didn’t even hesitate before ramming the front end of the SUV into it.She’s like the most wicked storm you have ever seen, touching land, unpredictable and deadly, and like the fool I am, I am deeply in her clutches and about to put myself in her way.
“Mia, stop this right now!” I shout, my blood pressure and aggravation rising with her attempt to leave the property once again. Doesn’t she understand that she’s in danger? Whoever took Mateo might be after her too, and we still haven’t found Vincent.
“Fuck off, Finn. If you try to stop me, I will fucking end you. I’m going to search for him myself.” She spits with venom, her body locked up tight and her breath ragged.She doesn’t even have fucking shoes on her feet, for fucks sake!
Her threats do nothing except send a little thrill down my spine. An angry Mia is exceptionally sexy; one willing to come at me with her brand of violence is even sexier. But I don’t have time to let my thoughts and desires wander. I’m too busy trying to keep her out of danger.
I rush up behind her and grab her upper body in a bear hug, stopping her forward motion just before she manages to reach the SUV’s driver’s side door. Her response is immediate. Her elbow strikes back, hitting me in the throat, and has me loosening my grip while I try not to choke on my own breath.Fuck, that hurt!I once again try to wrap my arms around her but am rewarded with a backward kick to my shin and an elbow to the gut.
“Mia, stop, please,” I grunt in pain.
I release her from my hold and she turns entirely around, her fingers landing on my throat with a tight grip that has her nails sinking into my flesh. The momentary flash of pain distracts me, and a shudder runs down my spine. Her face is molten with rage, color rising across her cheekbones and her lips curled in a snarl. Her eyes are alive with a blue fire and threaten to have me promise her my very soul.
“You will not stop me, Finn. Do. Not. Forget. Who. Owns. Who. You will stay out of my way if you don’t want to help me find him.” Her voice is guttural and filled with the promise of more violence.
Once again, I’m reminded of the information I am holding back from my fellow kings. This reigning queen of ours has secrets. Secrets she tried mercilessly to hide from us. I haven’t been able to process all my feelings over what I discovered yet. The little firecracker before me is my Mia…but she’s also my long lost…Amelia.
When I first went to see my mother with my suspicions after hearing James Jarvis’s name come from the guards lips, I was convinced I was wrong. The name was familiar, but I couldn’t place where I might know it from. It pricked at my mind for days and I knew I needed an answer.
My mother’s shock and agitation at the mention of the name had me worried. The tears that trailed down her face as she confessed to where I had heard that name before and who that person was had fear and anger racking my body.
Within mere minutes of questioning my mother, my heart had dropped to the floor, and devastation soared through my body—all the lies, treachery, and games running through my mind like some macabre video. I couldn’t bear to return to the property right away. I wasn’t sure I could stop myself from confronting her.
Mia has been lying to us from the moment she stepped foot in Casbury. Her identity as Mia Stratford is so convincing because that is who she really is or has become, but she’s also the girl I used to play with, my best friend that I helped torture, Amelia Hamilton.Is she, though?My mind questions.
She’s no longer that mousy, scared, and easily intimidated little girl. The one I left behind when my mom married my stepdad. The one I deserted and let my fellow kings torture because I desperately wanted to fit into their world.
