I looked down to the ground. “Granite,” I murmured softly. After years of watching him from my bedroom window, I finally had a name. It was probably something I could have found out on my own if I wanted to. But I never tried to figure out who and what the American Street Kings were, who its leader was. I liked the mystery that surrounded him. In fact, I was drawn to him even more because of it. Yet, with each passing second since they took me, I cursed this infatuation I had with him.
“Anyway. You should eat. Clearly, you need some meat on those bones. I hope you like turkey sandwiches.”
I snorted. “I doubt I’d be able to eat anything right now.”
Onyx studied me, the light coming through the window bringing out the intense blue of his eyes. Even though it was beautiful, his eyes didn’t beg me to stare back at them the way his brother’s did.
“That’s one shiner you have there.” He motioned toward my face where it ached.
Gently, I placed my fingertips against the skin. “Yeah.”
Onyx stared at me for two seconds before moving to the cabinet on the other side of the bed. Only when he opened it, pulling out a bottle of water, did I realize it was a bar fridge.
“Here.” He walked over to me and held the bottle up to my face, but I jerked back, and he stilled. “I’m not going to hurt you. Relax.”
Terrified, I froze, not knowing what to expect. My stomach wanted to leap out of my throat when he leaned forward, but then he gently placed the ice-cold bottle of water against my eye. “Keep it cold, for the swelling.”
I placed my hand over his, taking the bottle while keeping it against my face. Onyx took a step back, his eyes never leaving mine. This act of kindness was unexpected, yet I didn’t let my guard down.
“Thank you,” I murmured, inching back more.
“Yeah. Sure.” He turned and walked straight out the door, but then turned and glanced over his shoulder at me for a few seconds…then left.
Tears slipped down my cheeks, the adrenaline in my veins finally giving way so reality could seep through. It was terrifying, and something I never thought would happen to me. Shit like this always happened to other people. This was the kind of story you’d see on the news or hear over the radio. Girls who got kidnapped, raped, and murdered—not necessarily in that order. Just thinking about me ending up naked, broken, and alone in a ditch somewhere was enough to push the bile up my throat.
For a moment, I allowed myself to ask a shitload of what-ifs.
What if I had stayed just ten minutes longer with Red, telling her the story behind the tattoo she inked on my thigh?
What if I ignored my mom’s phone call, and rather decided to drive off?
What if I just never went to Red’s in the first place, getting the damn tattoo?
Over and over, I allowed myself to relive that scene, to try to figure out what happened. Who those men were. And where my dad’s men who followed me disappeared to. They were there in their SUV one minute, then gone the next. How was that possible?
My legs began to quiver, too weak to keep me upright anymore. With my back against the wall, I slipped down to the ground, still holding the water bottle against my eye.
I wiped at my tears, my tummy hurting with the pain and fear that possessed by entire body. It was crushing, like I was trapped between two walls closing in, squeezing the life out of me. What I wouldn’t give for this all to be nothing more than a goddamn nightmare.
The bag Onyx tossed on the bed caught my eye. Did they really think I’d feel like eating? God, this all felt too insane to be true.
I cracked open the bottle of water and took a few sips before closing it and placing it against my eye again. It was kind of Onyx to give me something for my bruised eye, but Red always said if the devil gave you a kind gesture in hell, be prepared to pay for it in blood.
God, I wished Red was here. She would have known what to do, what to say to keep me strong. She always did, which was why I loved her like the sister I never had. I remembered the day I graduated high school, when all I wanted was a congratulations and a hug from my mother. Instead, she took me straight home where a new ballet instructor waited for me. My mom reminded me how hard I was going to have to work in order to make it into Juilliard, and she made sure I realized what was at stake if I didn’t.Herreputation.
I looked down at my bare feet, the Band-Aids around my toes still intact. Back then, with the new instructor, my toes ached and bled after the first lesson. It was brutal, and the worst part, my mother sat there the entire time. Even with tears in my eyes and blood on the floor, my mom didn’t stop it. She just sat there with a scowl on her face, scolding me every time I fell. That night, I cried so hard it felt like my ribs would crack in half. When Red came over, she sat flat on her ass next to my bed and gently pulled her fingers through my hair.
“The only person who can allow her to break you…is you.”
That night, the penny dropped, and Red’s words helped me build a wall around my mind in order to keep my mother out. After that, I never gave my mom the satisfaction of seeing me cry again. The brutal training didn’t stop. It continued with my mother spectating. But I never cried a single tear when my mom was there to witness it.
“The only person who can allow them to break you…is you.”I heard her voice like she was sitting right there next to me.
If I had the backbone to survive an entire childhood with my mom, I could survive a few bikers, right? I just needed to keep my head and not let the horror of the unknown break me. With every war you needed to fight in your life, your mind would be the battlefield. If you could control the battlefield, you could win the war.
I crossed my legs under me and took a few more sips of water, thinking about what happened. Onyx shot the guy who threatened to kill me. For a few short moments, I thought they had saved me from the kidnappers, but now theywerethe kidnappers. It was a complete mind-fuck, and I had no idea how to wrap my head around it. If it wasn’t for them saving me in the first place, I would have said this was all because of me being the police commissioner’s daughter, and that it had something to do with their midnight dealings with my dad. Maybe my dad pissed them off. Maybe my dad owed them money. Who the fuck knew? But I was confused as to why—if my dad pissed off the Kings—there were other kidnappers trying to take me.
Dear God. Was I the target of two criminal syndicates? Jesus. It was a miracle I was still breathing.