Chapter 6

Isla POV

The first thing I felt was pain.

Not the sharp, clean kind that comes and goes, but something deeper and everywhere, like fire had crawled beneath my skin and decided to live there. 

It slid through every vein, every muscle, every breath I dragged into my lungs. My chest burned and my throat scraped raw with the taste of smoke and ash, and for a long moment, I was certain I was dead.

Maybe I should have been. Death, at least, was merciful, and mercy had never been something life offered me.

I coughed, the sound tearing out of me as soot flooded my mouth. My body jerked forward, instincts screaming louder than the pain, and I dragged myself away from the blackened wreck that had once been a warehouse. 

The fire was still burning fiercely.

My ears rang, a high-pitched whine that drowned out everything else. My wrists were throbbing, raw and scraped.

 My heart felt heavy, like a stone lodged deep in my chest, pressing down until breathing felt like work. The only man I'd ever loved had left me to die in the hands of the kidnappers while he took his ex home.

I struggled to sit up, my arms trembling beneath my weight, and forced my blurred vision to focus as I scanned the surrounding area. Panic clawed up my throat.

Where were they?

My gaze landed on him a few feet away.

He was partially pinned beneath a slab of concrete, his body twisted at an unnatural angle. He wasn’t moving. His chest didn’t rise. For one horrifying second, I thought he was dead.

And suddenly, a wild, reckless thought took root in my mind. Maybe I could escape before he woke up, before they realized I was still alive.

Using every ounce of strength I had left, strength I didn’t even know I still possessed, I forced myself upright. My vision swam. The world tilted violently, but I stayed on my feet.

My ankle screamed in protest, but I didn’t care. Pain meant I was still alive. I bit down hard on my lip to keep from screaming and limped forward, each step slow, uneven, agony shooting straight up my leg.

I hadn’t even gone far when the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking shattered the night.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, b*tch?” he snarled.

I froze. Every muscle in my body locked as fear washed over me in waves. 

Slowly, I turned around.

He stood there, gun raised, eyes burning with fury beneath his mask. “Were you about to leave without fulfilling your part of the bargain?” he continued coldly.

I shook my head frantically, my body trembling. “No…I… I wasn’t, I just–”

Movement behind him cut me off.

The other body on the ground stirred. He groaned loudly, cursing as he pushed himself upright. “Fuck,” he muttered. “What the hell happened?”

He stood slowly, pulling the charred remains of his mask off his face. The firelight revealed a man with a jagged scar running along his jaw. His face was hard, but his eyes, unlike the other man’s eyes, his eyes were softer. They were alert, almost conflicted.

His gaze landed on me, and his eyes widened. “You’re alive,” he said quietly, disbelief lacing his voice.

“You’re lucky,” the man with the gun snapped flatly. “We almost left you here. And now you intend to pay us back by running?”

I said nothing. My throat closed up so bad I could barely breathe.

“Get on the floor,” he growled.

I obeyed immediately, lowering myself onto the cold concrete. The rough surface scraped my palms, but I didn’t dare react.

He stared at me for a long moment, then reached into his pocket and tossed a small black phone toward me. It skidded across the ground and stopped near my knee, the screen already glowing.

“Call whoever you want,” he said. “And get our money. You tell them I said they’ve got twelve hours. Twelve. Or you don’t get to reunite with them.”

My hands shook violently as I pulled the phone closer. I didn’t have the strength to argue, so I only nodded.

There was only one number I could remember, even if I was dying.

It rang twice.

“Hello?”

“Ryan,” I rasped.

“Elara?” His voice spiked instantly. “Oh my goodness, Elara! Is that really you? Where the hell are you? Are you okay?”

Hearing my real name again shattered something inside me. Elara. I hadn’t heard it spoken like that in so long that I had almost forgotten who she was–who I was.

“Please,” I whispered, my voice breaking completely. “Help me.”

Tears spilled freely now, cutting clean tracks through the soot on my face. The fire crackled nearby, still devouring what little remained of the warehouse.

“They said twelve hours,” I sobbed. “Ten million dollars.”

“Ten what?” Ryan gasped.

“They’ll kill me if you don’t pay them,” I whispered. “Ryan, please.”

His voice cracked. “You hold on, do you hear me? You hold on! I’m calling the bank. I’ll fix this, I’ll fix everything. Just stay alive, Elara. Please.”

The line went dead.

I clutched the phone to my chest, my entire body shaking as sobs wracked through me. The night felt endless. 

Hours passed and not a single word from my brother.

“I thought you said you were rich!” the man with the gun yelled, pacing furiously.

“I told you to calm down,” the other man said quietly. “Rhino, calm the hell down.”

“No, I won’t calm down!” Rhino snapped, storming toward me. He grabbed my arm roughly and pressed the gun against my temple. “You better not be playing games with me, or I’ll blow your brains out.”

“I swear,” I cried, my voice trembling. “He’ll get the money. I promise.”