LOGINAiden“I’m coming with you.” I step in front of Cary, wanting him to see exactly how serious I am.“No.” Cary growls. He’s taken his jacket off. His hair is messier than I’ve ever seen it. “You’re not coming.”“I know what that fucker said, but it doesn’t matter.That’s my girlfriend. I’m coming.”“If Aiden is coming, then I’m coming too,” Ginny quips. Violet, who has finally decided to get her shit together, adds. “They are right, Mr Thompson. Going alone is suicide. We have to come with you.”“Excuse me, sir.” Vincent is the most distraught of all of us. I guess it’s different for him. He was tasked with ensuring the Thompson heir’s safety and he failed at that. I can see how that would be torturing the shit out of him. “These three are right. You can’t go alone.”“You heard Horace.” Cary clutches the bridge of his nose, his face contorting in pain. “If I don’t go alone, he’s going to kill her.”“Horace is a piece of shit,” Vincent spits the words out with all the venom he can muste
Aiden“I’m coming with you.” I step in front of Cary, wanting him to see exactly how serious I am.“No.” Cary growls. He’s taken his jacket off. His hair is messier than I’ve ever seen it. “You’re not coming.”“I know what that fucker said, but it doesn’t matter.That’s my girlfriend. I’m coming.”“If Aiden is coming, then I’m coming too,” Ginny quips. Violet, who has finally decided to get her shit together, adds. “They are right, Mr Thompson. Going alone is suicide. We have to come with you.”“Excuse me, sir.” Vincent is the most distraught of all of us. I guess it’s different for him. He was tasked with ensuring the Thompson heir’s safety and he failed at that. I can see how that would be torturing the shit out of him. “These three are right. You can’t go alone.”“You heard Horace.” Cary clutches the bridge of his nose, his face contorting in pain. “If I don’t go alone, he’s going to kill her.”“Horace is a piece of shit,” Vincent spits the words out with all the venom he can muste
Willow“Cary Thompson,” Horace Smith preens, buzzing with sheer excitement. “It’s been a minute.”“Horace.” My dad sounds terrified, already guessing what this call is all about. “You havr her, don’t you?”“You never miss a thing.” Horace snickers. “You’re right, old friend. I have your precious daughter. She’s here with me. Having dinner.”“I swear to the moon goddess, Horace. If I find out that you’ve touched even the slightest hair on her head—““Then what?” The humour is gone from his voice. He sounds menacing. “You’re in no position to be making demands from me, you fucker.”Dad exhales sharply. “What do you want? What would it take for you to release her?”“Not so fast Cary,” Horace is back to smiling. “It’s not about releasing her. I mean, I could let her go and she’d still be very well in danger.”“What is that supposed to mean?”“The poison,” he drawls, enuciating each word slowly. “It’s still very much in her system. Without the antidocte, she won’t be able to make it past 4
AidenThe longer I sit with the fact that Willow is missing, the bigger my guilt grows. I had fought with her. Made her cry. Ignored her for days, all because of some stupid audio file.To think that I had wasted all of those precious days staying away from her. Now, I would give anything just to have her back. To hold her. To get on my knees and apologize for being such a moron.Vincent’s crew gets to the flat almost the same time as me and my group. The flat is empty. Everything is way too clean. Whoever used to live here, it’s no doubt that they’d left in a hurry. “We need to contact the landlord and get the name of the former inhabitants of this space.” Vincent leaves for the doorway, no doubt to talk to the neighbours.Ginny calls out to him. “What if they already got to him and wiped his memory? I mean, there’s a reason why we can’t deduce their identities, even though we’re here.”“Only one way to find out.” He leaves. “Hey.” Ginny approaches me; lowers her voice to a whisp
Willow“Miss Willow Thompson. Come.” Horace Smith holds out his hands, like a royal addressing a subject at court. He holds himself stiffly. Posture regal. Lips stretched in what I can only describe as a sinister smile.He’s old. Probably mid-seventies. He’s got salty hair and wrinkles on his face. But he’s sharp. Not even his old age can take away from how intimidating he is.I make my feet move. They are bare. These scary assholes didn’t bother to provide me with shoes. They must have done it on purpose. A calculated move to make me feel inferior and self conscious. Fuck that. I hold my head high. Horace closes the space between us. He taked my hands in his and kisses my knuckles. His lips are dry and papery. There’s nothing pervy about the kiss and yet, it sends a shudder down my spine. “I’ve been on the edge of my teeth for several hours, waiting to meet the great Thompson heir.” He says the last part mockingly. “I’ve prepared this spread for you. You’ll join me for dinner
WillowI am finally being moved upstairs. Turns out my holding cell isn’t a warehouse but a storage unit connected to a much larger mansion.I haven’t seen Garrett Smith since he physically assaulted my face. Gideon is the one who comes back to announce that I am being moved upstairs.I do not ask questions. I remain quiet and do as I’m asked, trusting that my family will find me soon.In the mansion, we pass through a series of double doors before we come to the grand staircase. I don’t know who lives here but they’ve got to be pretty important. A house like this must be worth over half a billion.Not that I know a lot about real estate. I just have an inkling of the worth of this great big house, gleaming with gold fixtures.I climb up the stairs, following Gideon’s lead. There are two extra guards behind me and I can feel their beady eyes leering at my back view. Whatever they are thinking, it makes me shudder.No. They aren’t going to do anything sexually abusive to me. From what
WILLOWThe hockey game between me and Tessa is about to start. Because it’s a basic, watered down version of an actual hockey game, we are only expected to wear helmets on our heads, protective gloves for our hands and hockey skates. Because we’re girls, someone had to rush to the locker room to fi
WILLOWViolet is the first one to shop up. I haven’t seen her in forever and it’s quite dramatic, our reunion. We squeal like a pair of banshees and then, we fall on each other, hugging and saying ‘I miss yous.’“You look prettier,” Violet declares. “I don’t know what it is but there’s a glow about
CHAPTER 40WILLOWAunt Helen is exactly as I expect her to be. Upbeat. Eccentric. With no idea of personal boundaries.She starts hugging me before I’m even out of the car. Her arms wrap around my neck, crushing me with the weight of her embrace. She smells heavily of perfume and body oils. “Willo
WILLOWThe bullet was ladled with wolfsbane. Who sent this message to me? I check the caller ID for the umpteenth time but it’s set to anonymous.It’s been hours since I woke up and my dad is yet to come back to visit me. The last time we spoke, it had been more of a fight. As much as I refuted hi







