MasukChaseThe day was fresh. My body refused to acknowledge it. Each muscle screamed in protest every joint ached and every nerve flared as if torn apart and hastily stitched anew. My leg throbbed with a burning pain, rigid and swollen. My head pounded my chest ached and my shoulder throbbed in time with each heartbeat. Still beneath all the agony something acute and weighty lingered: the recollection of how narrowly I had almost lost her Sloane.Afterwards I sensed her.Sloane.She sat next to me, her hand lightly touching mine, an insistence that grounded me. A rush of relief overwhelmed me, tightening my chest and stinging my throat. I attempted to speak, to let her know I was conscious. The sound that emerged was a hoarse croak.“Sloane " I croaked, my tone. Strained from several days without speaking.She moved nearer, placing a kiss on my forehead. "You’re secure, " she murmured. "You’re at home.”I attempted to move, to lift myself up yet a sharp pain shot through my leg. Each moti
SLOANEI caught the door sliding open, the noise unmistakably purposeful. My gut dropped immediately, a fear winding inside me. I stood motionless in the living room, fingers clutching the table's rim as though it might keep me steady. The voice that came next squeezed my chest like a clamp. I didn't think I would hear it anytime soon. “Sloane…”It was him. My dad. Despite all I had been through the turmoil of weeks, the brush with death, the nightmares, the terror….I recognized that voice. The very voice that used to assure safety that never arrived was the one that disappeared when I required him most. The identical voice that had observed me. Nearly perished, at the hands of those he ought to have prevented.Initially I was stunned. Then anger took hold. My jaw tightened, my hands. My heart pounded so fiercely I feared it would explode.“Dad…" I murmured, my tone. Rough. "Why… why are you here?”He paused, his gaze flitting across the room like a trapped creature. "I… I ran into
SLOANEThe drive back was agonizing. I clutched Vadim’s arm as if it were the link holding me anchored to reality. Chase lay slouched next, to me his form weak, pale and almost motionless. Each bump along the way caused me to flinch, fearful that another jolt would cause him to bleed quickly and lose even more blood. I couldn’t avert my gaze from him. The dried blood staining his clothes, the rise and fall of his chest, with every shallow breath all caused my stomach to knot up in ways I never thought possible.Vadim was driving silently, his jaw clenched, eyes flicking repeatedly to the rearview mirror scanning the roads. He remained quiet. His anxiety revealed that he was working out every detail: the way home, the most secure path, the exact distance, to the guest room where he was certain Chase would need to be placed. I concentrated on my breathing attempting to soothe the thoughts that incessantly shouted: He’s injured he might not survive it’s entirely my responsibility, everyt
SLOANEThe door slammed open with such force that the reverberation dislodged dust from the ceiling. My whole body flinched. For a moment I feared Xavier had summoned reinforcements that this was the instant everything tumbled deeper into chaos.However I noticed him.Chase.He remained steady in the doorway, his chest heaving in gasps, a firearm held with both hands though his arms shook. His eyes fiercely aflame fixed on Xavier as if blaming him for every injury he bore. His garments were ripped, smeared with blood and fresh marks dirt caking his jaw and bruises shadowing his cheekbone. He appeared worn out, beaten and barely standing.But he was alive. Alive and here.Relief overwhelmed me quickly and forcefully that it nearly caused pain. It shattered something within me. My lungs at last expanded with air that had been held captive in my chest, for hours. My eyesight blurred as a throbbing radiated through the middle of my ribs. Chase located me. He succeeded. Somehow despite eve
CHASEIt's morning Sloane hasn't arrived yet Kazmir is getting on my nerves and Vadim? Vadim is firm. Forbids me from moving due to my leg. The sunlight filtering through the drapes made the room seem bright and overly serene as if the world failed to grasp that everything inside me was ablaze. I forced myself to sit up disregarding the intense fiery pain radiating down my thigh. Pain was irrelevant. Breathing hardly mattered. The sole important fact was that Sloane wasn’t present.Before my feet touched the floor my hands were already clenching into fists. I despised this house more than before. It felt off without her presence. Vacant. Too silent. Her absence was palpable, in the walls the air and the foolish furniture that still carried the scent of her shampoo.
SLOANEI kept blinking until the faint light became clear. I lay on the ground on my back, against a beam that reeked of mildew. My hands were bound behind me with rope that chafed my skin whenever I took a deep breath.Perfect.I moved slightly to check the knot's firmness. It was too secure to come undone. Not so tight as to be impossible.Then I noticed footsteps—annoyed—approaching from the left side of the room.Xavier.I noticed the noise of his breathing, laying eyes on him. A brief staccato rhythm, as if he was struggling with his mind and falling behind.He emerged from behind a workbench massaging the bridge of his nose. His jaw was tightly clenched. I feared it might shatter under the strain.I swallowed hard. "I figured I’d be gone by now.”His head snapped in my direction. The glare he shot at me might have stripped paint.I grinned regardless.“Honestly it’s somewhat disappointing " I remarked. "If you’re going to abduct someone you ought to be, at least, efficient.”His







