Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
This was better than anything I’d ever felt before, and I never wanted anything to intrude on this moment.
But then, it did.
Chapter 12
It was the phone that woke us later. I stirred, frowning at the sound and raising my head from Hunter’s chest where it’d been resting.
The phone went off again as I turned in the sheets and reached for the beside table.
“What's that?” Sean mumbled.
“It’s my phone.”
“Party foul,” a very sleep-voiced Damien chuckled.
I answer without looking. “Hel—”
“Ari!”
Sasha’s voice was chilling and half screaming over the phone.
“Sasha?”
The panic in her voice and the way she sounded like she’d just been running had me awake instantly.
“Sasha, what’s going on?”
“Ari! Ari, I need help! I need help!”
She was screaming then, and I immediately sat bolt upright.
“Sasha, breathe, honey, tell me what’s going on!”
The three men in the bed with me instantly sat up as well, hard looks on their faces.
“They’ve got them!”
My heart skipped a beat.
“Who has—”
“They’ve got Luke and Jordan!”
It was as if time stopped for a second. Sasha kept going though.
“I don’t know who they are, but they want money, and... and…” she trailed off. “Hang on,” she said tightly.
“Sasha, who has them!?”
Without warning, there was suddenly a crashing sound on the other end of the line — the sound of shattering glass mixing with Sasha’s blood-chilling scream.
“Oh my God!” She screamed. “They’re here! Oh my God, they just smashed their way in the front door! Arianna!”
I screamed as I lurched from the bed, my whole world spinning.
“Sasha! Sasha, run! Sash—”
The line went dead, and the phone dropped from my hand.
I was spinning, the room tilting and my whole world crashing around me as I lunged for something — anything to hold onto.
It was Hunter that caught me, pulling me tight against him as I shattered.
“What is it,” he said tightly. “What do you need?”
I pushed him away before I could stop myself, lurching for my clothes. “We need to get back to the city.”
My voice felt like it was outside my own head — mechanical and on autopilot.
“Ari, whats—”
I whirled, shaking Sean’s hand from my arm, knowing he was just trying to soothe me, but not knowing what else to do but lash out.
“My friend Sasha—” I swallowed the horrible lump in my throat. “I think someone just took her. Her and her boyfriends.”
Damien frowned as he stood from the bed. “Boyfriends?”
I shook my head quickly, yanking a pair of shorts up my legs and stuffing the rest of my clothes into my bag.
“Yes, boyfriends. She’s with Luke Steel and Jordan Stone at—”
“Wait, your friend Sasha is Sasha Reed of Stone and Steel Holdings?”
I pulled a t-shirt down over my head and paused. “You know them?”
Hunter shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. What the hell is going on?”
“Someone’s kidnapped them,” I said, the cold feeling sinking into my chest as I said the words out loud. “Someone’s kidnapped them, for ransom or something, and they just broke into their house while I was on the fucking phone with my best friend and took her—”
And then I lost it. All three of them surrounded me then, comforting me with their warmth and their soothing touches, and propping me as I was about to fall entirely. The tears came hot as I dropped my face into one of their chests, feeling three sets of arms circle around me and hug me tightly.
I looked up into Damien’s eyes.
“She’s pregnant,” I whispered, tears falling down my face.
“Let’s go,” Hunter growled as he and Sean pulled away.
“Already on it,” Sean growled, a phone in his hand. “Yeah, it’s me. We need the plane ready,” he barked into the phone. “Fucking now.”
My eyes locked with Damien’s. “She’s preg—”
“And we’re not going to let anything happen to her,” he said fiercely. “I swear it.”
Chapter 13
I should have been there for her.
It was the only thought going through my head as the plane rumbled towards New York; a very different plane ride than the one before. The three of them were on cell phones, making calls with stony faces and terse voices, trying to assess the situation.
Finally, Hunter put his phone down, walked towards me, and wrapped his arms around me.
“We’re going to handle this, I swear.”
“I should’ve been there,” I murmured into his chest.
“What exactly would you have done? Stopped them yourself?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t doubt you would have tried,” he said tightly.
Sean’s phone rang and he snatched it up.
“Yes?”
His eyes went wide.
“Shit, hey, hang on, I’m putting you on speaker.”
He looked up. “It’s Luke and Jordan.”
I lurched to my feet. “What?!”
“Ari?” Luke’s voice came on through over speaker, his voice jagged and harsh.
“Luke! What’s—”
“They have her,” he growled. “They’ve fucking got Sasha.”
“She called me,” I sobbed. “Right as they came, she called me. She said you two—”
“They called her and told her that so she’d panic. No, no one fucking has us except we’re Goddamn grounded in London.”