“Let your body heal, man. You’ll be useless otherwise. We’ll get him, and find where they took her the second you’re not broken anymore. You may be able to move now, but the next few days are going to hit hard, especially now that you walked around with a big-ass bed on your back. Your very injured back, might I add.”
“The longer I wait, the more likely she is to disappear. To suffer and have unimaginable things happen to her,” I argue through clenched teeth. The muscle in my jaw is nearly ripping through my flesh from how hard I’m grinding them.
He bends down and puts his hands on my shoulders, dipping his chin until he
catches my eyes. I glare at him, wanting to go back to not being able to hear or
see anything.
Jay is stupidly brave and doesn’t back down.
“I promise you, man, I will have the team looking for her. I will do everything
in my power to get us closer to her.” The intensity in his words and stare is easing my anxiety as much as it’s capable, which is microscopic.
I’ll never be able to relax, to not feel my insides twisting into knots and the
panic gnawing at my heart until there’s nothing left.
I know my body is going to give out on me, but nothing—and I mean,
nothing—is going to keep me from finding her.
Clenching my fists, I nod. I have no plans to stay in this hospital. To stay still.
But arguing right now isn’t going to change anything at the moment.
I need rest. Lots of it. Because the second I open my eyes, I won’t close them
again until Max’s head is in my hands.
“You can’t just bust down the door all willy-nilly, Zade.”
“The fuck I can’t,” I bark, glowering at Jay as he meticulously paints his nails
eggplant purple from the seat next to my hospital bed.
It's the fifth day, and I’m green in the face with anxiety and frustration. I made five escape attempts within the first two days, but they kept knocking my ass out with drugs to the point where I completely lost time. I stopped escaping
because I’d rather be semi-useful behind a computer than be dead to the world
and not be doing anything at all.
The only other reason I gave in was that I was physically incapable of even
squeezing my ass cheeks without my vision going black with pain.
I may not have suffered any life-threatening injuries, but my body is sure acting like it did.
Jay curses softly under his breath when he gets a dot of nail polish on his skin, poking his tongue out as he carefully wipes the paint off.
My new computer is on my lap, the camera feed showing Max and the twins,
Landon and Luke, lounging in his office, drinking expensive scotch and
probably laughing over the big deposit that just came through to his bank account.
Twelve million dollars. The price for kidnapping Addie.
“You know he didn’t do it himself,” Jay reminds me, and then holds up his hands to marvel over his work.
I sigh, the veins in my hands popping as I clench them tight.
“I know,” I seethe.
Max and the twins were at a club when Addie was kidnapped. Which means
he knew where to find her and hired grunt men to do the work. And that means
whoever he hired will most likely be receiving a cut from his reward. A job like
that wouldn't come without a high price, and though Max has money, he doesn't
have that much. Not until today, at least.
Now, we're waiting for him to transfer whatever sum of cash to the lackeys he
promised it to. Then, we’ll be able to trace the money trail and confirm their identities based on the account information.
If we're lucky, Max is as dumb as he looks and doesn’t hide his tracks well enough.
Jay will handle that part while I take care of Max.
I could send in another mercenary to torture the information out of him, but
this method will be much faster, and I refuse to let anyone else touch him except
me.
Only I will show Max what pain truly feels like. Even then, he will only feel a
fraction of what I feel without Addie.
I roll my neck, groaning as it cracks. When I look back down, an alert comes
through.
Three million dollars has just been transferred to an offshore account. It takes
me two seconds to find the name attached to it.
Rick Boreman.
Through the camera feed, Max is now setting down his phone and then
cheers, clinking his whiskey glass with the twins.
I look up at Jay, rolling my eyes as he blows softly on his wet fingernails.
He’s going to chip the paint in two seconds with the amount of typing he does,
which is why the colors change every couple of days. He’s a nail biter, and the
polish helps keep that habit at bay, though it’s been virtually useless these past
five days.
As much as he’s trying to play it cool, Addie being gone has him crippled with anxiety. He’s only seen her through a computer screen, but he doesn’t need to know her in order to know that she doesn’t deserve this, and if she were to die… the world would die with her.
For now, I will begin with Max.
Chapter 4
The Diamond
“I can save you.”
Something shakes me, sending fresh waves of pain spearing through my
consciousness.
“Wake up, I can save you.”
The voice penetrates the deep fog swirling in my brain. Blackness surrounds
me, and it feels I’m like floating in a starless galaxy, but an icy chill is snaking throughout my body. Warning me of something dangerous.
A hand is on my arm, and it roughly jostles me again. “There's not much time
left. I need you to wake up. I will help you.”
A fissure of light cracks through the never-ending darkness. I focus on the light, and as someone continues to jolt my body, the crack widens until blinding light pierces my eyes.
I groan, clarity beginning to surface. The firm grip on my arm tightens, and
the voice rousing me from sleep amplifies.
I’m shaken once more, and the harsh movement finally jerks me awake.
My eyes snap open, and for reasons I’m not sure of yet, my heart is beating
out of my chest, pounding against my rib cage as violently as the person who had been shaking me.
An old, wrinkled face and dull blue eyes come into focus, only a few inches
away from mine. I rear back, blinking at him with panic and confusion.
“What’s going on?” I choke out.
Within seconds, reality comes crashing down, and I’m reminded why I’m
here. Who I’m with.
I was in a car accident. Ran off the road. And then was kidnapped and
brought to a doctor who clearly practices illegally.