“Brother?” Liam says, confused. “You mean Nathan had something to do with this?”
Dad doesn’t look away from me. “He’s the one who set this whole thing up, isn’t he?”
“Wait, the day you and Mia flew back from your mini-honeymoon of disaster, Mia said the exact same thing!” Liam states. “She said it but…”
We didn’t fucking listen, like the fucking assholes she accused us of being.
“Yes, but why the fuck would he be behind her being taken now?” Cole mutters. “Nathan is her father.”
“Yeah, like a fucking parent can’t be a fucking monster, huh?” I seethe. Silence falls over us.
“Well, either way it’s a good place to start.”
“You think Nathan and Courtney are working together?” Liam questions.
“Well, your mother has a reason to—”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, why? I don’t fucking care about your plans to marry me off to one of the fucking Bishop girls or both of them or whatever else you and that woman planned!” I roar.
“What?” Liam steps closer, confused, his eyes narrowed. It’s only then that I realize what I just fucking said. “What did you just say about the Bishops?”
Ah fuck! Cole glances at me. Dad looks at his fucking shoes and I just… I don’t have time to fucking hold Liam’s hand.
“Julian…” I can hear the edge of rage to his voice, coupled with the hopelessness of this nightmare.
“Not now, Liam.”
“Don’t give me that.”
“Yeah, like you don’t already know,” I snap, seeing the gears switch in his eyes. He’s already working it out. Liam is not stupid. I know he’ll hate me for keeping this from him, but I can’t be bothered to care. Not right now.
He opens his mouth to say something but just then, a swarm of reporters and cameras head for us.
“Fucking hell.”
“Hey, hey, stay back!” Liam demands. I see Dad shove his way through and security right behind him. Where were those assholes to begin with?
“We need to get out of here,” Cole mutters close to my ear.
“No shit.”
I don’t really care who I knock down or who I hurt as I barrel through the crowd of these assholes, remembering a similar scene just like this from years ago. The day I met Mia and she broke my trust for all time—so I thought.
“Where to now?” Cole asks, his voice hard and low for my ears only. I don’t answer but it’s obvious.
Mia…
“We need to make sure first before we do anything.”
“What we need is a fucking game plan,” Liam says, still glaring at me. There’s a violent fight between my brother and me in our future, provided I survive the night.
“No, what you all need to do is try and calm down and let me do what I can to find out if Mia is truly missing,” Dad says. I know he’s talking to me and I need to get him off my fucking ass, so I nod. “Give me a few hours.”
I don’t fucking have a few hours!
“Okay,” Cole answers, glancing at me. “But we need to get out of here.”
Dad stares at me for a moment longer, shifting his shrewd, knowing gaze between Cole and me. “Let’s go to the house. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“We’re right behind you.”
He doesn’t say anything, he just studies us a second longer before his security ushers him to his car. Liam gives me a lingering hostile glare.
“We need to find her,” he snaps.
“She’s fucking mine! You don’t get to tell me what’s on my fucking agenda board!”
“Yeah, just like you fucking keep secrets of some sordid marriage deals to yourself, huh?” he fires back.
“Whoa, whoa,” Cole says cutting in. “Mia was fucking taken. That’s where we should be focusing our fucking collective ire right now.”
Liam steps back but for the first time in my life, I turn away from my brother, dismissing his fucking feelings like they mean nothing and for sure, in the grand scheme of things, they mean nothing.
Turning away and slide into Cole’s car as he and Liam agree with Dad that we’re going to meet him there.
As soon as Cole slides into the driver’s seat and starts the car though, the tension crackling between us as he grips the stirring wheel with a tight grip. He just sits there. At the back of my head, I swear I can hear the clock ticking.
“What the fuck are we waiting for?”
“I know where you want to go and I’m not starting this fucking car until you agree that we need answers.”
“What I fucking need is to get to Mia right fucking now!” I snap. “If that’s too hard of a task for you, get the fuck out and catch a train back home for all I care.”
“I fucking care about her too,” he says silently. “She’s now a part of my life too. I’m in this. Whatever it takes. Wherever this goes.”
“Then let’s fucking go!”
“We need details. If what your dad says is correct, if Nathan and Courtney are somehow working together, then we need to find out more and why.”
I’m silent for a beat, thankful for his unwavering support but also recalling what he said to me the time we got locked up after that party so many fucking weeks ago. I’ve put Cole in danger so many times and he’s jumped into the blazing fire headfirst for me. But this time around, with what I have to do, I’ll protect him with my life if I have to.
“Fine,” I mutter.
“Fine.”
Making sure Liam is gone, driving after Dad, Cole pulls into traffic.
“Where?” Cole questions silently, the tense energy crackling, intensifying, like we’re both drenched in gasoline and we know, someone is about to strike a match.
“My fucking loving mother’s new lair.”
Just then, another text pops up on my phone, with another picture but this time, I think I’m the only one who gets the image.
Everything in me comes to a screeching painful halt as fury skewers me every which way.
I’m going to fucking kill him.
Chapter Four
Mia
Like a ragdoll, I feel my legs being rearranged into the most vulgar pose, exposing my bits for everyone to see.
My stomach rolls in the pit of my stomach as a wave of nausea rushed through me. My bladder is pretty full, which makes no sense because my mouth and throat are dry and I’m dying of thirst, but other than that, I can’t really feel anything.
The pain I felt before is numbed out. I’m even groggier than before, like my head is full of cotton.
All I can do is watch, wanting desperately to die and escape this hell.
I want to scream for help, but it’s as if I’m disconnected from my body all over again. My tongue feels heavy in my dry mouth. I don’t have control over my own body and that’s the scariest shit ever, and I’m aware of the hungry looks watching me as lie there useless, stewing in fear at what’s happening to me.
I look at Sean, his phone is pointed at me… my very naked and exposed body, taking pictures most likely.