Page 135 of Love Collided

“It had to be done, Chase. She’s ruining your life and neither of you are ending this. I care about you enough to give you a better life than what she is trying to convince you to settle for.”

“If this was about me having a better life, you would be happy for me.”

“Why would I be happy to watch my only son throw away everything we worked for? Everything we have given you? What part of that should I be happy about?”

“The part whereI’mactually happy for once. The part where I found someone l love who loves me. This has nothing to do with me having a better life. This is about you keeping your money and wanting more. I’m a part of your plan and without me, you lose out. I don’t know everything that you lose out on, but it has to be something big enough to hurt her.”

“You can be happy in a different life with a different person. Not one who tells you to drop it all and run off with her. Not one who can’t even make it through one dinner party without embarrassing us all. You need to decide right now, Chase. You need to decide who it’s going to be so I can take care of this,” my mother said. She didn’t look sad or scared anymore. She was trying to scold me, to talk down to me as a son so I would hang my head and listen. Honestly, I didn’t even blame her for trying. It had worked so many times before, but things were different now.

“Who is it, Chase? Who is it going to be?”

“Who it’s going to be for what?” I tried to step around her and closer to Scout, but the two guys still crowded around her. The cold, calculating look in her eyes made me finally see what Scout had seen in me that night of the party. It was dead, and hollow just like she said. It was all a plan of greed and my mother didn’t care who she took down in the process.

“She wants to know who you’re loyal to.” Scout’s quiet voice filled the room as she tried to push the scarf out of her mouth more.

“What?”

“She thinks that you are only temporarily loyal to me and wants that to be over. She wants your loyalty back, and that’s what he wants to know right now, if you are loyal,” she said, her legs still tied together.

“Shut her up!” my mother yelled. “Get her upstairs and get her the hell out of here.”

They looked at each other and shook their heads. “Kidnapping is going to cost you,” one of them said.

“I don’t care about the price, just go.”

“We need to be paid first if we are risking the cops following us.”

My mother sighed and looked them over. “Does it look like I have a checkbook or cash on me right this second?”

“No, it doesn’t,” the bigger one said, stepping around me and heading towards the door. “Feel free to give us a call when you do.”

I stepped closer to Scout now, careful to not spook my mother and encourage her to call them back in.

“My boot, Chase,” she said, moving her left boot. I nearly smiled. Of course my girl had her knife in her boot.

I dug into her boot, the ties keeping her ankles tight together. She hissed, and I pulled back, not wanting to hurt her any more.

“Get it. I don’t care, just hurry and get it.”

“Stop, Chase,” my mother said. “You two need to stop him!” she yelled out the door to the goons. “Chase, I can’t lose you.” I could hear the panic in her voice this time, but I knew it wasn’t for me. It was for herself. For money, status, and power.

The plans her and my father had set up for me all those years ago were crumbling around her all because of one girl.

One girl who showed up and wrecked my entire world, and I was more thankful for that every day that I knew her. The knife finally came out, and I reached back to cut through the ties on her hand.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I am so fucking sorry, and I really hope you still love me after this.”

“You love me?”

“Of course I love you.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure. You never said it, but of course I’ll still love you after this.”

I smiled, the tension in my chest finally loosening since I found out she was missing. It wasn’t a far jump to assume that she wouldn’t want any connection to me after this. I should have known Scout wouldn’t be fazed nearly as much. She was a fighter, and nothing was going to stop her until we were out of here and back home. She might fall apart then, but for now, we were okay.

“Cut that and run. The crew is here and will be upstairs somewhere.”

Before I could get her completely untied, a full bottle of wine flew across the room, smashing against the rock wall behind me.

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