Page 73 of Bad Duke

“You came along and you crushed my plans. You took him away from me…” Her fingers grip around my throat and her nails dig into my skin.

“Marina,” I call out her name when I feel the panic rise in my chest. “None of that changes the fact that if you kill us, Alex will hate you,” I tell her as calmly as I can.

“Oh, sweetheart, did you honestly think that I’d not have that covered?” She rolls her eyes again as she stands up and heads back into the room she came out of. I twist my wrists and kick my feet trying to get free while she’s gone, but when a fierce pain courses through my body it forces me to stop.

“No, no. No, not now,” I whisper frantically. This can’t be happening here, not now, while I’m tied to this bed with a psycho as my only company.

“Meet Samuel Hamilton,” she says cheerily as returns to the room and rolls in an office chair. Tied to that chair is a very scared-looking old man with what, I’m sure, is a ball gag strapped to his mouth.

“This is the former advisor of Alex’s father, and Alex sacked him. Naturally, he has a grievance and a score to settle.” She twirls a strand of his grey hair around her finger.

“He came to the house tonight while I was convincing you that Alex was innocent, and he took us both at gunpoint.” She raises her hand to show the gun. “Then he brought us here and tied us both up…I begged him to kill me and spare you, but he pulled the trigger. It was while he tried to rape me that I got myself free, and then…boom!” She places the gun against his head and makes his eyes go wild with fear.

“I’ll be the victim, Olivia. I’ll be the person who tried to save you and failed, and it will eat me up on the inside. Alex and I will get over our grief together.” She smiles and as another pain grips me, making my entire body go rigid, I look up at the ceiling and pray for a miracle.

ALEX

I leave Levi and Spence cleaning up the Riverty house and get in my car. I got a text from Marina telling me that Olivia is still mad and that I should stay at my old apartment tonight. But now that I know that Fox can’t hurt her, I can go home and explain everything.

I drive through my gates, and as I approach the house I get pissed off when I see that there's no one guarding the door, like I’ve instructed.

I park up and march inside, about to give Patrick a fucking talking to, when I see him on the reception room floor with a bullet in his head I freeze.

“Alex.” I hear a weak voice call my name, and looking up I see Will propped up against the wall by the living room.

“Will, where's Olivia?” I quickly strip off my jacket and use it to apply pressure when I notice that he’s bleeding from his stomach.

“I was out back with Leah and I heard the gunshots. She took out Patrick and Hugo, they never saw it coming. None of us did.”

“Who? Will, what the hell happened here, where's Liv?” I can hear my heartbeat in my ears, and panic is making me feel like I’m drowning.

“She took her, I couldn’t move, I watched her drag her out of here by her ankles,” he cries, shaking his head and making my heart fucking stop.

“Dead or alive?” I ask, trying to fucking breathe.

“Dead or a-fucking-live?!” I yell at him when he goes silent.

“I don’t know, she wasn’t fighting or making any noise.” He shakes his head, looking sorry.

“Where's everyone?” I look around and see that it’s only us.

“When I heard the shots I told Leah about the passageway in your office. I told her to take Barnaby and stay hidden.

Alex…it’s Marina.

She’s the fucking Fox,” he tells me, flopping his head back and trying to catch his breath.

“Will,” I take his hand and press it over my blood-soaked jacket. “I’m calling you an ambulance, but I have to go after her. Don’t fall asleep. Hold on to this,” I tell him sternly.

“You go get her. I’ll be fine.” He nods his head bravely and even manages a smile.

I quickly scramble back on my feet and rush out to my car, not knowing if Olivia is dead or alive or where the fuck Marina would have taken her. I call an ambulance and give them instructions as I speed back out my gates and head towards the city. The best I can do is try her apartment.

“Come on, come on think.” I slam my hand into the steering wheel, trying to recall any locations from the notes as to where they would have held her. But my mind is blank and I’m feeling suffocated. I loosen my tie and rip it from around my neck as I speed in a direction that could be wrong.

I now regret thinking that putting a tracker on Olivia's phone, after she moved in, was a step too far and push down hard on the breaks. When that thought reminds me of something I quickly pick up my phone from the passenger seat and scroll to the app Marina insisted I download when she went on a date last year. Ironically, she wanted the piece of mind that someone would know where she was in case he turned out to be a serial killer. I slam my fist at the wheel again, only this time it’s with relief because a red dot flashes and shows me her location.

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