Page 51 of Kidnapped Forced Mate

I have to make contact with Hawks tonight, having overheard the Italian speaking in his rich mother tongue with someone on the phone while we traveled back to Sedona tonight. My work has led me to be able to loosely translate Italian – enough to understand that the impending deal with the Russians will take place in two days.

I take a quick glance at Luca, noticing he’s asleep, before I quietly slip out of the bed. Checking to make sure he’s still sleeping, I creep to the dresser and pick up both his cell phone and wallet.

I have to ensure that I leave no stone unturned, quietly tiptoeing to the door and breathing a sigh of relief once I’m out. Even my breath is nothing more than a faint whisper, keeping as silent as I possibly can be until I reach the staircase.

Quietly stealing down the flight of stairs with Luca’s phone clutched in one hand, his wallet in the other, I attempt to unlock the screen before I make it down. It’s only when I enter the kitchen that I’m able to unlock it using the password I peeped him enter before.

I breathe another sigh of relief as I enter Hawks’s number on the dialing screen and lift the phone to my ear. That’s when I hear shuffling from somewhere inside the kitchen, gasping softly as I pull the phone away.

I was sure I was in the clear, but something was wrong. I can feel it in the pit of my belly, that instinctive feeling that I shouldn’t be here, holding Luca’s phone and risking being caught. Fear begins to stir inside me, and I suddenly have the urge to go back to his bed and pretend that I’m still asleep.

My fears are confirmed when I hear my name being called from the shadows, a shiver coursing down my spine as I’m frozen in the spot. My eyes grow wide like a deer caught in the headlights when I hear my name again.

“Olivia…”

Chapter 21 - Stryder

“Goodbye, Stryder…” Olivia says the words that cut through my chest as if she’d poked a dagger through my heart.

I watch her as she heads back to the dark-haired man without sparing one glance over her shoulder for me.

I could have sworn she’d melted into my arms when I kissed her. Yet, the words she spoke were the ones I’d dreaded the most.

She’d moved on, and she didn’t want me. As I stand outside the ladies’ bathroom and watch her slip her arm through the other man’s, I cannot even move. I can barely breathe, replaying her words over and over again in my mind. It’s bad enough that I just found out that she has someone else. It’s even worse knowing that it’s me she doesn’t want, and she finally said goodbye to me.

A goodbye I didn’t even get when I left her at her apartment. All I got was the door thrown in my face, leaving a space there between us that promised that the damage I caused could possibly be amended.

I didn’t think it was possible until I saw Olivia inside the restaurant. Though fuming at the sight of another man, I would have done anything for a second chance, a chance to explain why I kept a secret from her. Now, that chance has gone, even after I tried wooing her in the heat of the moment with my kiss.

I could have sworn that she felt the same way, our heartbeats aligning in that fleeting moment when our lips met again.

Stroking my bottom lip with the pad of my thumb, the remnants of the taste of her lips remain while I watch her leave the restaurant with the man she claims she’s moved on with. I can’t bring myself to accept this magnitude of defeat that has my heart shattering into a million tiny fragments.

This can’t be it. It can’t be the end of what would have been my greatest achievement in a long life in which I had no purpose except being a playboy of sorts. I found my life’s purpose and somehow messed it up because I was foolish.

I can’t accept watching that purpose walk out with another man. Clenching my fists and squaring my shoulders, I march through the restaurant just as the black SUV’s tires screech against tar as it speeds out into the night with Olivia inside it. I quickly dart into the nearest alley, shifting into dragon form and wielding invisibility to follow the SUV.

***

“It’s a pity we could not stay in Vegas tonight,” the dark-haired man laments as he pulls out his wallet and cell phone from his pockets.

Anger brims to the surface as Olivia steps in front of him, placing her arms around his neck. I have the sudden urge to step out of the shadows in which I hide and show myself, perhaps connecting my curled fist with the man’s perfect nose.

But as I watch Olivia hang onto his every word, I can’t imagine myself ruining this for her, even if I disagree. Even if my heart won’t accept that she’s moved on, I can’t leave her hating me even more than she already does.

Still, watching the man lean in and press his lips to hers pains me. Lips that were mine to kiss, the lips of my mate who would have been on the island for me to take liberties of if I didn’t mess things up the way I did.

I can barely stand to watch it, the urge to rush out growing stronger with every second their lips are locked. I should take this as a sign to walk away for good, take her last goodbye and keep it etched into my heart for eternity, and allow her to live the life she deserves.

If this man makes her happy, I should accept it, but I can’t. What I can do is avoid watching the rest of their show, stealing downstairs, where I find the man’s bar and make myself comfortable.

I groan when I find my bag of dragonclaw empty. The entire contents of the bag tonight has done little to ease my nerves. In fact, my brief encounter with Olivia has just turned my world upside-down again. I don’t even know why I’ve bothered following her out here, only to witness the final nail in my coffin being hammered into place when I saw them kiss.

Groaning frustratedly, I sip vodka from the bottle I found on the shelf. The strongest liquor in the man’s house does little to calm me, but I’ll do anything to get the picture of the two of them out of my head.

I mean, I could just return to the island and do my best to forget her entirely. Yet, after everything I saw and everything I heard, I can’t bring myself to leave. I don’t know what I hope to achieve, but what I desire the most is not on the island.

She’s here, on a private villa in Sedona, where I try getting shit-faced enough to forget her.

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