Page 47 of Romancing the Reaper

“What will you do?” Lila asks gently, her warm hands on mine, her voice filled with concern.

I shake my head, unable to find an answer. The idea of telling Cristiano or even Alberto is out of the question. My brother is already on a relentless hunt for Kieran and I don’t even want to imagine how he would react to this. There would be no reasoning with him. None whatsoever. I’m terrified all around.

“I don’t know,” I admit in a small, trembling voice. “I just… I need to know for sure. Can you help me get a pregnancy test?”

Lila surges forward, her arms wrapping around me tightly.

As Lila hugs me, I feel a small measure of comfort. Together, we will figure it out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

KIERAN

Something’s wrong.

I knew from the moment I parked my car that something was wrong. It’s in the air, I can’t even put a name to it. I have my gun drawn before jogging up the stairs to the loft hideout. The moment I see the front door ajar my heart drops right out of my ass and rage consumes me. It’s a highly potent, toxic mixture of emotions that grips me tight and doesn’t seem to have any intention of letting me go.

It’s supposed to be a fortress of solitude, but it’s too quiet. I hurry inside, gun ready for anything that might be waiting for me. I expect a trap, or at least men waiting to kill me… a gun pointed at my temple… anything. Instead, I’m met with stillness.The air doesn’t even seem to move as my own breath saws in and out of my chest.

My heart beats a steady drum in my chest, to the tune of one word and one name only. A-da. A-da. A-da

Where is she?

Forgetting my composure and all sense of rationality, I run through the small space, room to room in search of a body that I know isn’t going to be here. Frantic, I almost forget that I have cameras. The emptiness of the space hits me like a punch to the gut and my knees give out. Every room, every empty corner seems to echo with the absence of her. My heart pounds frantically as I stare into the silence. Somebody has been here, somebody who knew exactly what they were doing and had a hell of a lot of firepower to do it with.

That door should have been Fort Knox.

I don’t know how long I sit there, paralyzed and feeling utterly desolate before I manage to get to my knees. The hollow, aching crater that has replaced my chest makes movement and breathing difficult. I place my hand against the security panel outside the only room that Ada couldn’t get into, the one with all the cameras and overrides. Numb, I start to replay the footage, the last moments of Ada being here where I know she’s safe. Where she belongs.

I watch as Alberto short circuits my door and then quite literally blows it out of the wall. How did they find her? I have beencareful. No, I’ve been perfect in keeping this place concealed entirely. It’s unplotted. Nobody has seen me come and go. The only soul that knows I am staying here is Liam.

He couldn’t have possibly…

The rage that had been losing to despair finally boils over. I see red. There’s a tinny ringing in my ears that swallows all sound as my fist drives into the closest wall to me over and over again until my hand is destroyed and I have no strength left in my arm at all. Shockwaves of pain radiate up to my arm and through my shoulder but I can barely feel it. It hasn’t done enough to alleviate the storm brewing inside me. I’m not built for this many emotions at once.

Ada’s gone. Cristiano knows that I’m alive. All of my perfectly laid plans are ruined. That careful balance that I’ve been maintaining is shattered. I am a hunted man, but now it’s going to be coming at me from every angle. Not just Patrick, but the whole Dominio army is going to rain down on my head. I can’t afford to be reckless, I have to stay one step ahead.

My mind whirls and twists as I systemically wipe all of my hard drives. I have to move quickly, I can’t stay here. I have to transfer to another safe house that not even Liam knows about. Not until I’m sure that it wasn’t him who double crossed me. The nagging feeling that none of this even matters anymore, not without Ada, pulls on me. I have to get her back. I have to.

Cristiano will never admit it, but she’s not safe there. She’s going to be in more danger than ever now that she’s accessible to theworld. I know for a fact that Patrick won’t hesitate to use her against me. He will use her in any way he chooses to draw me out and take my life.

I have to regroup, plan my next moves carefully without my emotions clouding my judgment. Something that’s a hell of a lot easier said than done. Cristiano is a formidable enemy and underestimating him would be a fatal mistake.

I grab only my essentials and stuff them into a black duffle bag. I remove all of my hidden weapons and shove them inside too. I never meant to be here this long anyway. I take a long, lingering look at the possessions that Ada left behind and wonder for a moment if I should even bother grabbing them for her. Clearly, they didn’t mean much to her if she left them behind.

I don’t see her ring anywhere either.

That has to mean something, doesn’t it?

She better know that I’m not going to stop at anything until she’s safe. I don’t care who gets in my way, I will kill them all. I leave the space behind, triggering the fail-safe mechanisms in my wake that will set the rest of it on fire. A heatless, chemical melting of everything that could be used to be traced back to me will eat through all of it. Come tomorrow it’s going to be nothing more than a hunk of twisted metal and maybe remnants of dumbbells.

I step out into the night, the cool air a stark contrast to the fire burning inside of me.

First things first. I have to pay a visit to my viperous snake of a cousin. He’s going to pay for what he’s taken from me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

ADA

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