Page 52 of Charity's Redemption

“You ruined his career, Charity. You broke my arm and drugged me.”

“Hmm, I don’t recall. Refresh my memory.” I scoffed. “Oh, wait. You don’t remember either.” I cocked my head to the side. “Must have been a rough night for you trying to get into Luca’s pants, huh?” I smiled. “How did that go for you?”

She lunged at me. “Shut up, you stupid bitch.” Owen grabbed her and pulled her back to his chest while she flailed her arms like one of those blow-up advertisements car dealerships have on their front lawn.

My laughter died down as I watched her struggle against him, her blonde hair wild and covering her face.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” she said, swiping her hands down her clothes and straightening herself up. Owen released her before she took off at me again, but this time, her fist smashed into my face.

Copper tang exploded in my mouth as my lip split against my teeth. My damaged nerves erupted into a fit, adding to all the other sensations I’d experienced in the last unconscionable amount of time.

Owen hauled her away as she raised her fist again and pulled her out of the room, her screams lighting a pathway to the room he put her in.

I tongued my cut and groaned as tenderness showered over me. Soon, my shock would dissipate, allowing all the pain to rush at me in a tsunami-like fashion, overpowering me. Which was why I needed to break free of this sooner rather than later.

There’s no way I’d break down before those two and spill my guts. Even though I wasn’t afraid of him taking the information back to the police chief… not that he’d listen to him anyway… he was in Luca’s pocket, but anything I said here was under duress and would be invalid.

How did a ‘smart’ agent… and I use that term loosely, think that this would ever fly in a court of law?

I pulled on my restraints as I listened to them argue in the next room over, then nearly laughed. It couldn’t be this easy. No way had he left me like this?

I slammed my phoneon the desk after having listened to her voicemail for the hundredth time.

She’s ignoring me. She has to be.

No, there is something wrong. She wouldn’t do this.

My internal conflict warred inside me, tearing me apart inside until I walked upstairs towards Max’s room. He’d gone to sleep early, even though she still hadn’t made contact.

I flung open his door and flipped the light switch. The door hit the stop against the wall with a catastrophic bang. Max jumped from the bed, his eyes squinting against the harsh light until he saw me.

“Where is she, Max?”

He rolled to his back, rubbing a hand down his face and groaned.

“I will not ask you again.”

He groaned again as he shielded his eyes from the lights. “Turn off the lights.” He felt around his nightstand until he landed on his phone.

“No. Get up.”

“What time is it?” He blinked as he turned on his screen and glanced at the clock. “It’s five in the morning. What the fuck?”

I stormed towards him, ready to pull him from his bed by his hair and knock some sense into him. “Yeah, it’s the next day, and she still hasn’t responded. Doesn’t that set off warning bells for you?”

He ran his hands down his face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, then sat up and leaned forward, hunching over his phone.

“Pull up the app and give me her location. Now.”

It was a mistake letting Max be the only holder to her GPS device. Once we’d finished here, I’d have that app, and so would Nico.

“I checked on her earlier. She was at some parking garage.”

“That doesn’t tell me where she is now.”

“She didn’t do it, Luca.”

“That’s the least of my concerns at this point.”

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