Page 95 of One Wild Ride

THIRTY-SEVEN

Aria

“You ruined, Alexander,” Mrs. Hawthorne sneered at me.

The guy who grabbed me from the motel room finally took the bag off my head. I had been pushed and pulled and shuffled around so much I didn’t know where I was.

I was thankful to be able to breathe. That bag was suffocating and I gulped at the cool, dry air around me. My hair was matted to my face and, with my hands tied behind my back as I sat on the metal chair, there was nothing I could do about it.

But the air felt wonderful.

“I don’t think I was the one to ruin him. If we are talking about ruining people’s lives, Mrs. Hawthorne, you’re going to need to sit as we go through the list of lives you ruined.”

Just because I was kidnapped, had my hands tied behind my back, had no idea where I was, and almost passed out a few times didn’t mean I wasn’t ready to take this bitch down.

“I saved lives, not ruined them.” She moved toward the desk by the back wall. She was impeccably dressed as usual. The steely Emma Hawthorne had a gray silk blouse on with a pencil skirt and heels. Who dresses like that to kidnap someone?

As my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized I was in a room with a window that overlooked a large warehouse.

I could be anywhere. Even if I screamed, I suspected the only people who would hear me worked for Mrs. Hawthorne.

“Do you really believe that? You kidnapped your son. No mother in her right mind would force her son to marry someone and then kidnap him when he walked away. Can you not see how crazy this appears?” I said as I stared at her.

This woman was so out of touch with reality. Now I know why Alex was laughing back in the hotel room. All of this was absurd.

“You have no idea what we’re up against, Aria. The power that these men hold, it’s deadly. We need to destroy that. Why do you think I let my son be with you?”

“Because he’s an adult and can see whoever he wants,” I mumbled as I rolled my eyes.

A loud bang had my eyes flip up toward her. She pounded her fist on the desk as she gritted her teeth.

“No, because you of all people should understand why I need to do this. I hate that I haven’t been closer with my son. Despise that, they made me live in fear for so long. But, sometimes, we need to make sacrifices for the greater good.” She gazed off into the distance and I wondered what world she saw there.

Maybe she saw her perfect crazy world. A world where she was the hero. Emma Hawthorne really believed that what she did to her son was necessary. She wasn’t some bitter woman who took her anger and need for control out on her son. She was like some loony terrorist who believed that something greater than themselves was telling them they needed to destroy innocent lives.

“But your son isn’t like those men. He’s a good one.” I slowed my words.

Big thugs don’t scare me. Even when that guy, who I never got a good look at, threw a bag over my head and dragged me here, I wasn’t scared. But a delusional person with thoughts of grandeur that involved destroying people’s lives . . . yeah, that scared the piss out of me.

And this crazy person had money and power. She had the means to do anything she wanted.

“Of course he isn’t. That’s why he’s perfect for the plan.”

The door flew open and then a man wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket walked in—the same man who grabbed Alex at the motel.

It’s over one hundred degrees outside and felt only twenty degrees cooler in here.

“You do realize you are inside or did you just have cataract surgery?” I said because beefy thugs irritated the hell out of me.

He turned his head toward me but ignored my words.

“He’s here, Jay. Should we put him in the same room as Alexa?” he said walking up to Mrs. Hawthorne.

Jay? I thought her first name was Emma.

“Yes. Is the minister here?”

I held my breath as I hoped they weren’t talking about Alex.

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