Page 24 of Wicked Angel

My sentence ended as I turned the handle to the door and pulled it open, storming from the room without glancing back. Anyone I passed within the halls stiffened and shifted out of the way, even if they were a distance from me. They sensed the dangerous predator in their midst and were quick to keep their heads down and stay out of my way.

After finding one of the maids to direct me, it didn’t take long for me to arrive at the wooden door to Angel’s room. Crushing the urge to storm in and ensure she was alright, to inspect each and every part of her despite having her looked over by the physician, I didn’t. The few raps of my knuckles on the door were sharp and loud within the quiet hall, but the silence that followed seemed to be even louder. My eyes narrowed. I knew she hadn’t been okay after what happened, and I wondered if she had tried to sleep off the shock and adrenaline of the day.

Not waiting any longer, I shoved the door open. It only took a moment for my gaze to sweep over the large bedroom and the scathing anger of the day pulsed deep within my chest when I found it empty. It wasn’t that she wasn’t in the room that fueled my rage, it was what caught my attention in the simply decorated space. The closet door hung ajar and hangers, clothes, and dresser drawers littered the area.

I closed my eyes and inhaled sharply. That darkness I was so accustomed to swarmed my blood; it lit me up from the inside out. She was gone. The evidence was clear. I’d seen this plenty of times before when tracking down my targets. She thought she could escape me.

Angel hadrun. From me. From our engagement.Our future. She had run from the one person she should have trusted to protect her. The key to everything I wanted had taken flight, and my path to power was quickly dissolving. The anger I’d held toward the guards and the asshole who thought they could touch what wasmineshifted.

Angel would be found, and she’d be punished for thinking she could escape this—for thinking she could escapeme.

She belonged tome, wedding or not, and once I found her, I’d be sure she never forgot that. If I had to clip her beautiful wings to make her realize there was no way she could crawl out of the hell she now found herself in, well, so be it. She was the angel to my devil, and now it was time to corrupt her. To damage and stain those pretty white wings until she couldn’t fly away from me ever again.

I swept from the room and withdrew my phone from my pocket. There were only so many places she could go. Only so many ways to travel. Where would she have hidden? How long had she been gone? I couldn’t have been far behind. Did she have connections? Someone to help her escape? If so, I’d kill them. I was already prepared for as much.

A sickly sweet voice pulled me out of my tunneling focus. “Oh, Gaven, I heard what happened—” Jackie’s words abruptly cut off when I whipped around and my glare landed on her. She stared back at me, stopping in the middle of the corridor with her eyes widening.Would Angel have gone to her sister for help?I twisted fully as the thought occurred to me.

My arm lowered back to my side as I advanced on her. “Where is she?” I growled. Jackie’s brows drew down as confusion covered her face. A trick? Potentially. There was something beyond the confusion—pleasure. Try as she might, she couldn’t hide it. She was more transparent than she realized. I stalked forward until there was only a breath of space between us. “I won’t repeat myself again. Where. Is. My. Wife?”

Jackie tipped her head back and, unlike most, met my gaze head-on. There was no fear in her eyes, just excitement—like a bloodhound scenting prey. She paused for a moment before a small, impish smile appeared. “She’s not your wife yet, now, is she? As for where she is, I don’t know.”

My fingers curled around my cell. The sound of cracking reached my ears. The urge to grab her by the throat and strangle her surfaced, a familiar feeling, but I tampered it down.

“Whatdoyou know?” I demanded.

“That she’s a little dove who finally wanted to spread her wings, lest you clip them. Or lock her in a gilded cage,” Jackie answered. “Outside of that, I know nothing. As I’m sure you’re aware,Angeland I have never truly seen eye-to-eye.” The bitter vindictiveness in her murmured words was cutting, but I didn’t press her further.

I sensed that Jackie was smart enough to be telling the truth now. Either it was by design or something else, but she likely didn’t care to know where her sister had gone, and I was wasting precious time. I had to wonder if her mocking taunts were meant to be a distraction. The idea that Jackie wanted Evangeline gone couldn’t be ruled out.

I turned away from her and kept moving. The phone’s screen had a singular line through it, but thankfully it still worked, and I used it to call in every fucking favor I had. It didn’t matter where Angel had gone—soon she would be back in my grasp and I would ensure that she would be too wary to try and leave again.

Within hours, Raff had been informed and the entire estate was turned on its side. Guards combed the grounds, but I knew the truth. Angel was too smart. She wouldn’t hide in the manor. No. She’d left completely and likely thought she’d never see me again.

Raff barked orders at his men as I stood by a set of computers that had been set up. I watched the last bit of the security feed containing Evangeline Price as she walked down the path with a suitcase in hand, looking back every so often. Her brows were pinched and her lips were chewed to hell. She had to have known I would catch her. She wasn’t a dumb woman. So, why now? Because of the attack? It was a scare tactic. No doubt the family who had ordered the assault had never really intended to harm her—they were just expressing how angry they were at our upcoming union. That was all.

My phone rang and I answered it before the second shrill sound could reach my ears. “Speak,” I snapped.

Archer Petrov’s voice came across the line, and never before had I been more than relieved to hear the hacker and mercenary’s tone. Though not quite what I would consider a friend, Archer was a damn good contact to have and if he couldn’t help me find my bride, he’d know someone who could. “I’ve got a bead on your girl,” he said. “Caught her face on CCTVs a little over an hour ago in Danover.”

Danover. The small city popped into my head. It was only a few hours from the Price Mansion. How fast she moved. A small part of me was proud. Another much larger part was enraged that she managed to get so far so quickly.

“Belmonte.” I lifted my head as Raff called my name. The older man met my gaze with a stern look of his own. “You got something?”

I nodded. “I do,” I said.

His face hardened and he looked away towards the men in the room with a sneer of disgust. A moment passed and then he returned his attention to me. “You have twenty-four hours,” he finally said. “I won’t ask any fucking questions. All I ask is that you bring her back within that time frame. As she’s to be your wife, I understand a man such as yourself needs time to … clear the air with her. No more than that, though. I want my daughter home.”

I understood what he didn’t say. He knew what kind of man I was. Hell, he was the same. Men like us craved control in every aspect of our lives. He knew what kind of leeway he was giving me. He was old school and that meant that his ideals were old school. Raff might have given his daughters the liberty to learn of modern customs, but at his core, he was still the same man who had said fuck it to the Prezzo ancestors and married an American woman. It hadn’t just been because of her beauty, but because of her submission.

Angel would learn, too, that submitting to me would make her happy. Everything I did would, inevitably, lead her to happiness. At my side. At my feet. Taking my cock in her tight little throat.

“Yes, sir.” I gritted the words out and then swung away as I put the phone back to my ear. “I want fucking details, Petrov,” I growled into the receiver. “I want to know the time and exactly where she is.”

“According to the CCTV footage,” the man replied, “Evangeline Price is still in Danover. She wasn’t as easy to find as I anticipated. She was clever. After the withdrawal a few miles outside of the Price Mansion, she’s been using cash.”

“Do you have eyes on her right now?” I demanded.

Silence met my question, and that itself was an answer. “Shit.” I hissed the curse as I took the stairs two at a time until I reached the foyer. I bypassed Jackie whose gaze was locked on me. Whether she wanted her sister gone or not would have to be a problem to solve later.

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