Page 68 of Devour
“If you so much as touch a single strand of her hair, I’ll find you. I’ll hack off every cowardly limb, one by one. I’ll make you beg me to end your miserable life—and I still won’t.”
“Save your threats.”
His voice is smug, unfazed. I start pacing, my free hand raking through my hair.
“Where is she? Where the fuck is my wife?”
“She’s safe… for now,” he says, cool and deliberate. “But I can’t promise that’ll last— not unless I get what I want.”
I know he’s baiting me, leading me into a trap. You’re never supposed to let the kidnapper control the negotiation. But none of that matters right now.
This isn’t just business. This is Ariel. My sweet, innocent Ariel. My wife. My world. She deserves everything good and soft and beautiful—not this nightmare. My voice comes out calmer now, deadlier.
“What do you want?” There’s a pause. Then:
“I want the cargo.”
He didn’t have to finish. I already know what cargo he’s talking about. The one we hijacked from the Italians. This is starting to feel like a setup.
“You already know what’s inside.”
I do. It’s drugs. Blue pills. I’ve heard of them before—a new, dangerously potent strain. A single pill is enough to send someone spiraling into a euphoric high so intense they forget their name, their past, everything. It makes people feel like gods.
It’s insanely popular among the rich. One pill goes for thousands—and I’ve got hundreds of boxes locked up in our secure warehouse.
Giving it to Vito would be like handing him the ammunition to destroy me and I know it isn’t about profit. It never was. He wants to crush me. Take everything my father built. And he’s using Ariel to do it.
“You hand that over to me,” he says coldly, “and you can have your wife. You have 24 hours to decide.”
My phone pings.
“I just sent you a little something… to help.”
Tick… Tick… Tick…
The line goes dead. I check the message. It’s a short video of Ariel. She’s still in the short white wedding dress. Her body slack in sleep, her breathing shallow but steady.
They must have drugged her. “Fuck!” I tighten my grip on the phone, my jaw clenched. This is all my fault. I let that bastard beat me at my own game. He played me—deliberately.
He knew I’d come after the cargo if he pushed me hard enough. This was always a trap. And I walked right into it. If I give it to him, I lose face. My men will see me as weak. They’ll question my leadership, my strength. And Vito will use that to turn more of the family against me.
He won’t stop until he buries me. Then it hits me. “Noah.” The word leaves my mouth like a prayer. He’s at home. Alone. Yes, the house is secured. Guards on every floor. It’s the safest place he could be. But still—I have to see him. I have to see with my own eyes that he’s okay.
CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
Ariel
“Don’t touch her.”
I hear the muffled voice through the fog in my mind. My head feels heavy, stuffed with cotton. My eyes roll beneath my lids, but I can’t seem to open them. Everything feels… detached. Distant.
“She’s not a virgin anyway. If I fuck her now, it won’t make a difference.”
That voice doesn’t belong to the first man. It’s someone else. I feel a hand trail up my bare thigh, then slip beneath my dress. Revulsion coils in my stomach. Bile rises in my throat, and if I could move, I’d let it spill.
Part of me wants to—maybe he’ll back off when he’s covered in it. But if I choke on it instead, I’ll die before I can fight back.
I focus everything I have on moving my hand, just to pry his fingers out of my panties. It twitches—barely. But it’s something. I try my legs next. If I can get it to move enough, maybe I can kick him with enough force to get him off me.
