Page 31 of Darkest Love
I stare at Adrien in surprise. “Really? You actually care what she’s feeling?” And yet, he can’t care what I’m feeling? His real life wife?
“I’m not a complete heartless monster.”
“Just with me you are.”
He ignores the jab and keeps his eyes on the painting of the sad woman. “She’s aching for more out of her life too. I figured you could relate to her.”
I stare at the sad woman. It’s like her eyes are looking straight into me. It’s disorienting. “Let’s move on to another one.”
“Scared? Did I touch too close to home?”
“Coming from the man who’s scared of his own feelings.”
“I’m not scared of my own feelings,” he murmurs as we walk to another painting. “I just know that feelings are pointless. They only lead to bad things. That’s it.”
“That’s such a bullshit way of looking at life and you know it.”
“How do you look at life then?”
“I look at life as if it’s full of possibilities waiting to be explored. You look at life as if it’s a thing to get through. You just want sex with women so you don’t have to explore all the parts of life that you can. Ergo, you’re afraid of your own feelings.” Ileave him standing there, his mouth slightly open in surprise, as I move on to the next painting.
Adrien is silent as we walk around the rest of the museum. It feels good putting him in his place a little, though I do miss his banter with me. It’s kind of fun I’ll admit.
Once we’re done at the museum, we walk towards his car when we’re stopped by two men. They walk right in front of us, blocking our way.
Adrien grabs my arm and starts to lead me in the opposite direction when two more men walk up behind us. We’re trapped.
And then a man approaches us, smirking like he’s won the war. Remy.
“What do we have here?” he asks.
Adrien keeps his hand clenched to my arm. “Remy. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m doing what I should have done the second you stole money from me.” He nods at his guards. “Take them.”
“I have my gun,” Adrien warns. “I’ll shoot every one of your guards in the head in a matter of seconds.”
“But we’re in public,” Remy says. “You don’t want to risk getting into trouble, now do you? For your own benefit, Adrien, get in the car.” He nods to a car behind him – it’s more of a van, ready to haul both of us away.
“Anastasia,” Adrien says. “Run!” He pushes me back as he runs at Remy. I hesitate too long and one of his guards grabs me around the waist and pulls me to the van. He clamps his hand over my mouth so I can’t scream and shoves me inside. Remy’s other guards manage to grab Adrien and force him inside the van as well.
They shut the door behind us, locking us inside.
Chapter Ten
Anastasia
Without even thinking about it, I cling to Adrien. He wraps his arm around me without any hesitation. The van starts and we’re being taken somewhere to be… what? Tortured? Mutilated? Killed?
I shiver at the thought. This is not what I wanted out of an adventure. I wanted to have fun and be freeandbe safe.
“Adrien?” I whimper. He tightens his arm around me.
“Remy, where are you taking us?” he growls. Remy flashes him a smile from the front passenger seat.
“I’m going to get you to return the money you stole from me.”
“By kidnapping me? I can’t exactly access my money when you’ve kidnapped me.”
