Page 23 of Verses and Blooms
No one found me for ten years and now this asshole was transporting me off site, I’d be impossible to find soon.
My life was over no matter how I looked at it.
A phone ringing had the group pausing.
“What is it?” my captor answered in his usual gruff tone. Then he let out a breath of relief. “Looks like the funds went through. She’s all yours, Jameson. It was a pleasure doing business with you.”
“She’ll be a good fit,” Jameson said. His voice had perked up, a twisted cheerfulness edging his words. Fuck. This was real. I’d been sold off like a fucking possession. An object, not a person.
A snarl escaped me but a sharp smack on the ass was my reminder to keep it together. I let the anger settle, simmering within me but contained as my omega and I held onto it.
In fact, I conjured up every bad thing that happened here, each one a new log for the growing flames. One after the other I fed the pyre as he walked through the halls and out into the rising morning sun. It was that calm, early morning light that meant it was still early.
I’d lost all sense of time but it couldn’t have been a full day, right?
“It was a pleasure, princess. Be good for you new owner,” my captor said as he stopped walking, letting Jameson carry me out without him.
“Fuck you,” I grit out, pushing past the command to give him a parting middle finger and the words I’d wanted to say so often. “I hope you rot in hell for what you’ve done you sick, twisted monster!”
“Enough,” Jameson barked, my jaw snapping shut yet again. My fury had started to burst out and as he dropped me into the back end of the SUV and buckled me in, I glared. “If you want to live, shut your fucking mouth.”
His face was so close now that I could see his dark brown eyes boring into me. They were surprisingly not as menacing asI expected. But they were hard and knowing. I had a feeling he had impeccable control, but he was also used to obedience.
Just wait, I reminded myself. I needed him to drive us off the property before I acted. Otherwise I’d be right at their mercy all over again.
Two men climbed into the front, as Jameson got into the back with me. Fuck. This wasn’t the plan. One I could help crash the car. Not two.
“Drive,” Jameson ordered. “To my safehouse. She’s in heat.”
“Yes, sir,” a deep voice answered back.
The tires crunched over the gravel as we drove out of the compound. I glanced back, taking in the sight so I could describe it later if I got a chance. A large, barbed-wire topped fence and an old brick factory. The tower jutting on top was half-crumbling and from the overgrowth of nature all around, including vines choking the bricks, this wasn’t a place others came to often.
“Whatever you’re thinking. Don’t. Trust me,” Jameson warned in a low voice.
I didn’t bother to answer even as the bark faded. My mind was already calculating a new way to survive this. How I could take on three alphas, two and possible three with weapons.
Fuck, the odds weren’t looking good.
“Keep watch. I don’t trust Seamus to let her go. He was oddly attached,” Jameson said as he glanced behind us.
“After that payday? You think he’d try it?”
“If I’m dead, the money is his and so is the girl,” Jameson said easily. How was he this fucking calm?!
“What?” I shrieked, turning in my seat to watch the building fade. The gates were slowly closing now that we’d left but they stopped, moving back up. “The gates are going back up.”
Jameson cursed. “Drive faster.”
“They picked this road for a reason. The gravel is going to make that harder,” the driver argued as he tried to pick up speed, the car spinning slightly as it tore through the rocks in the road.
My jaw dropped in horror as I watched a fleet of three cars speed out after us, navigating the road like professionals. They were going too fast.
“Stay buckled and brace for impact,” Jameson warned me. “I’m just trying to get you to your pack. I work with Ares.”
The last part was such a low whisper it was meant just for me. I froze, eyes wide, but he had warning in his expression.
This was a secret, even from his men.
