Page 2 of Released

Before I can try and work out who it is, another wave of exhaustion crashes over me, drowning me in darkness once more.

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ASH

“It’s been three fucking weeks! What do you mean there’s no fucking sign of her?”

Rage unlike I’ve ever known fills me as I launch my phone across the room with a yell, the sound of it shattering against the fireplace filling our dorm moments later.

My chest heaves as I stare at the glittering shards lying in pieces on the carpet, my fists clenching at my sides when the thought enters my mind that it’s my heart, my soul, lying there as well as my phone.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Ash?!” Loki shouts as he rushes down the stairs. The wrath that I thought couldn’t get any worse increases tenfold when I look at him, red mist coating my vision. My pulse pounds in my ears, and my ability to see my surroundings tunnels, until all I can see is his failure to protect Lilly.

With an almighty roar, I launch myself at him, meeting him as he steps off the stairs with a brutal punch to his jaw that has his head snapping to the side. Not giving him time to recover, I hit him again, this time in the stomach, satisfaction filling my veins as all the breath whooshes out of his lungs, his hand clutching around himself. He straightens up a moment later, and a twinge of guilt runs through me at the sight of blood trickling down from his now split lip. Lowering his arms down to his sides, he looks at me with broken eyes, making the red mist begin to dissipate.

“Fight back, you asshole,” I snarl at him, panting, but my raised fists begin to droop as he just stands there, looking lost. “Fucking hit me!”

“No,” he states, squaring his shoulders. “It’s my fault she’s gone.”

I raise my fists once more, nostrils flaring at his words. Itishis fucking fault.Hewas meant to be watching her when she disappeared. When she was clearly taken from us.

But it wasn’t just his fault. We were all meant to be watching her, and we weren’t there when she needed us. With that thought, all the strength leaves my body, my arms falling back down to my sides, and my chest rising and falling with my heavy breaths. The crippling guilt leaves my chest feeling painfully tight.

“It’s not just your fault, Loki,” I tell him, my voice like sandpaper; all rough and grating.

Moisture fills his eyes, and my broken heart cracks more when he swallows hard, ready to argue. I know that he’s taken this harder than the rest of us because he was meant to be with her at the time, watching over her at the reception party. But then he got caught by his dad, and we all got distracted, which we now suspect was purposeful. I have to tamp down the fresh rush of anger at that thought. That somehow, this stinks of Julian, myfather. Especially as he doesn’t seem as upset as a father-in-law should be at the kidnapping of his pregnant daughter-in-law. He’s made next to no effort, bar speaking to the press, to find her. He’s carrying on, as usual, declaring that ‘it’s out of our hands.’ He knows something, I fucking know he does. Nothing is beyond the reach of Black Knight. Especially not a missing family member.

Reaching up, I clasp one of Loki’s shoulders in my hand, pulling him towards me and wrapping my arms around him. My own eyes moisten as he takes a great heaving breath and clutches me back tightly.

“I’m so fucking sorry, Ash,” he whispers, his voice thick and rasping.

“I know, brother. I know,” I reply, my own voice hitching slightly with the pain that we both feel like a knife in the gut that can’t be removed.

I release him just as the door opens and look towards it to see Jax walking in, swollen and split knuckles wrapped around his gym bag. We’re all a mess without our Lilly to keep us in line. He kicks the door shut behind him, looking up at us with red-rimmed eyes.

“Anything?” he asks, and it’s the only word that leaves his lips now since Lilly vanished. I can’t blame him, the urge to cut myself has been so strong, I’ve had to get the guys to hide all the fucking knives and anything sharp. Kai keeps the kitchen ones under lock and key, and the others have hidden their razors from my reach. I shake my head, and he just grunts, dropping his bag and heading to the bathroom.

Loki and I watch him in silence, and just as he gets to the door, the front door bursts open again, crashing into the wall and making all three of us spin around, fists raised. My heartbeat settles a little seeing that it’s Kai, glasses askew and hair an absolute fucking mess. He’s clutching what looks like an open yearbook in his hands, looking down at it, and there’s a flush on his cheeks.

“Guys!” he shouts, then winces when he sees we’re all there in front of him. “Sorry, but I think I found something.”

We all step forward, my stomach doing an uncomfortable flip as my heart races again at his words.

“Well?” Loki asks from next to me, not even giving Kai a chance to say another word. Kai just looks at him, his gaze softening briefly.

“I was looking through all the old yearbooks, trying to see if the ‘Ace’ you told us about after your father’s strange phone call ever attended Highgate,” he tells us, looking at me. “And I fucking found him!” he cries out, voice full of weary triumph.

Before we can answer, he turns the book around, and the world falls down around me as I look at the image on the page, unable to make sense of it at first. It's a photograph of a couple, a darkly handsome man who looks vaguely familiar, but it’s the woman that he’s got his arm wrapped around that sends chills down my spine.

“Is that…” Jax begins, his rough voice startling me from my own thoughts, though years of training mean that I don’t show it outwardly.

“Lilly’s mom, I believe,” Kai tells us, his voice low. My gaze takes in the thick, wavy brown hair that tumbles over her slim shoulders, slightly darker in colour than Lilly’s, and the hazel eyes, the pixie shaped face. There’s a thud in my chest, a longing for my own pixie princess, that has become a constant companion these past few weeks.

“Not just Lilly’s mom,” I say, finally tearing my eyes away from the picture to read the description below.

“Fuck,” Loki breathes out on my other side.

Couple destined for great things: Adrian ‘Ace’ Ramsey with his fiancée, Violet Rochester, pictured here at a gala celebrating the announcement of their engagement.

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