Page 52 of In Pieces

“Oh, but dear, I do. I know them at their core. I know the boys they were that started down the road they’re on now. They haven’t changed as much as they’d like to believe,”she said.

She straightened and paced away from me. The moment her back was turned, I took the chance to look around the room. There were two doors, one on either side of the room. The windows were high and small. I was surprised to realize darkness had already fallen. Tears sprang to my eyes again, wondering where my men were.

Missy paced back and when she saw my face, she laughed. I was surprised that her laugh made me think of Tinkerbell. Despite the sweetness in her giggle, her voice came out laced with venom.

“You think they’ll be looking for you?”

I closed my eyes and turned my face away from her, hiding my vulnerability. I couldn’t have her seeing the pain she was pulling from me. She stalked over to me. Crouching down, Missy grabbed my face and twisted until she forced me to face her again. Her sharp acrylic nails dug into my jaw.

“You’ll look at me when I’m speaking, bitch. I deserve your respect,”she spat, digging her nails deeper.

My eyes popped open as pain lanced my face where her nails broke the skin. I could feel a warm trickle of blood sliding down my neck. I looked up into Missy's eyes and was surprised to see she looked on the edge of losing control. It was what I needed to realize she felt more threatened by me than she wanted me to know.

“You’ve done nothing to earn my respect, or the respect of my men,”I said.

“They are not YOUR men!”Missy screeched, throwing my head back suddenly.

As my skull bounced off the concrete, stars danced in front of my eyes and darkness threatened the edges of my vision. Pain splintered through my head and I rolled to the side, trying to curl into myself. The sharp toe of Missy’s high heel struck me in the back as she screamed. I rolled, trying to avoid her, but she stepped forward and her next blow landed in my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

When I met with Missy at my office, I knew she was devious. I knew she wanted to cause problems for me and the Knights, had an obsession with them. What I hadn’t realized was the threat she saw me as was taking her place in the family with the guys. And she would go to any lengths to get them back.

I gasped, trying to pull air into my lungs. When I looked up, I found Missy pacing, muttering to herself. If kidnapping me hadn’t been the first clue, her erratic behavior only pointed to her being completely unhinged. She finally stopped pacing and turned back to me, a facade of control lowering over her face.

“You won’t be a thorn in my side much longer. With you out of the way, my boys will remember how much we meant to each other. They will welcome me back with open arms and they’ll forget you even existed in their world for a few months.”

The faces of the Knights flashed through my mind. I thought about Gideon, lifting me into his arms as if I weighed nothing, or curling his massive body around me in bed. I thought about the way Jaxon looked at me, the heat that was always in his eyes when he would drink in my nakedness. I could vividly picture Oliver’s curls gripped in my hand as he licked at my core and see his grin when he looked up from between my thighs. Even Aiden, who gave me reasons to doubt him, looked into my soul more than once.

No. No matter what Missy wanted to believe. I knew my guys wouldn’t just forget about me. My heart knew them, each of them, intimately, and their hearts knew me. Without hesitation, I knew they were looking for me now. There was no competition between Missy and I, my guys would choose me every time.

“Just because you keep saying things like that, doesn’t make it true,”I wheezed out.

I knew it was probably not the right idea to antagonize her, but I couldn’t help myself. Missy's eyes flashed, but she kept herself controlled this time.

“You won’t be around to find out,”she said, before turning and stalking out of the room.

As soon as the door shut behind her, I started to struggle against the bindings on my wrists again. I didn’t know what Missy had planned, but I did know she wasn’t behind the kidnapping on her own. She had help, and I didn’t want to wait around to find out what was next.

Before I had the chance to make any progress, Missy was stalking back across the room again. The evil on her face transformed what could have been a pretty woman to something grotesque. When she got to me, she stared blankly down at me and I waited to see if she was going to speak. Instead, her hand snapped down, and I felt a sharp pain in my thigh. I yelpedand looked down just as Missy pressed down the plunger on the syringe she had stabbed me with.

“What the fuck!”I screamed.

Missy didn’t bother responding. She straightened and looked at me again. Again, her face was the last thing I saw as my body began to get heavy and blackness invaded my vision. Missy may not have been the one to drug me the first time, but she had no problem doing it now. Fear flowed through my last conscious thoughts of what could happen to my body while I was knocked out.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Gideon

The soundof my cell phone ringing had me shooting out of bed. I yanked the device from my nightstand without unplugging it, ripping the charger from the wall. Since the moment I knew Brooklyn was missing, sleep was the last thing on my mind. Laying down had been a hopeful waste of time.

“Yes?”I answered the phone.

“Mr. Knight?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Mr. Knight, this is Memorial Hospital. I’m sorry to be calling so late. This is fairly unconventional, as visiting hours are over until the morning. But unfortunately, our patient is demanding to see you and we don’t want to sedate him again,”the woman said.

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