Page 73 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

“Daddy.”

His lip twitched as he approached me and squatted by my feet. I watched him untie the rope around my ankles. He moved around me to untie my hands and pulled me up.

“Come, we have to leave right now.”

I had questions. So many questions, but Zayn was too busy pulling me away. He picked up the gun on the way to the door. He burst through it a moment later. A man was lying in a pool of blood on the other side of it. I stared at him as Zayn tugged me down the corridor.

“How… how did you know where I was?”

“We’ll talk about it in the car, Arianna. Just keep quiet and come with me.”

His hold on my hand tightened and his strides grew longer, making it difficult for me to keep up. I didn’t try to talk to him again as he led me outside. There were warehouses everywhere around us. He dragged me away from the one we’d been in. I could hear the sound of cars. I looked behind us just before he ducked around the side of the building, spying a bunch pulling up outside of it.

“Zayn, what’s happening?”

“Quiet,” he hissed at me.

I was dragged between the two buildings and then out the other side. He hustled me to an idling car, opening the door and shoving me inside it. He got in behind me, forcing me to move across to the other seat. The car set off the moment Zayn slammed the door shut behind us.

“Take this,” Zayn said, shoving the gun at someone in the front seat.

My eyes darted to it, finding Arlo driving and Enzo with the gun. Zayn peeled the gloves off his hands before he turned to me.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, feeling my body with his hands to check me over.

I shoved them away because I didn’t need him touching me up in front of his brother and Arlo.

“I’m fine, Zayn. What I want to know is what the fuck just happened. Who was in those cars?”

He ignored my question and cupped my cheek, his eyes darting over my face. The worry in his features had my heart lurching.

“Did he touch you?”

I frowned, then realised what he meant.

“Other than to shove his knife in my face, no.”

Zayn leant closer, apparently heedless to the fact his brother was staring at us from the front of the car.

“Good. No one touches what’s mine.”

I swallowed at the intensity in his voice and the way he was looking at me. I couldn’t let it stop me from getting answers. Something about this wasn’t adding up right. How did he know where I was? How did he know who took me? He hadn’t seemed the slightest bit fazed by the fact it was Derek when he walked into the room. Like he already knew.

I shifted back away from him, forcing him to drop his hand from my face.

“Zayn… how did you know where I was?”

He sat back, his features closing themselves off from me. His eyes went to my ear and the cuff he’d given me earlier.

“I put a tracker on you.”

The fact he’d answered so readily made me incredibly suspicious. My fingers went to my ear. He’d given me the ear cuff right before I’d left his club. It couldn’t be a coincidence. The warning bells sounded in my head.

“This? You put a tracker in this?”

“Yes.”

The way he was so calm about it frustrated me. How could he think it was okay? I might have wanted him to keep me safe, but him putting a tracker on me was a step too far.

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