Page 89 of Fractured Vows

The floors don’t echo as the men march me toward whatever fate is waiting for me when I reach Spade.

I don’t need to be able to see to know I’m not in the right place, which means no one knows where I am.

We come to a stop, and a moment later, I’m hoisted off his shoulder and dropped to the ground. The wood beneath me is too hard to break my fall, and I let out a startled cry as I land awkwardly on my hip.

The bag is torn from my head, and it takes long seconds to blink through the sudden light after being shrouded in darkness for so long.

“Ah, Isla, I knew it was only a matter of time before you would find your way to me.” Spade’s deep voice sends cold waves of anxiety through my body as I search the room for him. I shouldn’t be surprised to find him on the other side of a grand oak desk, far too ostentatious and large to be for work alone, but I doubt he’d appreciate it if I started commenting on the styling of his office.

Bookcases line the walls with volumes of books I would normally die to brush my fingertips over and flip through the ones that have outlived me time and time again.

“I wasn’t given much choice,” I say quietly. I know better than to speak to a man at his station like this, but I hardly think it’s possible to make things worse for myself at this point.

He chuckles, but he makes no attempt to move closer, which I’m grateful for. The other men in the room are by the door, which means right now I have the most space I’ve had since they took me off the street. “I usually find women with smart mouths annoying, but on you, it’s amusing.”

I bite back the need to retort because I don’t want to push him too far.

“I’m sure you know why you’re here.”

I shake my head. “No, I really don’t. I’m married. I’m under Saint James protection. You have to know this isn’t going to end well for you.”

He looks down at me thoughtfully, as if he’s pretending to think through what I’ve just said to him, but we both know nothing that comes out of my mouth is going to sway him away from whatever reasoning he’s come up with. “You and I both know your marriage was less than genuine.”

I shake my head. “No, it wasn’t. Doc and I love each other.”

His gaze darkens, and I tug my bottom lip between my teeth to stop myself from arguing any further. It’s not going to do me any good. “You wouldn’t be here if your marriage was anything but a sham. But when you got on that private jet with the Hayes brothers, you confirmed what I knew from the start.”

I press my eyes closed to blink back the tears that gather there. “You have my father and best friend. I came to Boston to try to get them back.”

“And yet your husband didn’t come with you,” he muses. “Seems like something Doc should have wanted to be by your side for.”

He has me there, and he knows it. Leaving him behind was my first mistake, but definitely not my only one.

“See, what I think happened is that the day I came to your home was the first time you’d heard of the marriage your dad cooked up. It was obvious you didn’t want to marry him then, but never more so than when you walked down the aisle. I’ve never seen a bride look so reluctant, and I come from a family who still believes in arranged marriage.”

I open my mouth to argue, but quickly snap it shut again. What am I meant to say? That we may not have loved one another that day, but each day since we’ve fallen a little more forone another. There’s nothing that can possibly come out of my mouth that will help me right now.

“It seems as if the two of you have found your new normal, perhaps even grew fond of one another, but that doesn’t mean your marriage is not a sham, and therefore it’s time for you to pay your father’s debt.”

I swallow down the sob that catches in my throat. All I want is to go home. Go back to my apartment in Chicago. Go for coffee with Doc and allow him to fuss over the temperature of my drink. To have another girls’ night with Bella. To fall asleep in the arms of the man I love one last time. Oh god, what I would do for that.

I miss him so much my heart aches for him, and there’s a void in my chest that only he can fill. I didn’t think it was possible to physically hurt because you missed another human so much, but I was wrong. So fucking wrong.

“Where are my dad and Bree?” I whisper.

The longer I’m in the presence of the devil, the more I believe I’m never getting out of here. But the least I can do is make sure the people I came to save are safe.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

DOC

“Ithink it’s safe to say they’re not bringing her here,” I growl.

“Are your guys any closer to working out where they picked her up?” Bryant asks Storm.

He nods, typing something out on his phone before he turns his attention to us. “That was Everett. From the traffic cameras, it looked like they were heading in this direction but we lost them a few minutes from here.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and release a strangled breath. The longer I spend without knowing where Isla is, the less in control I am of my own emotions, something I’ve always prided myself on.

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