I hesitated. She deserved to know the reality of what I had been by, after all, however I wasn’t precisely certain learn how to put it into phrases. I had spent so lengthy making an attempt to hide that a part of myself, doing the whole lot I might to comprise it and push it down, that popping out and telling her what had occurred to me appeared unattainable. How did I do know she wouldn’t freak out?

I stared down at her, making an attempt to nonetheless my overthinking thoughts. No. She had accepted a lot about me already, there was no means she was going to lose it on me now. I took a deep breath.

“I used to be…on some shit earlier than I met Chuck,” I defined. “I used to be-“

Abruptly, a noise got here from behind us – within the alleyway that led off the road, a sound caught my consideration. My head snapped round, however, earlier than I might react to it, I felt one thing crash into the facet of my temple, sending stars spinning by my imaginative and prescient.

“Jaxon!” she exclaimed, however I might hardly see her – my adrenaline had kicked in, and I attempted to lunge in the direction of whoever had made this transfer in opposition to us. They needed to have some severe nerve, making an assault like this in broad daylight the place anybody might have seen it.

I stumbled, catching myself earlier than I hit the bottom. I might hear her behind me, calling my title, however the ringing in my ears was too loud to make the rest out. I lifted my head, dazed, wanting round and making an attempt to determine who was coming for me like this, however earlier than I might name out and inform her to run, I felt one other crack in the back of my cranium. Ache spun by my system, however nonetheless, all I might take into consideration was her – I didn’t know who was coming after us, however I couldn’t allow them to take her, I couldn’t allow them to steal her away from me, I couldn’t.

I managed to spin round lengthy sufficient to lock eyes together with her – and, in that immediate, I noticed somebody behind her, a darkish determine approaching behind her. I parted my lips to name out and warn her, but it surely was too late. By the point that any sound escaped my mouth, they’d grabbed her across the waist, clamping a hand throughout her mouth and slicing off her cries for assist.

Somebody pressed a rag to my mouth, and a foul-smelling substance stuffed my senses. Unconsciousness started to stand up earlier than I might battle it, and all I might do was stare helplessly at Star earlier than me – and pray that wherever she was being taken, I’d be taken to, as nicely.

As a result of I couldn’t let her face no matter this was alone.

Chapter Fifteen – Star

“Jaxon,” I whispered. “Jaxon, please, get up!”

I didn’t understand how lengthy we had been down right here, however I knew I wanted him awake and responsive. It was all I might deal with proper now, the sight of him slumped over his chair in entrance of me, palms certain behind his again identical to mine have been. The odor of the damp room stuffed my nostrils, and I knew no person would hear me if I screamed out down right here.

As a result of I knew this place all too nicely. I knew this place as a result of it had as soon as been my house.

Even when it felt like a jail proper now.

Jaxon and I had been attacked on the street, and bundled into the again of a van, pushed by Atwood and dragged into the basement of my household’s mansion, the place we’d been tied up and left to rot within the near-darkness. The one mild got here from a dirty window reverse me, a shaft of brightness touchdown on the facet of Jaxon’s face.

That they had taken him out with some sort of chloroform or one thing – I had been unable to do something aside from watch as he handed out within the grip of the black-masked goons my father had despatched after us. I couldn’t consider he would make an assault on us in the course of the day like this, it simply felt…it felt loopy to me, as if there was no means he would have risked one thing like that. How might he be so reckless?

I knew the reply. He may very well be as reckless as he wished as a result of he knew there was no means anybody was going to cease him. He might act nonetheless he wished, this metropolis was within the palm of his hand, and we have been helpless to withstand it. I had felt like we’d be secure, on a busy avenue, on the market in public, however he had swooped in and gone for us anyway. I knew, all too clearly, that there was nothing we might do to place him off, nothing we might do to maintain him away from us.

And now, Jaxon and I have been tied up within the basement, and I had no concept what he deliberate to do to us. However I obtained the sensation it wasn’t going to be good.

He had introduced Jaxon with me, and I used to be wracking my brains to attempt to determine why. I used to be glad to have him right here with me, after all I used to be, however there was additionally part of me that was scared shitless as to why my father will need to have introduced him alongside. He will need to have been conscious that I cared about him, will need to have recognized that I’d have finished something to maintain him secure, and right here he was, proper in entrance of me.

He was going to make use of him in opposition to me. It was the one factor that made any sense. And the considered one thing occurring to him due to me, God, it made my chest ache.

Lastly, as I hissed his title throughout the darkness, he blearily lifted his head and locked eyes with me.

“Star?” he murmured, his voice nonetheless barely slurred from no matter poison they’d put in his physique to get him to do what they wished. “Is that you simply?”

“It’s me,” I replied, my voice catching behind my throat with sheer reduction. “It’s me, Jaxon, I’m right here.”

“The place are we?” he requested, as he tried to maneuver his palms – I had fought in opposition to being tied up like this, however my father’s goons had been tough as they snapped the plastic cuffs on to me, letting them dig painfully into my pores and skin.

“We’re within the basement of my household’s mansion,” I admitted to him. “I don’t know why, however I’m going to seek out out, I promise…”

However earlier than I might say one other phrase, a sound got here from the highest of the steps that led into the principle home – the door opened, and I noticed a well-recognized silhouette within the shadows.

My coronary heart dropped. My father. I couldn’t consider it. It had been so lengthy since I had seen him, it virtually felt surreal to be laying eyes on him once more. Surreal, understanding the sort of individual he was, understanding how darkish his legacy had turn into – understanding what he was able to and what he had finished, and fearing how a lot additional he would take it to get precisely what he wished from me.

He made his means slowly down the steps, taking his time, and pulled the wire to flick on the sunshine – burning brightness seared by my eyes, and I squinted in opposition to it, staring up at him with trepidation in my eyes.

“You’re each awake,” he remarked, glancing over at Jaxon. His voice was totally chilly, totally devoid of even the pretense of care that he had as soon as put up for me – he had tried to persuade me, for some time, that he gave a shit about me, however as of late, I knew it was nothing greater than a sick, twisted joke he’d spun to attempt to persuade me of a lie.

“Allow us to go, Dad, please,” I begged him. He set free a brief, mirthless snort.

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