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Chapter Eighteen
Ariella
Jaxson was going to kill me.
The scum-sucking vermin had snatched Izzie right out of my arms and handed her over to Skylar.
Jaxson’s sister didn’t look the least bit pleased to have to take charge of the little girl.
Ben led Skylar away from us, up another set of stairs and out of sight.
“Momma!” Izzie screamed.
Was she calling for me?
I hated the fact that Ben was up there with Izzie and Skylar. Anyone else and I’d have been afraid but not like this. I knew what Ben was capable of.
He was a monster.
Ben had abducted me, threatened me, held me captive, and would have killed me if given a chance.
My heart ached and my stomach sank.
Was he going to hurt Izzie to get back at me for what I’d done all those years ago?
I may not have been Izzie’s biological mother, but I was the only mother who Izzie had known. Emma, her biological mother, was out of the picture in prison. She hadn’t wanted her daughter and had intended on giving her up for adoption.
“Move!” a man I didn’t recognize commanded. He had thick bushy eyebrows and short dark curly hair.
He led Hazel, Harper, and I down a set of stairs, a gun poised at us to remind us that he was in charge.
“Hurry up!” the man commanded as we stepped down into the dim basement.
Row after row of prison cells lined the underground compound. To the right, several women were locked inside one of the cells.
He unlocked the second prison cell, and the iron-clad door squeaked open as he swung the door outward.
“Get in,” he said, gesturing with his gun for us to do as he instructed.
I glanced over my shoulder at Hazel and Harper in the rear. Behind them, two guards stood armed with semi-automatic weapons.
There were too many of them, and Harper was pregnant. I couldn’t fight them without risking too much.
I hesitated before I did as I was told. I stepped into the prison cell. Hazel followed just a few steps behind me.
“Please, Sir,” Harper said, a hand on her oversized belly. There was no hiding the fact that she was pregnant from these men.
She stood at the entrance to our cell but hadn’t stepped inside yet.
“Move!” he shouted, and shoved Harper in past the iron gates.
She stumbled forward, tripping over her swollen feet.
I rushed forward and reached out to catch Harper and keep her from falling onto the ground. We needed to get out of this situation unscathed.
He stood blocking the exit, but he hadn’t yet shut the metal doors, locking us inside.
“Give me your phones.”