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“Miss Malpas, I need you to come with me. Don’t cause a scene and maybe you won’t get hurt.”

He grabbed my arm roughly, and I knew that for every bruise Duncan found on my body, Tyran would end up with a similar one. He had already threatened to kill a stranger when he thought he had taken me from him.

“You know you won’t survive this fight.”

“Shut the fuck up.” He dragged me to a blacked-out SUV that had a man I didn’t recognize in the driver’s seat.

“Tyran, just give yourself up and let justice be served.”

“Duncan told you who I am?”

“No, Lucille did.”

“Who the fuck is Lucille?” He shoved me toward the vehicle, and I gathered my skirt in my hand before I climbed inside and fastened my seat belt.

“Lucille Ball. She speaks to me in my dreams.”

“Uh, boss. This might not be a good idea,” the driver muttered.

“Shut up, Brian. You don’t get paid to think. You get paid to fuckin’ drive. So drive.”

Brian looked at me in the rearview mirror, and I shrugged. He put the car into gear and pulled away from the airport.

I won’t lie and say I was completely calm with this whole ordeal. But I was surprisingly relaxed with my fate. As Athena said, Duncan was my path, and anyone that tried to block that path would be bulldozed over.

And it would take a bulldozer to knock Tyran out of the way.

“He’ll find you, you know. Duncan will kill you if Sal doesn’t.”

Tyran turned and slapped my face. “Shut the fuck up.”

We drove the rest of the way from the airport to the abandoned building in silence. When we exited the vehicle, I stared up at the seven-story building. Plywood covered the windows. The front lawn was overgrown, and the front steps looked to be crumbling.

This was not the type of building to be traipsing around in a skirt and ballet flats.

“Let’s go.” Tyran grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly up the walk. When he dragged me up the first three flights of stairs, I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad there was no elevator.

He pushed me into a chair, and Brian zip tied my wrists to the armrests. He left my legs free, and I was glad I could move them around.

“I’m sorry, Miss Malpas.”

“I understand, Brian. You have a job to do. I won’t say it’s alright, because kidnapping a woman is never ok. You made your choice. You need to accept the responsibility for it.”

Shame crossed over his face at my words. As it should. I felt for the young man. He was only doing what he was told. But he still made a choice to join this group.

Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong group.

I looked round the room. It appeared to have been an apartment at one time. It would be quite nice if someone put a little money into it. Maybe I should inquire about purchasing it.

I could use a project to keep me busy while I adjusted to life in Boston. I hadn’t seen much of the city on the drive here, and I wondered where Duncan lived.

Was it a brownstone similar to this? Or a penthouse in the heart of the city? Or maybe he had a home that was separate from other buildings.

That would be nice.

I didn’t need a mansion like my family lived in. But a home was something I had always dreamed about. A backyard where my kids could play. Maybe a quiet street they could learn to ride a bike on.

“Yea, I’ve got her.” Tyran’s voice pulled me out of my musings. He was in another room. He might have believed he was talking quietly where I couldn’t hear him. But no one had taught Tyran Fitzpatrick about inside voices.