Page 135 of No Longer Mine

My eyes bounced around the room. I didn’t have it in me to text Benson. It didn’t feel like it was doing anything. Alexei snatched my phone up and shot off a text to him for me. I was grateful, but I couldn’t say it. It felt like a hurricane was blastingthrough me. A tornado had literally blasted right through my entire soul.

“What about at the docks?” Alexei asked. “He loves the docks. Wouldn’t he be there?”

I stood up from the table and marched from the room. Nothing mattered if I couldn’t share it with Scarlett. Not a single person in this room mattered if she was gone. I ignored people trying to talk to me and blasted out of the museum as quickly as my feet would carry me.

Chapter Fifty-Six

Scarlett

A cold blastof air hit my skin, and my head rolled on my shoulders. Loud voices filtered through as I came to.

“Are you sure it’s her?” one said.

“Yes, there’s a semi-healed bullet wound at her side,” another replied, closer this time.

I groaned, my body aching from the awkward position. I tried to stretch my stiff limbs, but they wouldn’t move. Panic flickered in my chest. My arms were pinned behind me, wrists bound, and my legs were tied at the ankles. Rope, from the scratch of it.

I blinked rapidly, forcing my eyes to focus. A single overhead bulb swung above me, casting long shadows that sliced through the gloom. The air smelled like oil and mildew—like an old warehouse. I shivered at the chill in the room. They’d undressed me. I was in nothing but a bra and panties. I wasn’t sore besides where my hands and feet were tied together so I didn’t think they’d raped me but I couldn’t be too sure.

My eyes flicked around the room as I looked for a way out. I didn’t know where the men were, and I wasn’t so sure I could beat them like I was. How long had I been out?

My heartbeat thudded loudly in my ears, drowning out the hum of the light overhead. I shifted in the chair, testing everyangle. My skin burned where the ropes bit into my wrists and ankles, but there was no give. I wasn’t getting out of this without help or a miracle.

“Should we call him?” one of the men asked from somewhere behind me.

“No, we will see what she knows first before we call him in,” the other man said.

One of them came around me and leered. He was covered in tattoos and had an oversized hoodie covering most of the top of his face. His jeans were ripped and dirty, and his shoes looked like they’d seen better days.

I licked my cracked lips. “You’re making a mistake,” I said, my voice low but steady. “Whatever you think I know, it’s not worth what he’ll do to you when he finds me.” I knew Dimitri would find me, but would I still be alive when he did?

A pause.

Loud and ugly laughter met my ears. “You think that city council pretty boy is gonna save you?” the younger one cackled.

They obviously didn’t know much about Dimitri Cristof. I knew enough from whispers that he wasn’t one to be messed with, which was funny considering I was the first to do so.

The older man stepped into view. Scarred face, buzzed hair, dead eyes. “You’re not the first girl to think a man would come.”

“No,” I said, slowly lifting my head. “But I’m the last one who’ll make you regret underestimating her.”

He didn’t like that. He raised a hand, and I braced myself—but another voice cut through the room—deep and measured.

“Enough.” Everything went still.

The scarred man lowered his hand and stepped back into the shadows as a third figure approached, footsteps slow and deliberate. When he stepped from the shadows and into the light, my heart stopped beating in my chest.

Sinclair Cristof. He smiled down at me. “Where are my drives? I guess it would be safe to assume that you also stole from Gavin. He had a few files go missing, as well.”

How had he found me? My mind went 90 to nothing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’d never been tortured before, but I also knew that this man wasn’t one to get his hands dirty. He’d used his own sons to do that.

He clicked his tongue. “Lying already, Scarlett? Tsk. And here I was hoping we could have an honest conversation.”

He stepped closer, inspecting me like I was something fascinating under glass. “You’ve made quite the mess in a very short amount of time. I must say… Dimitri’s taste has improved. And here I thought his last one was his weakness.” He crouched to eye level, and I fought the urge to flinch. “But you… you’re dangerous, aren’t you?”

I kept my expression neutral, but my body trembled with the effort. Not from fear—no, not that. From fury.