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Marcus glared back expectantly.

“Don’t miss him this time.”

Forty-Nine

ANDREA

We left at the first sign that things weren’t going well. And I guessed that was after the shots, the screams, and the smoke rising up through the abbey’s lower floors.

He wouldn’t have been able to take me on my own. I wouldn’t have gone. But there two other men. Not the dark-suited bodyguards I’d seen before, but employees of Indigo who zip-tied my hands behind my back and ushered me down a back staircase, and out through a rear entrance.

I wanted to scream, but my throat was raw. Maybe yell as loudly as possible, but my mind was still too foggy. I had a concussion at best. Possibly even something worse.

They dragged me the last few stairs on my knees, then shoved me face-first into a car. I was held down by someone as the vehicle lurched forward with the screech of tires, and began the winding descent down the hillside.

I couldn’t see much of anything. The man with the mirrored sunglasses next to me looked very scared and nervous. The driver was arguing loudly about something with Kyrkos, but in Greek. I couldn’t make out much, but the few words I did know told me he was coming under protest. And that Kyrkos was threatening him with something terrible if he decided to leave.

Not being able to see was making me car sick. Between being already dizzy and all the twists and turns, I couldn’t even tell how long we’d been driving. Despair washed over me. My boys were back at the abbey, fighting to get to me, putting their lives on the line.

And I wouldn’t even be there for them.

Suddenly we rolled to a stop — way sooner than I’d anticipated. I expected them to drive forever. To be halfway across Sicily by the time the guys finished clearing whatever was left of Kyrkos’s men.

Then I was pulled into the sunlight… and when my eyes adjusted, I was staring at a yacht.

I started laughing right away.

“You think you’re going to just sail away with me?” I taunted Kyrkos. “Into the fucking sunrise?”

He looked absolutely furious. His arm was still bleeding profusely. That entire side of his body was covered in blood.

“Let me go,” I said, in low, even tones. “Leave me here right now, and I’ll tell t

hem not to chase you.”

The other two men sprinted up the ramp, and jumped on board. No one was untying the moorings. No one was prepping the yacht for departure.

And that’s because there was a helicopter resting at the back end of it.

Fuck.

Xander Kyrkos laughed, gruffly, as he saw the hope go out of my eyes. “Now do you get it?”

He grabbed me by my bound wrists and shoved me forward. When I dropped to my knees, he started dragging me. I would’ve screamed despite the pounding in my skull, but the dock was empty. It still early. There was no one around.

Eventually I was pulled on board. Dragged along what I knew to be the starboard side, to the wide open aft. The man in the mirrored sunglasses was nowhere to be found. Kyrkos began cursing and screaming, mightily.

“You’re fucked, aren’t you?” I sneered.

It felt good, tormenting him. But every time I did…

Kyrkos shoved me down to the deck with an angry roar, and my knees exploded in pain. I was already bleeding from being dragged. It didn’t much matter at this point.

“WATCH HER!”

The driver appeared again, nodding as he moved near me. Kyrkos scrambled up a nearby ladder, and disappeared quickly through a doorway.

“You don’t have to do this,” I said to the man immediately. I got up and scrambled backward until my ass was touching the rail. “You haven’t done anything wrong yet.”