Page 27 of Beautifully Ruined

They didn’t.

I pull the T-shirt on.

She’s emotional and exhausted, but I keep that to myself. Instead, I pull back the covers and help her in the bed, covering her and plumping the pillows.

I kiss her forehead and lie down on top of the covers, next to her. “You can say whatever you want to me, but I’ll stay with you. I’m not going anywhere, Violet.”

She huffs again but wiggles back into my warmth, and she’s small and delicate and I hate that she could have been hurt.

But I wait until she falls asleep.

Then I carefully get off the bed, and I go in search of Enzo.

Someone, somewhere, is going to pay for this.

Chapter Six

VIOLET

I jolt awake,heart pounding.

This isn’t my room, that hits me immediately. The bed is too big, the light is wrong and it’s quiet. New York in a snowstorm quiet.

For a moment, I’m lost.

Then Cade’s face comes to me, calming me and making my heart beat in a completely different way.

The warmth in his dark eyes that is just for me, one that never really existed with Jack. Not in the way Cade’s are. And his smile… Not any smile. The one for me.

The one that has always been for me.

But then as I slowly stretch and sit up, something heavy settles on me, like something’s wrong.

My brain’s still swimming with sleep, but I hurt when I shouldn’t. Not soreness from sex but…I touch my throat where it’s tender, and I look down.

A T-shirt. Not mine.

The ultra-modern room has a semi-lived in air.

A closet is open, and there are clothes, not a lot, but very Cade uniform. Black jeans, black shirts, black hoodies. A suit.

I frown, staring.

And then I remember his face. Beaten. Bleeding.

Everything tumbles down, threatening to crush me.

We were taken.

I turn and pick up my phone, looking at it, and I hesitate.

“Where the hell did my phone come from?” I look around me.

My backpack is on the ground near the door, and over a chair are some clothes that are mine.

I push back the covers and get up.

Yep, someone has gone and pulled out some outfits so they don’t get overly wrinkled, and I spy the silver corner of my laptop along with my bag of toiletries. I go to pick up jeans, panties, and one of my T-shirts…and hesitate.