Page 24 of Don’t Hate Me (Secrets of Ravens Hollow #2)

The next few days seem to go by in a blur as we fall into a comfortable routine.

Enjoying delicious meals Orlando’s staff make for us, me keeping him on his toes in any way I can, and him fucking me just because he can—and he knows how desperately I want him too.

I don’t know how we ended up here, but for now, it’s getting me through the long days.

Even though I could say life on this island with Orlando is pretty perfect, I’m itching to know what’s going on at home and with the club, and why the boys haven’t found me yet.

Part of me wonders if they have just given up.

Orlando took a business call in the den well over an hour ago. I tried to listen in, but it was nearly impossible. From what I could hear, he isn’t going to be done anytime soon. He and whoever was on the other end of the line were having it out.

With my heart in my throat, I move toward the front of the house and open the entry door as quietly as I can.

Since he showed me what was in the lighthouse, this is the first chance I have had to check it out alone.

And even though the two of us are getting along a little better, I’m still desperate to get hold of the boys. Today could be my only chance.

I open the door to the lighthouse, psyching myself up to walk all the damn stairs. My ankle is improving every day with all the rest I’m getting, and Dr. Harrison came out and checked on me again yesterday. He believes I’m recovering well. But I know I still shouldn’t be walking this much on it.

When I eventually make it to the top, I get the same chill coming over me.

This place is creepy as hell, even worse without Orlando with me.

I move quickly over to his computer, and luckily for me, it’s already switched on and not password protected.

A screen pops up when I shuffle the mouse, with video surveillance of my club.

I can’t help but smile when Sally comes into view.

She’s chatting with Myriah about something as they unpack the dishwasher.

Just a normal day for them. An ache forms in my chest when I think about what I’m missing out on.

My eyes stay glued to the screen searching for every little detail.

A few regulars sit in a booth, and I make out Jagger and Malachi at a table in the far end of the bar, their heads buried in a laptop screen.

Out of nowhere Asher comes up behind Myriah and kisses her cheek.

She gives him a sassy grin over her shoulder but continues chatting with Sally.

My chest feels heavy, a suffocating weight bearing down on me. I miss them all so much. I wonder what they make of my disappearance. I want to yell through the screen and tell them where I am. Tell them to come find me because I want to come home.

My lip trembles, and I bite into my cheek to stop the tears that threaten to fall. As much as the time Orlando and I are sharing is nice, I want my life back.

Reluctantly I click out of the live stream, knowing it’s not going to help me.

I search Orlando’s desktop screen for anything that might help me.

Opening up his emails, I scan through them, not finding anything I can work with, but he had to have sent that footage of me sleeping to the boys somehow.

I open the new email box and start typing in email addresses I think that could possibly relate to Romeo, wishing I could recall the one he used to email me from, but in my panic, I can’t get there.

The first few things I try don’t work. Then bingo, his email address comes up.

It’s got to be how they received that video from Orlando.

With my pulse racing like crazy, I type out a quick message.

Romeo, it’s me, Sloane.

I’m being kept on a private island about eight miles from the mainland of Ravens Hollow. There’s not much here, a house, a lighthouse, and beach. Orlando is taking good care of me, but I want to come home. I miss you all. I’m sorry, that’s all I can tell you.

My heart aches painfully. Guilt, homesickness, fear of what Orlando might do to me when he discovers what I just did, all course through me.

Without thinking on it too hard, I hit send, knowing I don’t have a lot of time.

Then I go into the sent box and make sure I delete any evidence of me ever being here.

I pray to whoever will listen that Romeo gets my desperate message for help and can make sense of my description. It’s all I’ve got.

I can’t find any other evidence of live streams at the moment, so I minimize the one of the club just like it was and carefully return the office chair to the exact position it was in. Then I creep back down the stairs carefully and close the door to the lighthouse with a heavy sigh.

Instead of going back inside his house, where Orlando is probably still losing his shit on the call, I walk down to take a seat on one of the sandstone steps that lead down to the jetty.

The sun is out, its warm rays feeling divine on my skin.

I inhale deeply, staring out over the ocean.

Its crystal blue waters look so inviting today, it almost makes me want to learn how to swim so I can enjoy it.

When the front door creaks open, I jump nervously.

Orlando strolls outside, his hair messed up, and I know he’s been running his fingers through it on repeat.

Shit, I made it out here just in time. His eyes narrow in on me, a curiosity in his expression.

Not anger. “I was wondering where you got to, treasure.”

“Did you think I made a run for it again?” I sass, trying to keep the mood light and look innocent even though I feel guilty as hell.

He raises a brow but doesn’t answer me.

I offer him a half smile, trying not to start shit.

“Wanted to sit in the sun,” I mutter, hating that I have to lie to him.

But he put me in this impossible situation, locking me up here all alone.

He could have let me talk to the boys. Could have let them come out here, but he’s being stubborn and trying to keep me from them.

He had to know it was only a matter of time before I found a way around his confinement.

He comes to sit beside me, taking my hand, he kisses the back of it tenderly.

“Important call?” I ask, wondering who was on the phone that had him busy and stressed for so long.

He scans my face as if he’s looking for something, what I have no idea, but I pray he’s not about to ask me why I was in the lighthouse. “Romeo,” he snips.

I sit up a little straighter, surprised and a little excited. “What? Really? Are you two like talking to each other now?”

He sighs heavily, and I know something is weighing on him. “He had some information for me.”

“Go on.”

His lips form a thin unimpressed line, and I know I’m pushing him. “It seems Syd was flown out of Ravens Hollow on a private plane the day after you came to stay with me.”

My brow knits together as I try to think like Syd. Why would he leave before finding me, if it was me he was after? “Where did he go to?”

“Italy.” A skeptical look crosses Orlando’s face as his brow rises, and a slight frown tugs at the corners of his mouth. He doesn’t believe Romeo? Is that what the look is? I can’t tell.

“What? What would Syd go to Italy for?” I ask, needing answers desperately.

He looks out over the ocean, leaning back on one hand as he thinks. “We’re still working on that part. Romeo said there hasn’t been another body found since he flew out of the country.”

“That’s good news then. It also means he was the one doing it, right?”

“He was the one doing it alright, I saw him.”

One of my brows rises. “On your creepy video surveillance?”

He nods, his eyes not returning to mine, and I feel like he’s keeping something from me. They were on the phone a long time, and this is all he can tell me?

“If he’s gone then I can go home,” I say, a little more hopeful.

He squeezes my hand tighter, and I already know it’s a hell no. “Just as easily as Syd left, he can fly back in. You’re not leaving this island until that man has a bullet in his head.”

My heart kicks up a beat, ready to fight him. I stand in a rush, my eyes locking with his. “They might never catch him.” I cross one arm over the other, trying to keep my cool even though right now that is nearly impossible.

“Then you stay with me forever,” he says, a casual shrug accompanying the monumental words.

My glare intensifies, his relaxed attitude to my situation getting under my skin. “You know I can’t do that. My life is in Ravens Hollow,” I snap back, so much tension radiating through my body I feel like I might snap a tooth.

He tilts his head, searching my face. “It doesn’t have to be.” He extends his hands, fingers slightly splayed, a silent invitation to take them back. Like he’s offering me something different for my life, something he thinks is better.

I stare at him, my gaze unwavering, trying to decipher his expression.

Is he actually kidding me? “Yes, it does. I have worked for years to create my business and make it something I’m proud of.

I have people who rely on me. I’m not leaving it for your brother to fucking run.

My whole family is also there and my friends. My life is important to me.”

His lips form a thin line, and I feel the tension between us intensify. “Unfortunately, treasure, you don’t have a choice in the matter. You’re staying here and that’s final.”

A cold anger floods through my veins, and the ridiculous guilt I was feeling for going behind his back and messaging his brother vanishes in an instant.

Fuck him for trying to control my life. He has another thing coming if he thinks I’m just going to shack up here with him forever.

Fucking around because there is literally nothing else to do.

I mean, that part is fun, but a few more weeks of no work and I’m going to go insane.

He might like the life of solitude, but I need my people around me.

I’m no queen without my loyal subjects. And I fucking love being their queen.

He stands beside me, slipping his hands in his pockets. “Stop looking at me like you want to kill me, Sloane,” he mutters, unimpressed.

“Is it that obvious?” I sneer back, feeling the steam coming from my ears. My body is all of a sudden so tense I feel like I’m going to break something. Probably his nose.

Quickly he grabs my hands, the unexpected contact sending a jolt through me.

In one quick move he pulls me in close to him, our bodies chest to chest. His head drops to my neck, his breath warm against my skin as he breathes me in, unaffected by my hostility toward him and his fucked-up ideas for my future.

“I can make you happy and keep you safe, treasure.”

I soften a little at his closeness, his damn scent having a stupid soothing effect over me. “Not if you take me away from my life,” I whisper, pain choking up my throat.

He pulls back a little, his hand brushing down the side of my face. Collecting up a strand of hair, he slips it behind my ear. “I should have permanently chained you to my bed when I had the chance.” A cruel laugh escapes him before he roughly scoops me up and carries me away over his shoulder.

“Put me down, asshole,” I warn him, hate in my voice.

He swats me on the ass. “Nope, you just set me with a challenge. I’m about to prove to you I’m all you need.” The next thing I know, I’m being hauled through the house and thrown down on his giant bed, with him glaring down at me like the damn devil himself.