Page 136 of Merry Fake Bride

A flash of anger in her eyes is the last thing I see before the doors close.

In the silence of the elevator, I puff out my cheeks and clutch my abdomen.

“You good?” Martin’s concern is genuine.

“Mmhmm.”

“Good, because we’ve got a problem.”

Our eyes meet and my stomach turns to stone. “Tell me.”

“She’s gone.” Flipping his iPad around, he shows me the security cameras from the penthouse. A few clicks and Devon is nowhere to be seen.

A strange, sickly chill sweeps over my arms and legs, like the frozen air from outside has somehow seeped in just to cling to my limbs.

“No… no, she was there. I locked her in. She should be safe, she should be?—”

My phone buzzes to life as we reach the lobby, Devon’s name flashing up on the screen.

“Devon?”

“Kairo.”

It’s her, but there’s something in her voice, something tight and wrong.

Something that turns my blood to ice.

It’s the same painful fear that overtook me when I walked into my lounge and found my father motionless.

Covering the speaker, I meet Martin’s concerned gaze.

“Find her.”

35

DEVON

The car weaves dangerously back and forth along the road as Axel struggles to maintain control of the wheel while keeping the gun pressed into my abdomen.

“Devon?”

Kairo’s voice washes over me like a warm blanket and I briefly close my eyes, savoring it.

This’ll be the last time I hear it.

“Devon, are you there? Where are you? Why aren’t you at the apartment? I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry for?—”

“Stop,” I gasp as the barrel of the gun digs deeper into my abdomen.

I can’t handle Kairo’s apologies.

If he starts, then I’ll never get through what Axel’s forcing me to say. “You locked me up like an animal. You knew what I’d been through and you still locked me up. Don’t pretend that you care, don’t pretend that you did it for me. You did it for you.You trapped me and wouldn’t let me leave. Do you have any idea what that felt like? I’m not property. You can’t just lock me up!”

“I know,” Kairo replies, and the sorrow in his voice is smothering. “I’m sorry, Devon.”

“Hurry the fuck up,” Axel hisses, shoving the gun into me. “Stop rambling!”

“We’re over, Kairo. You hear me? I don’t want to see you again. I hate you. Everything you did to me and my family? I hate you. I don’t want to see you ever again. Don’t call me, don’t talk to me, don’t even think about looking for me. You leave me alone, you leave my parents alone?—”