Page 65 of Ruthless Prince

“Are you serious right now?” I asked, voice cracking slightly. “You’ve actually kidnappedme?”

Logan shook his head. “This isn’t a kidnapping. I’m simply taking what belongs tome.”

My mouth dropped open. “I don’t belong toyou!”

He looked at his watch. “It’s half past four in the morning, and the date is October 20th, 2018. That means you’ve belonged to me for over four hoursnow.”

I narrowed my eyes and jerked the chains again. “I don’t know what kind of sick game this is supposed to be, but you won’t get away with it. People will see Mal and Adam on the floor outside my door any minute, if they haven’t already. They’ll know something has happened tome.”

Logan’s plush lips twisted upward with amusement. “No, they won’t. Mal and Adam are right out there,” he said, nodding toward thedoor.

“What did you do tothem?”

“Nothing. They’refine.”

“I saw them passed out in thehall.”

“They were fakingit.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

Logan smirked. “I wanted you to feel helpless and alone when I came for you, so I had them pretend that something happened tothem.”

“I… I don’tunderstand.”

“Come on, Willow. You should’ve figured out that Mal and Adam were helping me by now. Why do you think they took your phone and put it in your room? It was a little convenient, wasn’tit?”

“Why would they helpyou?” I asked through gritted teeth. My confusion was beginning to outweigh the fearagain.

“They answer to my family before their Secret Service duties. I made sure they were rotated onto your detail so they could help me take you on the appropriate date without anyone elsenoticing.”

I scoffed. “Even if that’s true, this whole thing is completely ridiculous. My mother is expecting me back home tomorrow afternoon.” I shook my head slightly. “Actually, it’sthisafternoon, seeing as it’s after midnight. If I’m not back by then, she’ll raise the alarm. So tell me, how exactly do you think you’re going to get away with abducting the president’sdaughter?”

He was an idiot if he thought he’d actually get away with this stupid game of his. Someone like me didn’t go missing without people noticing. My mother would have people combing every square inch of space in the country in their search for me, and they would use the most sophisticated technology available. They wouldn’t stop until I washome.

“Let me show you.” Logan pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and pressed a few buttons onit.

The TV screen lit up again. Logan had recorded himself standing in this very room a few hours earlier, watching me as I slept. The duvet and canopy curtains covered any sign of the golden chains and cuffs around myankles.

“Hello, Madam President. I know it’s nearly midnight, so I’m very sorry if I woke you,” Logan said onscreen. He was holding his phone in one hand. “It’s LoganThorne.”

A familiar voice emanated from the phone, which was on loudspeaker mode. “Logan Thorne?” my mother said incredulously. “How on earth did you get thisnumber?”

“From Willow’sphone.”

A concerned note crept into my mother’s voice. “Willow? Is sheokay?”

“She’s fine. Hold on a second. I’ll put you on video mode.” Logan clicked something on his phone and held it up. “See? She’s right here. Tucked in and fastasleep.”

“Why are you with her? What’s goingon?”

Logan affected a hesitant tone. “I know she hasn’t told you about this yet, but we’ve been…” He paused and cleared his throat. “We’ve been seeing eachother.”

“Are you serious?” My mother’s voice was skepticalnow.

“It’s been going on for a while. We hid it because we didn’t want to make things awkward for ourfamilies.”

My mother sniffed. “No wonder you’re always staring at her when we’re at the sameevents.”