Page 50 of Sacred Vow

CAESAR

This beauty is just about done, and after this past week, she’s seen more work than ever before. She’s been the perfect distraction to keep my mind off a certain little vixen who does nothing but cause me hell.

I think I did the right thing, pushing her away. Had I not, she eventually would have seen me for who I really am, seen the monster hidden within, and she would have run. I meant every fucking word when I told her that she deserved better. As for me, she would have changed my whole fucking world.

This past week, not being able to see her or even text her has fucking killed me.

I’ve checked in on her here and there, looking in on the surveillance system I had installed, but for the most part, I’ve tried to give her space.

It does me no good watching her crumble on her couch, throwing chocolate cookies up in the air and trying to catch them in her mouth, only to miss them and eat them directly off the floor.

She’s had a rough week—that much is clear from the snippets of surveillance I’ve checked in on.

She didn’t leave the apartment at all, just stayed curled up on that couch, and it damn near killed me knowing that I did that to her.

She didn’t even pay attention to her classes, simply watched the online lectures before folding her laptop up and pushing it away.

As I finish up and slam the hood closed, my phone starts ringing from my workbench. I move across the garage, wiping my hands on an old rag before scooping it up and quickly answering it before it goes to voicemail.

“You should see her,” I tell my son, knowing he knows I’m referring to the Mustang. “She’s almost done.”

“Dad, she’s been taken,” Zeph rushes out in a panic, the tone in his voice something I’ve never heard before. “We just dropped her at home, and then she called Chloe saying their apartment had been ransacked, but when she was on the phone—”

“Slow down. What the fuck are you talking about? Who’s been taken?”

“Tilly,” he says as though I should have already plucked her name out of his head. “She’s fucking gone. Someone took her.”

“What?” I shake my head. That’s not possible. I know I haven’t checked in on her today, but surely she’s just been chilling on the couch, or playing with that new T-shirt making thing she got. But her place being ransacked? No. Surely I would have known. “She was taken? By who?”

Pulling my phone away from my ear, I put the call on speakerphone before swiping through the pages of apps clogging my phone until finally finding the Di Rozé surveillance app.

I walk inside my home, having no fucking idea where I’m going, only that I need to keep moving as my whole world seems to shut down.

The app goes too fucking slowly despite being the best on the market, and when it finally comes up, I find Chloe and Zeph standing inside the destroyed apartment, Chloe talking on the phone—hopefully to the police.

“Holy fucking shit,” I breathe, taking it all in as I watch Chloe collapse onto the ruined coffee table while Zeph paces, his fists in tight balls.

How did I not know this was happening?

I’ve been too busy working on the fucking car that I didn’t bother checking the notifications that were coming through. I just assumed it was either Chloe or Tilly moving through the apartment as usual.

“How long ago?”

As if knowing that I’m watching, Zeph turns and stares directly up at the camera that looks over both the kitchen and living room. “Maybe ten. Fifteen minutes at the most,” he says. “And Dad. There’s blood in her bedroom. Not a lot, but enough to know that she’s hurt.”

My stomach knots, and I feel as though I’m going to throw up as I flip through the footage, hoping like fuck that my girl is okay. The moment I see a figure dressed in all black and dragging something through the apartment, I press pause.

“FUCK!”

“What?”

“It’s Jordan,” I snap through gritted teeth, my jaw clenched so tight my teeth could crumble under the pressure. I’m going to fucking kill him. Tilly is passed out, blood trickling from a wound at her temple, and I see red.

He drags her limp body through the apartment, pulling her over shattered glass and ramming her legs and head against fallen furniture.

“That fucking—I’m coming with you,” Zeph snaps. “This ends now.”

“The fuck you are,” I say, my heart racing faster than it ever has before as I go further back, watching the moment Tilly arrived at her apartment.

She’s looking around with the most heartbroken expression as Jordan watches her from her open bedroom door.

She starts walking toward it, and he slips behind it, waiting for her like the sick fucking predator that he is.

Fucking hell. I should have done something about this. I should have said something, taught the motherfucker a lesson after he accosted her on the street, or again after he tried to put his hands on her at that damn party, but I figured he got the point after Zeph knocked him out.

“Excuse me? This is Tilly we’re talking about, not some random chick. I’m not just going to sit back and hope like fuck that you can find her. I have to—”

“The only thing you have to do is sit your ass down next to Chloe and wait for the cops to show up. Let me handle this, son,” I demand, moving through my home and into my private office, more than ready to bring up every fucking detail on this kid and exploit it.

“No, I—”

“Don’t fucking try me, Zephyr. I’m not in the mood,” I roar as my computer comes to life.

“If that little prick was holding a knife to her throat, do you really think you could look him in the eye, a man you have been best friends with for over a fucking decade, and end his life? Could you pull the fucking trigger? Could you snap his neck?”

“I . . . I don’t know.”

“Exactly. I’m not risking Tilly’s life on an I don’t know. And on top of that, I’m not about to let you throw your whole fucking life away. You’re not going to suffer the same fate I did. You’re better than that.”

“And you’re not?” he throws back at me.

“Not even a little bit,” I tell him, letting him hear the darkness in my tone that I’ve gone out of my way to hide all of these years, but now that Tilly’s life is in danger, I suddenly don’t give a shit.

All that matters is getting her back in my arms. “I would slit his throat without even a hint of hesitation. I would dance in his fucking blood, Zephyr. What aren’t you understanding?

Just like I did for you all those years ago, there’s not a goddamn thing I wouldn’t do for her, even if it means rotting behind bars for the rest of my miserable fucking life. ”

“Okay,” he finally says. “I’ll stay here.”

“Good. Now tell me everything there is to know about this little bastard.”