Page 66 of Dark Consequences

“When I found out who she was, who she belonged to, I—”

I lunge at her once again, and she shrieks, cowering away, trying to find safety behind the island. Finally, she’s afraid of me.

Michael stops me before I can make contact, and with a growl, I shake him off and step back. “It was you? You gave her up to Xiao?”

“I didn’t give her up. I gave her back to him,” Emilia answers. “You can’t keep his family hostage here.”

“Are you fucking delusional?” Frustration overwhelms me because I shouldn’t have to explain this to her. “I rescued them from Xiao. I rescued them from an abusive asshole, who you’ve now given them back to. You stupid girl!”

“I didn’t know,” Emilia says in a meek voice. “I just wanted her gone so we could be together.”

“Un-fucking-believable!” I shout at the ceiling.

Enzo returns, bursting into the space like a tattooed blond hurricane. “That fucking guard must have been bribed because the bastard dipped out the second he let Emilia up. I have our men searching for him. They’ll bring him in.”

“Talk, Emilia,” Michael orders. “What exactly happened?”

Tossing a wary look at me, Emilia sits on a barstool at the island and explains, “After they passed out, I called the number Xiao’s men gave me, and then I met a group of them downstairs in the elevator with Lily and Mei. They took them, and that was it. I swear. I promise that was it.”

I grab a vase of flowers from a nearby table and throw it across the room. It shatters into a million pieces, mirroring how my soul and heart feel at this moment.

Lily trusted me. She trusted me to keep them safe, and the first time I leave them really alone, she’s taken back to that abusive, sick bastard.

If I can’t keep them safe…do I even deserve them? Do I deserve to be happy?

Michael rests his hand on my shoulder, pulling me from my dark thoughts. “I know what you’re thinking, brother, and you can stop that right now.”

Enzo approaches on my other side. “I have Evie already searching through cameras, tracking the car they left in. We’ll find out where they went.”

“Uh, excuse me. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll just be going now,” Emilia says as she starts toward the elevator.

Enzo intercepts and grabs her wrist. “I don’t think so. You have quite a lot to answer for.”

Emilia tries to pull her arm free but with no success. “Let me go, you brute! This is no way to treat a lady.”

Enzo barks out a laugh. “That’s funny. I don’t see a lady here.”

“Take her back to the house and update our dad. We’ll be there soon.” Michael directs our friend.

Enzo leaves with a screeching Emilia, and the silence that follows is deafening and too large for the space. Funny how the mere presence of Lily and Mei in my home has drastically changed it to where I can’t remember what it was even like before.

“We’ll find her, Raphael,” Michael says with a level of confidence I wish I felt right now.

“We have to, Michael. They’re my family, and I won’t lose them. I can’t.”

32

Lily

The second I’m alone, I’m off the bed, straightening my clothes and looking for a way out. I try the door, hoping like a fool that he left it unlocked, but of course he didn’t. Wouldn’t want his prized possession to escape.

I spin around, examining every surface of the room for anything I can use as a weapon, but the room is as empty as a cell. Besides a bed, there’s a nightstand and a built-in desk in the corner and the tiny-ass windows that I’d be lucky to get a leg through, even if they could open.

I’m crawling under the bed in search of something I can use from the frame when there’s a knock on the door. I freeze, my head snapping in the direction, and wait. I wait for it to open and for Xiao to storm in, intent on finishing what he started, but it remains closed.

Maybe if I stay quiet, they’ll go away.

But then a second knock echoes.

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