Page 68 of Midnight Torment

“I have no problem stabbing you,” she hissed against my ear. “There are at least a hundred places I can target that are non-lethal.”

I was on a plane and the low hum of the engine said we were in the air, so I had limited chance of escape. My body was weak from the drugs but responded more with every minute. She was close to me, her breath fanning my cheek, so I threw my head forward with as much force as possible since Caine told me to aim for the sensitive and delicate areas. The nose was one of those on his list, followed by the eyes.

Her scream said I had been successful, her hands slapping my head and shoulders for hitting my target. I slowly curled myself in a ball to protect my body the way Jordan insisted I learn since most of our vital organs are contained in our ribcage area.

“That’s enough!” an authoritative male voice snapped from somewhere to my left. “The girl is to be unharmed as her only sin was getting into a relationship with the wrong man.”

“She fucking headbutted me,” the woman hissed in a dangerous tone.

“While filled with drugs and unaware of her surroundings. I would assume the fault lies with you since she is currently weak and disorientated.” The man walked across the jet, his shadow falling over me. “She is the property of Dante now, no one is to touch her but him.”

Those words from some people would be comforting, but all they did was send fear rippling through me. Cassandra had affectionate memories of her uncle, but everyone else seemed to think he was a psychopath who was out of control. I’d reserve judgement until he either left me lying in a cell or strung me up for his evil bitch minion to torture.

Since everyone now knew that I was awake, I unfolded myself and tried to sit up. The room spun around me, and my vision flashed in and out of focus.

“Here.” The man reached out to steady me. “Do you want a drink?”

I desperately wanted a drink for my dry mouth but considering they had kidnapped me I couldn’t dispel the feeling that they might poison me. I eyed the man wearily before turning my head to glare at the woman who was dabbing the blood trickling from her nose.

He didn’t wait for my reply, walking across to the bar and lifting a bottle of water. He made a show of opening it, as if to demonstrate that it was just water since it was sealed. I took it and clutched it in front of me like a makeshift weapon. He smirked at me, and I felt like throwing the bottle at him.

Thirst won over pride, and I took a sip, sitting back in the chair to watch both of them.

“Is,” I croaked and took another sip of my water. “Is there a reason you have assaulted and abducted me?” I asked in my best solicitor tone since I refused to let them see they intimidated me.

The woman with long red hair pointed at me. “You assaulted me. I only stuck a needle in you.”

“Which is assault,” I commented. “Then you kept hitting me after I jolted when you shook me.”

The man glared at her until she guiltily looked away. He turned his attention back to me. “You picked the wrong man to pin your dreams on,” he said. “Jordan Berkeley is a wanted man with a very high price on his head. Everyone around him is collateral damage.”

I didn’t reply as there was nothing for me to say. Cassandra and I were generally kept as mushrooms until we overheard something, and the guys had to come clean. Lucrezia had recently joined the mushroom club of being kept in the dark and fed shit.

“What did Jordan ever do to you?” I asked instead, changing the direction of the conversation away from my relationship.

He shrugged once. “Personally, I’ve never met the man, but the boss has his goal set on destroying him.”

“And you?” I moved my gaze to the woman standing glaring daggers at me.

The man laughed at her sourly expression. “The boss sent her to proposition him, and he ignored her.”

I laughed at her petulant pout. If only she knew how many women had dressed in seductive underwear and paraded in front of him in the Twilight Rooms and he never gave them a second look. Jordan was an enigma who played life by his rules. He rarely let anyone into his life, and those he did he protected fiercely.

“Don’t be offended,” I said to her. “You’re one of many who’ve thrown themselves at him and he’s ignored.”

Her eyes narrowed at me, but I grinned since I was the one he chose. Fuck her, I was proud to say he was mine.

The guy wandered to the bar, poured himself a glass of whiskey, and drank it in one gulp before pouring more into the glass. He stood with his hip braced on the wall and silently stared out the window.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.

“Dante’s island,” he replied quietly. “If Jordan had cared about you, then he would have put a tracker in you, but our scans showed nothing.”

I knew there was a tracker in me, Jordan had showed me it on his phone, but there was no way I was telling them that. “What makes you think he cares about me?”

“You appear to have a wedding ring on your finger, and you were on holiday with him.” He looked straight into my eyes. “That indicates that he cares about you, maybe more than that. I also seem to have lost a man who reported to have seen a woman matching your description. Something tells me that he won’t turn up alive.”

Jordan never said what happened that day in the market, but the set of his jaw suggested the threat to our safety had been neutralised for good. It was an aspect of him I had to accept since I loved him. I merely turned a blind eye to it.

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