Page 73 of Pretty Poison

Adrenaline courses through every vein in my body, drowning out any other emotion I felt before now. I don’t know who this man is or what he thinks is going to happen when he sees us. But if there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that he’s in for a world of fucking pain when he shows up. He and his goon friends have no idea what they’ve unleashed within me, but I promise they will long before they take their dying breath.

Thirty Two

DARIO

Checking my watch for the umpteenth time, watching as the hand ticks past the 3 p.m. mark, the sinking feeling has returned and swirls around in my stomach. We’ve been ready and waiting for almost an hour, scattered around the main hall of my house, hidden within the shadows, but there’s still no sign of him. Red practically dragged Cass to the soldiers’ house with him to watch over my parents and Kat—the last thing I need is for him to lose control around this fucker. Everyone else waits at my side, all with their own tricks up their sleeves.

Silas stands guard on the rooftop to be our eyes and ears; and Remi is in one of the SUVs out front. Ciro is in my office, still working on the tapes and keeping an eye on our front door footage, and Maze stands opposite me a few feet away from the door.

I can’t help but feel like he won’t show up. I didn’t expect him to be bang on time, but with every second that passes and he’s not here, the hope in me fades away, and I feel like an absolute fucking moron.

“Where the fuck is this prick?” Ciro asks in a loud whisper, emerging from my office.

My eyes dart in his direction and I bring my finger to my lips to shush him. “I don’t fucking know,” I tell him as he approachesme. “For all I know, this meeting was a ruse and this is exactly what they want—us on edge, waiting around like a bunch of fucking twats, taking Lia that much further away from us.” I don’t know what possessed me to believe him, but there’s no turning back now.

“I’ve been analysing the footage back and I don’t think that’s the case. Not for this guy, anyway. He waited for his friends to get out of the shot before he turned to the camera. He knew we’d get our hands on the surveillance footage, and left us a breadcrumb. Something about him says he’s genuine. For whatever reason, he—”

“To be honest, I couldn’t give a flying rat’s ass what you think, Ciro,” I spit out in a whisper. “We have to use exactly what we know, and that isn’t much right now, is it? The fact of the matter is, he said he’d be here and he isn’t, which leads me to believe—” A loud knock from the door cuts me off and all three of us stand to attention.

I reach for the door and yank it open, revealing the man of the hour. Without hesitation, Maze yanks him inside and slams the door closed behind him, pushing him up against the wall beside the door with a loud thud.

The man’s face doesn’t falter; he stands there with dead eyes, staring at Maze, unfazed with a tense jaw.

I check my phone to see an empty screen—no notifications of Silas informing me he’s here. How the fuck did he even get onto the estate?

“You're late,” I seethe, sliding in front of him to take Maze’s spot.

“We don’t have fucking time to exchange the whole ‘you’re late and you’re going to pay for it’ speech. Just be fucking glad I showed up.”

Without a single ounce of hesitation or a second thought, my fist collides with his cheek. His head whips to the side for a brief second before he snaps it back into place, giving me a small nod.

“And we certainly don’t have time for you to do that countless more times,” he says, his voice low. “I came here because I have information that can lead you to your wife.”

“Why should we trust anything you fucking say?” Silas interrupts, descending the staircase. “You took her and then proceeded to enter our estate without me seeing you. I don’t know what fucking tricks you have up your sleeve—”

“You’re not as stealthy as you think you are,” he says with a serious, deadpan look on his face. “You’re the first thing I saw when I jumped the wall. Oh, and you’re lacking security on the south side; you might wanna fix that.”

“Silas,” I say, whipping my head over my shoulder. “Go get Remi.” I can hear his eyes rolling as he strides towards us and out the front door. Turning to face Maze, I add, “Take the fucker to my office. I’ll be there in a minute,” before storming out behind Silas.

My anger is indescribable. He had no fucking intention of coming through the gates like a normal person—no, he had to make it harder on everyone but himself. He might be a six-foot-something, muscled guy but not even Silas can scale our twelve-foot walls without some kind of help. And to top it off, this fucker’s acting like it’s a fucking game.

As I watch Remi and Silas come into view, I wait a few moments for them to catch up before we all head back inside to my office. The hallway is eerily silent, neither of them making so much as a whisper. I expected more reluctance from one and anger from the other.

Pushing open the already ajar door, I spot the mystery guy on the couch and Maze sitting opposite him, their eyes never leaving one another until they see us.

“Tell me fucking everything,” I spit, pulling up a chair to join Maze. “And if you so much as skip one detail, no matter how fucking minor you think it is, I’ll skin you alive and force you to eat your own dick. Do we understand each other?”

“As clear as day,” he says. He repositions himself. “My stepfather arranged the kidnapping of your wife. It seems he has a real hatred for you, your family and everything you stand for. I hate that I had to be the one to carry out his plan, but believe me, you’d prefer me over anyone else. I promise you, I didn’t lay a single finger on her other than to hold her upright when she was drowsy.”

“You drugged her?” I ask, my breath exploding from my lungs.

“I had to,” he says, almost as if he hates the mere thought of it. “If I didn’t, she’d be alert and able to fight back. My father doesn’t like fighters. They’re the black sheep of his litter and harder to transform into weapons. He wouldn’t think twice about killing her immediately if I hadn’t intervened.”

“You didn’t fucking intervene though, did you? You instigated it all, you prick. If you hadn't drugged her, she would’ve been able to walk out of there before she was in any immediate danger. You prevented her from coming home to me.” The words flow out of me like a river of hatred.

His eyes twitch, but it’s masked by a single blink. It’s clear I hit a nerve, but I couldn’t care less about this prick and what he thought was right. He should be glad he’s not gagged and bound, strung up like a puppet for my pleasure.

“I don’t know you or your wife, so I can’t make any conclusions as to what my stepfather will do to her in order to get to you. But after a single look at you, I know that you’d do anything to get her back. I’m your ticket inside, but only if you trust me.”

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