Page 58 of Taking Adalisa

“Now, you can either come with me the easy way or the hard way. You get to decide, but you are not staying here.” Matthias holds his hand out.

This is when I wish I had a knife in my hand so I could stab him. To feel the satisfaction of hurting him and possibly being able to get away. But sadly, I don’t own one.

“No one in this building is going to help you.” Matthias leans closer to me. “They know not to mess with the Montgomery Syndicate.”

I look at him and then at the doorway. There is no way I will get by him and out the door. He is way too close to me.

“The easy way or the hard way?” Matthias repeats his question, blocking my view of the exit. “Answer now or I’ll pick one for you.”

“Easy way,” I mumble, my shoulders dropping in defeat.

I don’t want to make a scene if no one is going to help me. It would be pointless. I need to be smart about this. Matthias holds his hand out as he looks at me. Right. He probably wants me to hold his hand as we walk out, so I can’t run anywhere.

I take his hand, and he holds on tight as he picks up my bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

“The key,” he demands.

I pick it up from the coffee table as we walk out of the room and toward the lobby. Dread fills me the closer we get. Matthias has found me, and I don’t know where he’s taking me now. What is he going to do to me? Am I going to survive?

I have so many questions and very few answers.

“You’re all right,” he whispers as we walk into the lobby. “Everything is going to be okay now. Give the keys to him.”

With tears in my eyes, I look at the owner and give him the keys.

“I’m sorry, mi hija. I didn’t tell no one. He just knew, and I can’t do anything against the Montgomery Syndicate.” He has so much sorrow on his face. “I would have helped you more if I could. I really would have.”

“It’s okay,” I whisper, my voice breaking.

Before he can say anything else, Matthias tugs on my hand lightly, pulling me out of the building. I suck in a deep breath as we walk out. I was not expecting to be leaving so soon.

Matthias will always find me.

He helps me into his truck, buckling me in before shutting my door and walking around. I try the handle and quickly realize that he has put the child lock on, and I can’t get out. Great. He is always one step ahead.

“Adalisa,” Matthias gently says, catching me off guard.

I thought he would be pissed off and angry when we got into the car. I was not expecting him to sound so soft and calm.

“Look at me,” he commands.

I search his face for any type of anger, but I see none. Is he not mad at me?

“I’m not angry with you,” he says. “Annoyed that you tried to leave? Yes, absolutely, but I’m not mad. I saw it way before you even thought about it. I knew you were going to try and leave, so I put a tail on you. You almost spotted him, but he quickly switched.”

I knew it. I knew he had someone following me. For him to know where I was so quickly. It was either that or him putting a tracking device on me.

“But it is unacceptable for you to come to this part of town and put yourself in danger.” Matthias grips my chin with hisfingers. “One of your rules is to not put yourself in danger, yet you have again. This part of town is known for what they do to pretty women. Yet you decided to come here and stay in a motel.”

I blink several times. it’s news to me that this part of town is known for that. I’ve never heard of that before. I knew it wasn’t the best part of town, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad. Is that why the owner was asking me all those questions and was concerned for me? Why didn’t he say anything?

“You will not put yourself in danger again,” Matthias states. “I will not allow it. You will not be doing anything without my consent.”

“You can’t do that!” I raise my voice.

He arches an eyebrow. “This is the second time you’ve put yourself in danger, and this time you aren’t wearing the bracelet. Do you know how worried I was when Dahmere called me to say you were in this part of town?”

And now I feel bad for making him worry. I thought he would just forget about me and move on. I didn’t actually think he would worry that something happened and try to find me.

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