Page 183 of Beautifully Ruined
“I had no choice,” I mutter. “It was the only way I could rescue Vi.”
Zayne sighs. “Fine. I’ll take care of it. Go home. The lot of you.” He raises his voice so everyone can hear. “You can’t be here when the authorities arrive.”
Then he lowers his voice again. “I’ll take care of everything.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
VIOLET
“No,”I say to the doctor and nurse, “I’m fine. I wasn’t hurt.”
The nurse frowns in the private room at the hospital where Cade took me and Gianna. The other girls are being treated, too, I presume. I heard something about a safe house, but some of them weren’t even able to speak English, so I think the authorities have them.
I keep looking over my shoulder, expecting some assault team to swoop into the antiseptic halls of the private hospital in Queens and take down Cade.
But no one does.
No one even blinks at the big mafioso guys who drove us here, either.
No one mentions their guns I can see peeking out.
Probably, no one dares. Or else, Enzo’s uncle threatened everyone.
I don’t know. I don’t care.
I just want to be with Cade and make sure Gianna’s okay.
“I’m fine. She’s…” A sob threatens to unravel me.
Cade steps in. “Violet’s only been missing a few hours. Gianna? Almost a year, and I think you need to run a lot of tests.”
The doctor nods, and the orderlies help Gianna on a gurney and wheel her away.
Someone met us at the car in the parking lot when we got here and handed us a bag of clothes. From the way the men acted, it could have been this uncle Gino. I don’t know. Right now, I don’t care.
I’m in sweatpants and a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt.
The shoes are slippers, so they don’t bother me as they slap the ground when I walk, following Cade to the small, private waiting room.
“Sit.”
There’s something so quietly commanding in his voice that I do so, and he starts to pace, irritation now taking over from the fear that made him hold me so tightly earlier. Fear and relief.
The irritation weirdly makes my heart flip harder over him.
He loves me, and all these emotions are part of it. He loves me enough to be pissed off at me right now, and I don’t know if I’m going crazy, but it makes me want to hug him tight.
Cade stops and spins to face me, pointing a finger at me.
“What you did was utterly stupid, and I’m so pissed off right now I could break things.” His dark eyes glow with inner fire.“But what you did also took guts. I’m beyond annoyed that you disobeyed me, but yeah, you’re brave. Dumb, but brave.”
“Thanks, but you don’t actually own me. And I’m a lot smarter than you give me credit for,” I snap, my heart soaring.
He glares. “Wanna bet? I fucking own your ass, Vi. And I think you’re the smartest person I’ve met.” He rubs a hand over his face. “Fuck…I’m just glad you’re okay.”
His phone buzzes, and he whips it out, reading something, then firing off a text.
“The other girls? Are they okay?”
