•KINLEY•I opened my eyes with a frown as the door banged open."Get up." Jade barked her orders at me.I pushed myself into a sitting position, careful not to let my thighs touch each other and chafe the burn marks."What now?""We're going to make a little phone call to Gianni." She grinned manically as she came over to cuff my hands together.She sat down beside me and dialled on her phone."Hello? Kinley?" Gianni's panicked voice came through as she put the phone onto loud speaker.Jade nudged me and motioned to the phone."Gianni." Was all I said."Kinley! Baby, where are you?""With some crazy bitch called Ja-" she backhanded me in the face and I yelped."Kinley?!"I glared at her and she shook her head."Jade and Michael!" I screamed. She clearly hadn't been expecting me not t9 listen to her orders. She flung the phone across the room and pounced on top of me, slamming my head into the headboard.With my hands cuffed in front of me, I had more room for movement.I used all the
•GIANNI•After screaming profanities while shouting for Luca and Talon in between, I suddenly came to the realisation that I still had no idea where to look for Kinley.Yes, she had alerted me as to who she was with, but I had no clue where they were."What is it, boss?""They called me, Luca. She was able to shout out who has her, its Jade. I need the men to find them, I need to find Kinley. You know how evil they can get.""But we chased them away from here. How could they be back without you knowing?" Talon asked me.I turned to glare at him in anger, "I want to know the very same thing, Talon. You have assured me that there have been no sightings of them for months!""We have eyes on them, there have been no reports of them coming back. Unless we have a traitor.""Well, obviously we do! Don't waste my time. Bring me the men who were watching them," I turned to Luca, "And you, bring me any one of them. I will show them how to handle a kidnapping." I was furious. Jade was the adopte
•KINLEY•"What are you doing?" Michael asked me, side eyeing me as I dumped my pile of collected twigs on the ground.I was sure we were more lost now than earlier after walking aimlessly for hours. The sun was already beginning to set."Making a fire, genius.""Oh, perfect. Let's cause a wildfire to break out.""Well, hey, at least a blazing fire will catch someone's attention."He huffed and threw up his arms, "You are not going back to Gianni until we have what we need!"If my hands weren't still cuffed I would have out them on my hips."You won't get what you need! Don't you get it? Gianni didn't get where he is by buckling down or bending to anyone's demands.""Yeah, because he never had anyone in his life that could be used as leverage against him. That's changed now.""It doesn't matter what you have. He would never give up his power over you." Even as I said the words, I was doubting them. I had seen how docile he had become when Dom had me at gunpoint. "Jade knows what she's
•KINLEY•By the time my bare feet touched the asphalt of abroad I was exhausted.My feet were red with cuts and raw patches. I was filthy. My hands were still cuffed and my mouth was extremely dry.The sun had gone down a while ago and I wasn't even sure if it was still night or early morning.The road was empty with no sign of cars.Grateful to be out of the trees, I sat down on the side of the road, wincing at the aches and pains running through my body.The plan had been to walk until I was able to get to safety, but with the way my body was feeling I doubted I would be able to make it very gar at all.I was exhausted and my feet hurt from all the walking and running amongst rocks and twigs. It was too dark to tell the extent of the damage done to my feet, but I could feel the open wounds.I laid back against the tree behind me and let out a slow breath, trying to decipher what my next move should be. At the moment, the best idea seemed to be to stay in one place and wait for someo
•KINLEY•As I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was how something heavy was holding both of my arms down.The next was that it was Gianni and Luca, both seemingly fas asleep beside the bed, half on top of my arms.I smiled at the sight of the two of them, my heart bursting with joy. I loved how Luca was here too. He was someone who I knew was a true friend."Guys? Hey? Can everyone wake up?" Luca jumped to his feet first, disoriented but ready to attack, his reaction was slightly comical.Gianni opened his eyes and frowned, "Luca, what are you doing, man?""I think I gave him a fright." As I spoke, both of them spun towards me, as if they were noticing I was awake for the first time."Gattina, you're okay!" He pulled me into a hugs and I winced at the pain it caused."Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm okay.""What did they do to you?" Gianni asked."And how the hell did you get away?" Luca added."They kept me locked in a room. Sometimes cuffed. Jade put out cigarettes on my legs. I
•KINLEY•After leaving the hospital I was beginning to feel a bit better.Luca had fetched me, but instead of taking me home, he took me to a street with fancy, and expensive, boutiques."Why are we here?""Gianni instructed me to bring you here. He wants you to get something for his surprise tonight."I had almost forgotten about his surprise."Is this really necessary?"Luca shrugged, "You know how Gianni is.""What is this big surprise?"Luca shook his head, "Can't tell you or it won't be a surprise. And if I ruin it, he will have my head.""Let's go shopping then, I guess?"I had never really enjoyed shopping so I browsed quickly before choosing a white dress, my feet we healing but I didn't think heels would be a very good idea until they were completely healed so I chose a pair of flat sandals."That was the quickest I've ever seen a woman shop." Luca commented as we were leaving the store."I hate shopping. It gets me annoyed."Luca glanced at his watch, "Gianni is in meetings
•TALON•"She agrees to shopping together." Billie spoke. We were walking in the garden, waiting for Gianni and Kinley to return."I told you she would be easy to manipulate. She's just too busy trying to be nice." I shook my head at the thought."Did you have something to do with what happened to Luca?" She asked me with a raised brow.I smirked, "He was a problem, he was getting a little too cocky. He needed to be taken down a notch.""You could have killed him, Talon!""Well, if he doesn't take the warning, next time I will." I could see the look in her eyes. She was scared of me. I smiled, a rush of excitement running through my veins at the thought. A strong and powerful woman like Billie being scared of me excited me, it turned me on.I stepped forward, grabbing her wrist and pulling her closer to me, "What's wrong? Do I scare you?"She held my gaze, "No. I fear no man... It's more like disgust.""You're a terrible liar, Billie."She pulled her hand free from my grasp and pit s
•KINLEY•"Do you know the baby's gender?" I asked Billie while we walked around the store."No, I wanted to leave it as a surprise.""This is cute," I lifted a newborn onesie with animal prints on it, "I know we're meant to be getting stuff for the nursery, but you can never have enough clothes, right?"Billie nodded and took it from me, "True, they grow out of things so quickly!"We browsed the shop for a while longer, picking out a crib and a few other things for the nursery. Billie said she would be hiring a professional painter to do the baby's room but wanted my input on the colours and designs.Again, I found this sudden turn around of her attitude to be a bit strange, and I was sure Talon had something to do with this."I'm always starving these days! Lunch by the beach?" She asked as we left the store."Sure, I don't have anything else to do. I have to stop by the club later though.""I can come with you? It's rather lonely being me, I'm sure you can imagine.""Yeah, I don't m