Criminal(35)

"I didn't want to go all the way, but I didn't have an option," Kaiden spits back with a sneer. "And load of good that did me."

The man laughs, cruelly, and starts down the stairs towards us, his eyes on me.

"Ah, yes. Abigail. The one you were willing to throw away years of your life for. Good years, too," he adds on with a glance to Kaiden. "The little sister."

I hear a low, angry grunt from Kaiden as he tries to move forward, but a firm hand on his shoulder stops him, the cop giving him a glare.

"Axel, I swear to God, if you hurt her, you're going to regret it," he says, and suddenly it all makes sense. Their boss. Ryder's boss.

Wait, they'd talked about taking out Ryder before?

I look at Kaiden with wide eyes, but Axel comes nearly a foot away from us, and he's not scared at all. Why should he be? There are two cops holding us hostage, just waiting for his word to...do what, exactly?

Kill us?

A shiver goes down my spine and I look at the boss. He's huge and intimidating, but Kaiden doesn't seem to back down.

"You two stink of sex," he says with disdain, and I get a pit in my stomach of nerves and fear, but he brushes the thought off without a second more.

"Well, Kaiden, I'm glad you decided to return to me, because now that I know you're man enough, we're going to have a conversation. And while we have a conversation, Abigail is going to be in my office, waiting for you to come to her rescue," he says, and instantly, the young officer behind me starts pushing me forward.

"No!" I cry out, reaching out for Kaiden as he lunges for me. Axel and the other officer, though, keep him pinned.

"Leave her alone!" Kaiden orders, his voice booming and angry, but Axel doesn't back down.

"Abby! It'll be fine, okay? You just wait for me, I'm going to come back for you," Kaiden promises as I'm dragged towards the stairs, the officer ignoring my struggles as he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.

I reach out, trying to grab Kaiden, but I'm already way too far, tears streaming down my face.

"Kaiden!" I sob, kicking my legs. I can't be taken from him! Not after all we'd been through, not after all we've done! For years we've denied what we mean to one another, and I can't lose that now. I struggle and writhe, the guard tightening his hold on my naked thighs as he moves off the steps.

I grab onto the railing, and for a moment, I think he's going to fall, bringing me with him, and I can picture myself falling forward, hitting my head on the concrete, so I let go and he catches his balance once more.

"I'll be back, Princess! Don't doubt your Prince Charming," Kaiden orders. "I love you!"

"I love you too!" I cry out, my voice so hard and filled with terror, but there's no stopping what's happening. Seconds later I'm in a small, dingy office, and the cop is trying to handcuff me to the chair.

The door is shut, and I can't hear anything else. There's no sound except for the metal scraping the floor as I struggle to escape the cop's grasp.

He backhands me, and it carries more force than I thought someone like him could deliver, and I gasp.

In that second he manages to cuff me to the chair, rendering me immobile.

"Just fucking sit still if you know what's good for you," he warns as he grabs some of those plastic zip ties, bringing one to my bare ankle, binding me to the chair. Both my hands and legs are bound before I know it.

He looks me in the eyes as he brings a gag to my mouth, his lip twitching in a strange manner.

"Don't piss off Axel. Just sit and be good," he orders with a tone of warning that sends a shiver up my spine.

I nod, but my stomach is roiling.

What's happening down there? And where is Axel taking Kaiden?





"You know what I can do to her," Axel says to me, and I have never wanted so bad to fucking kill someone as I do right now.

He has Abigail captive, and feeling powerless isn't something I like. I want to head butt these two assholes, run up the stairs and save her. Then just run away.

This is all my fault.

I should have never told her to come back here, but I had hoped that if we got rid of this bullshit looming over me, we could be free. I'm being naive, and that just makes me so much angrier.

"And you know what I can do for you," Axel says, not bothering to wait for my response. He knows me too well, anyways. That I'm a hothead but that I've never killed.

That I've never got myself in so over my head that I had to.

But he still asked me to kill Ryder, knowing I couldn't, and now this is his punishment for disobeying him.

He always has to up the ante.

"I'm not fucking killing anyone, Axel," I say, hoping my words sound terrifying despite the pain that's lacing them.

Abby wasn't wrong, I really do need to go to a hospital, but there's no time for those luxuries. At least the memory of her sucking me off can numb a bit of my agony.