Page 80

Zane nods, and we head toward the door with Miko following behind us.

If a hair on my little nightmare’s head is out of place, Amanda and the punk are going to pay.

I’ll slaughter anyone who hurts the ones I love.

I’m a Marino, and it’s time I showed them what I’m capable of.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

JENSEN

“I have the security footage of The Basement up now. Amanda just walked in there with Brett and someone else. But the third person has their face covered by a hooded mask, and their hands are cuffed behind their back,” Miko says from the back seat of my SUV, and my stomach plummets. It’s Immie, I know it’s her, I feel it deep in my soul.

“Should we send security in?” Zane asks as he side-eyes me before diverting his attention back to the road.

My heart hammers as I consider my options. If we send security, it might spook her. She clearly is unhinged at the minute, given we have a dead Clint on our hands; she’s proved what she’s capable of. Maybe it’s best we monitor her while we make our way there.

I give my head a shake and drag a finger over my lip. My skin itches to do something other than just sit here, and I will the SUV to move faster, even though Zane is pushing it to its limits. “I think we should monitor her. If they enter a room, I want a live feed into it. Nobody else gets to enter with them, and the moment either of them imply harming Immie in any way, we put a stop to it immediately.”

“What do you think she’s taken her for, exactly?” Zane asks, and I swallow hard.

“She’s jealous, deranged, losing everything. She’s taken something from Jensen. The thing that means the most to him in this world, his daughter,” Miko says, and the cold, blunt words send a chill down my spine.

Every word was delivered with a dangerous edge, a certainty. If Amanda discovered Immie wasn’t my daughter all along, there’s no doubt in my mind she would want to ruin Immie, and if she knew I was sleeping with her, I can’t even imagine the lengths she would go to destroy me.

IMMIE

My face is wet against the fabric, thanks to the tears spilling down my cheeks and spit leaving my open mouth. My legs tremble with each step I take, and my mind whirls with what’s transpired in the last hour. I try but fail to push it aside.

When Brett pulled the items from his bag, a vile gleam flickered in his eyes, sending a wave of nausea through me. I’ve seen that look before from the man who brutalized me as a child. It was sinister and alarming. A look I will never forget.

We struggled, and he smashed my face against the window while clicking the handcuffs in place, with my hands behind my back.

I kicked my legs out as he gripped me and thrust a ball gag into my mouth, and then he pulled a hooded black mask from the bag, and before I knew it, everything went dark. But not before his hand slid up my leg, and vomit burned my throat when he stroked over my panties. His touch was taunting, a sign of what’s to come. I’ve met monsters before, and he’s one of them.

He’s not my friend after all. He’s evil, and his cruel promises of ripping my pussy open as he fucked me had me quaking in the car seat.

Wherever they’re taking me, it’s not going to end well. I just hope Jensen realizes I’m missing and in danger. I need him. I need my daddy and all his strength.

“Keep walking,” Brett spits out as I trip over my feet. I want to tell him I can’t see where I’m going, but each time I attempt to make a sound, it comes out garbled and more spittle dribbles from my mouth.

I don’t know what they have planned for me, but their actions alone terrify me. What I do know is once Jensen discovers who’s behind this, he’s going to make them wish they’d never been born, and I take comfort in that as I’m pushed through what I think is a doorway.

I’m about to endure hell.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

JENSEN

The moment we pull up outside the club, I’m out of the SUV and running toward the building. I check my clip on my gun and tuck it behind my back.

Our security already has the door open for us, so I race inside.

“They’ve just entered room four,” Miko says as he pushes past me. “Follow me.”

Other than the night I took Immie from here, it’s been a long time since I was in here, and I sure as shit have never been with Amanda like she led Immie to believe.

Things have changed, and though I don’t have time to scrutinize those changes, I can see them clearly. The cage lowered in the center of the room, being one of them, and I hope to Christ Immie wasn’t able to see through the mask they covered her face with.