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“They must’ve left him there as a warning to us,” Jac murmurs.

My stomach twists. What if he really was dead?

“Get some sleep,” Jacques demands. “He’s here now. You can see him in the morning.”

“Are you gonna stay with him?” I ask.

“Yeah. I will,” he promises.

Chapter 49

Xander

Am I alive?

It doesn’t feel like it. Every bone and muscle in my body aches, and I can’t feel my face.

Groaning, I turn in bed, but the light from the window stings my face. Careful not to cause myself any major pain, I slowly turn back around.

Two days I was searching for Luke. And not a single fucking sign of him anywhere. The tracker remained at Penelope’s place. He was smart enough not to come back for it. And Penelope won’t break. She will not peep a word about Luke. Nova has offered to torture information out of her, but I know Penelope won’t break. She’ll sooner die than reveal anything she’s been instructed to keep quiet.

Fuck, where even am I?

Nova’s been keeping me in her mafia dungeon. Apparently she doesn’t trust me enough yet to enter her quarters. Axel’s been hovering above my head the entire time. Annoying prick. Her men have been following my every footstep. Last night I told them to leave me there. I failed Camila. I didn’t deserve to be taken care of or patched up by their doctors. I just needed to be left there.

A shuffling in the corner of the room forces me to ping my eyes open.

Axel's annoying, but he’s never watched me sleep.

“What the fuck?” I mumble, pressing my fingers into the corners of my eyes. It’s blurry, and I can’t see a thing. “Sid?”

“I wouldn’t do that. Your eyes are pretty bruised up; you’ll just make it worse,” a familiar Cockney accent says.

Jac?

My stomach bottoms out. He’s not supposed to be here. Is my Angel here too?

She can’t see me like this. She’s not supposed to know where I’ve been. None of them are supposed to know. Nova promised to keep my location quiet.

“Please tell me you’re not here right now,” I say. My lips feel like the size of England as I talk. I move my hand down to them, hissing at the sting of the contact.

“What were you thinking, Xander?” he sighs.

I still can’t fully open my eyes, so I’m blindly scowling at the corner of the room where I think he is.

“I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“I told you to leave, I didn’t tell you to go on a massive murder spree. Do you know how much shit that’s gonna get us in?”

“Nova will sort it.” I slowly pull myself up against the headboard of the bed.

He huffs in annoyance. “Of course she fucking will. How was the taste of our new life?”

I huff out a sarcastic laugh, my rib burning.

“I wasn’t planning on coming back alive, you know,” I confess quietly.

After a few heartbeats of silence, I mumble, "I'm sorry for hitting you."