Page 53 of Claimed By Daddy
“Not in the slightest.” Davit leans forward, pushing himself slightly between the two front seats. “He has no fucking clue. We cloned his phone weeks ago. Poor boy… I actually think he might miss you.”
“Go to hell,” I spit.
He smiles again, infuriatingly calm. “One way or another, spitfire, I will. I’m certain of that. But not before you take a very long trip with me. And then I drag you there, too.”
I shake my head, pulling at the restraints even though they bite into my skin. “You won’t get away with this.”
“But I already have,” he muses. “You’ll see soon enough. Armenia will be your new home. My men will enjoy spending a few weeks breaking you in, making sure you learn your rightful place. And then I’ll put you to work as one of my whores. I should get a few good years out of a feisty young bitch like you.”
My stomach lurches as we pull out of the tunnel and back into the blinding sunlight. We’ve only just left the city, and I already feel oceans away from the life I’ve grown to know—and love—with Enzo, Cillian, and Nikolai. Outside thewindow, the streets start to blur—storefronts replaced with busy highways and overpasses. They’re moving fast. Purposefully. I can’t see much, but the further away we get, the more hopeless it feels.
The driver murmurs something in Armenian, and one of the guards beside me replies just as quietly. I don’t know the words, but I can read their body language. They’re on edge too—not afraid, but alert. They aren’t nearly as confident as Davit.
Davit shifts again, lacing his fingers across his lap and returning his dark gaze to the road. “It didn’t have to be this way, you know. You could’ve been protected. You could’ve married my son and spent your life in a penthouse, with guards watching over you and servants fulfilling your every whim.”
I scoff. “You mean stayed locked away like some mafia Rapunzel? No thanks.”
“You wouldn’t have been a prisoner. You would’ve been well respected. Feared because of who your husband was,” he retorts. “The four of you chose this. Your decisions have made you my captive… Hopefully my future best-selling whore.”
I spit at him. It falls short—landing on his arm instead of in his face—but the gesture earns me a shove from the wall of muscle on my right. My head snaps forward and hits the edge of the seat in front of me, causing stars to flicker at the corners of my vision.
“I warned you,” Davit grouses coolly. “That’s the last time I offer you any kindness.”
“Your kindness feels a lot like threats and zip ties,” I mutter, blinking hard to stay focused.
“Threats keep people alive. And I need you alive, for now.” He reaches into his coat and pulls out a folded slip of paper. “Let them know our ETA,” he instructs with a nod as he passes it to the man on my right.
The goon beside me unfolds the paper—a flight itinerary.
Private jet scheduled to depart within a few hours. No commercial airport. No security checks.
“I’ll scream,” I blurt, suddenly. “As soon as I see someone. I’ll scream my lungs out.”
“Then we’ll cut out your tongue before we get there.” The way he says it—it’s not a threat. It’s a fact.I don’t need a tongue for what he wants me for...
The SUV slows slightly, and my heart spikes in panic. We’re getting closer.I have to do something. Anything.
Suddenly, I shift, slamming my shoulder into the guy on my right and kicking my foot firmly against the driver’s seat. It budges just enough to startle the driver, causing the SUV to swerve across the highway. The man beside me shouts, the other grabs my flailing feet, and Davit barks something in Armenian. The goon not holding my legs grabs my jaw, squeezing until my teeth grind and I wince in pain.
“Do that again,” he hisses with a thick accent, “and we’ll break your fucking legs.”
“Better than whatever you guys are planning to do to me,” I grit out. He lets go with a shove, and I slump back against the leather seat, chest heaving. My wrists burn, and my jaw aches, but I don’t care. Every second I buy gives another second for Enzo to find me.
I know he’s coming.He has to be.
Davit adjusts his cufflinks, as if nothing has happened. “You’re lucky, you know,” he murmurs. “You’re lucky to have made it this far. Usually, I would’ve just put a bullet in you and been done with it. But you… you’ve caught the attention of men far more dangerous than Enzo Roseti.”
I slowly turn my head to look at him. “You talk too much for a man so sure of himself.” His eyes narrow as he glares at me.Good. Let him get angry.
Let him fuck up.
We take another hard right; the SUV bouncing slightly as we pass over speed bumps and onto the private airfield. I grab the key hanging around my neck, holding it tightly like it’s somehow going to tether me to Enzo.
Please find me before this plane takes off… Please, Daddy.
Gunnar pushes the SUV like he’s driving a getaway car. My world narrows to the growl of the engine under Gunnar’s hands. Manhattan blurs around us—glass, steel, streaks of yellow taxis, and honking horns. He’s reckless with his speed. The kind of driving that ends with body bags or headlines, but I can’t bring myself to tell him to slow down.
Tricked from the safety of our home, my girl has been thrown into a nightmare she doesn’t deserve—one Iwillrescue her from. The only thing I can think about is getting to her. Getting to my princess. As fast as fucking possible, because with every second that passes, we’re running out of time.
