Failed Teresa in the worst possible way.
Because if he’d been taken, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that she had been too.
After all, she was the one the trafficking ring wanted. Although, why they thought going after another Prey employee was a good idea he couldn’t figure out. That was only going to make Eagle Oswald and the entire Prey family angrier and more determined than ever to destroy the trafficking ring and makesure everybody involved was punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Whoever was left alive anyway.
If Micah had his way, that would be none of them. Sitting in a prison cell for the rest of their lives was too good for the people who had decided to go after his Teresa.
It didn't matter what had happened in the past, what she’d done, how he’d reacted, because deep down inside him, Micah had known from the time he was sixteen years old and first laid eyes on the pretty girl with the thick mane of dark hair and big chocolate brown eyes, that she was his.
His, and he’d failed her.
Let her get taken by people who weren't just going to kill her, but do it in a torturously slow manner while they took her body apart piece by piece. It would be a horrific death, one that he would suffer as well, but he would rather suffer it a million times over than let it happen to the girl he had never stopped loving, no matter how hard he’d tried to convince himself he had.
A soft moan close by had his head lifting as far as it could with his body restrained, and he saw her. There was another bed in the room, a hospital bed like the one he’d been strapped to, and it was a mere two feet away.
So close yet so far.
In it lay his girl, and she must be waking up as well.
Another moan, this time a little stronger, there was an edge to it as well, like she knew something was wrong.
Wanting her to know that she wasn't alone, Micah called out her name. “Teresa, hey, pretty girl,” he crooned. She’d always blushed the most adorable shade of pink when they were teens, and he used to call her pretty, which of course made him want to do it all the time.
Only she wasn't just pretty. Teresa was beautiful, inside and out. Whatever had happened to make her decide to cheat onhim, he didn't even care anymore, not when they were faced with this kind of horrific death.
If he found a way to get them both out of this alive, he was going to forgive her, truly and really forgive, and move on. With her if she’d have him.
“Can you hear me, Teresa? I’m right here, you're not alone.”
“Mmm … Micah …?” she mumbled.
“It’s me and I'm right beside you, pretty girl,” he assured her.
She moaned again, only this time it turned into a groan. “I don’t feel so good.”
“I'm sorry, honey, I'm so sorry.” This was all his fault. Everything from them being kidnapped to Teresa feeling sick because of the drugs they’d been given. He’d wanted to be her bodyguard because he hadn't been able to resist the pull he felt toward her, but what he should have done was insist that she remained locked up behind Prey’s doors.
She might have been angry with him for it, but at least she’d be safe right now.
Not bound to a bed feeling ill.
“The man … in the mask … he … drugged us.” She said the words like she couldn’t quite believe them, and he was right there with her.
It was hard to accept they'd been on the cusp of having the conversation he’d intended to have once the ring was dismantled, and then the next moment they were drugged and waking up there.
He had no idea where they were, or how long it had been since they’d been taken. However, he did know that Prey would be looking for them. The cocky kidnappers had taken them right in the middle of the road, so he had no doubt Prey would be scouring CCTV footage to learn where they’d been taken.
“He did,” Micah agreed.
“And they … took us?”
“They did.” It killed him to say the words, but not saying them wouldn't make them any less true.
“We’re … we’re trapped.” Beside him, Teresa began to pull on the straps binding her to the bed.
“For now.”
