“What wedding?” Dylan demands. It’s the first time he’s spoken all morning. His attention is no longer on his plate but firmly fixed on me.
Since I’d still been pretty shaken even on the plane ride home, no one pressed me for information. I spent the entire time wrapped up in my own thoughts and praying my way out of the dark corners of what could have happened to me. So I haven’t had the chance to fill them in on what happened while I was being held.
“Felicity told me that she paid a nurse to tell them I died after birth, then put me up for adoption to keep me away from Gio.”
“Oh my.” Nova shakes her head sadly. “She gave you up to protect you.”
I take a deep breath. “Yes. She had no idea they’d brought me there until Gio paraded me into the dining room for dinner. He played off the fact that his son—my brother—drugged and kidnapped me. He just told me that Mattheus got a little ahead of himself in his excitement to bring me home.”
Dylan emits a low growl. He pushes to his feet and leans back against the kitchen counter. More space. Always more space.
“Because drugging and kidnapping is an entirely logical reaction to wanting to meet your sibling.” Riley rolls his eyes. “Unbelievable.”
“Based on what I read, in that family, it’s typical.” Tucker crosses his arms. “The Karvers are bad people. Sorry,” he adds to me. “I know they’re your birth parents and all.”
I shrug. “Patricia and Emmit are my parents. Felicity and Gio are simply the people who brought me into the world. They didn’t raise me. I appreciate what Felicity did for me, and I pray she’s okay, but that doesn’t mean I look at her as anything more than a kind woman trapped in a terrible circumstance.”
“Good logic to have,” Elliot says with a smile.
“Thanks.” I clear my throat, then continue, “Felicity warned me that they were watching the cell phone they gave me. She told me that she would deliver a message for me, so I gave her Bradyn’s name.” I briefly look over at Dylan, whose expression has hardened further.
Where’s the man who smiled at me yesterday? Who held my hand as he swam us to safety?
“Since you run the search and rescue company, I figured you’d be the easiest to get in contact with.”
He nods. “She did call. Told us that you were safe, but if we didn’t get to you in time, then you wouldn’t be. Right after that, she told us we needed to hide you until after November 1st. That once it passed, there would be no more threat to your life.”
“I don’t understand what that means though. Wedding dates can be changed, so there must be something else.”
“Okay, expand on the wedding,” Tucker says. “Whose wedding?”
I glance at Dylan a moment, only to find myself staring into his troubled hazel eyes, unable to look away. He clearly can though because he breaks the eye contact first, freeing me from the hold he had on me.
“She didn’t say a wedding exactly. She said that my fate would be to marry someone like him—or worse—and she couldn’t stomach it, which is why she gave me up.”
“An arranged marriage is common in crime families,” Elliot says, shaking his head.
“But I’m in my thirties. I hardly fit the bill for that. I’m not a wide-eyed nineteen-year-old with no life experience.” I scoff. “I’m basically an old maid at this point.”
“Hardly,” Dylan says, his tone low and gruff.
I have to fight the urge to look at him. “She promised to get me out and told me I had to play the part until then. Which was easy until Gio introduced me to Heath Slater the next morning.”
“Heath Slater?” Tucker questions as he writes his name down on his notepad.
“Yes. I’ve never seen a man more intimidating.” A shiver runs through me just thinking of him. “He managed to suck all the light out of the room just by entering it. I could feel the darkness rolling off him. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”
Nova reaches over and gently takes my hand. “You’re safe now.”
“I know.” He haunted the nightmares that plagued me last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dylan die at his hand before the snake tattooed on his face devoured me whole. Is it my mind playing out my worst fear? Or what is coming my way?
“What do you believe Gio’s intentions were by introducing you to him?”
“It seemed an awful lot like—” I trail off, trying to find the right words. “Like Gio was putting me on display for purchase. But it was done so subtly that, if Felicity hadn’t told me what she did, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.”
“He was going to sell you?” Nova’s eyes go wide. “His own flesh and blood.”
“We’ve seen people do far worse than that,” Elliot says softly.
