At that his eyes opened. They weren’t looking at me, but through me, as I took his head in my hands. Tears falling faster now, I forced his gaze on mine.
His eyes shifted between mine. My eyes moved between his, fighting to catch anything that he might be trying to say to me. Suddenly his gaze was frozen on mine and the relief that I felt was palpable.
He hadn’t looked me in the eye since we left the hospital that night. I started to smile at him. My tears flowed faster with hope that we could begin to heal together.
Too soon, his eyes snapped closed. He turned onto his other side, so he was facing away from me. The feeling of floating that the relief brought on was replaced with a cement anchor falling through my chest and landing deep down in the pit of my stomach.
Our shared soul has been split in two. It was then that I started to grieve the loss of my husband. I hate myself for allowing the space between us to grow. I should have been stronger. Strong enough to hold the family that I had left, together.
I shouldn’t have turned my back on him in those first few crucial days, but I was shattered and my mind and body didn’t remember what it was like to function. Marshall depended on me, he relied on the fact that our family would grow happily and healthily, but I disappointed him.
Disappointment is worse than anger. At least if he were angry I would feel some emotion rolling off of him. I feel nothing but hopelessness and disappointment.
I was tortured. I had no idea what to do to get my husband back. To get us back. Maybe there really are some things that there is no coming back from.
Lochlan
I never, in a million years, would have thought that Marshall would push Adrienne away the way he has been. I knew that there would be a grieving period, but I thought that they would be each other’s crutch and get through it together, the way that they have with everything else in their perfect life.
But, what’s been happening these past few weeks? Well, it couldn’t be going any better if I had planned it that way myself. When Marshall is at work, he is holed up in his office the majority of the day. When he does come out, he’s more unpleasant than the Grinch at Christmas time.
Our employees, who once loved him, now duck into conference rooms, labs, and the bathroom when they see him coming. If that wasn’t enough, Adrienne comes to see me at my apartment several times each week because she can’t stand the chill of his mood and tone.
Sometimes we sit there and zone out in front of the television. Sometimes we end up talking for hours. Thankfully, she rarely wants to talk about Marshall, but when she does, it takes everything I have in me not to get angry and blow my plans out of the water like I almost did last week.
“Lock, do you think that Marshall has given up on me, on our marriage?” She takes a sip of the scotch that I offered her when she got here.
I sigh as quietly as possible, trying to make it seem like I’m deep in thought and not annoyed as fuck.
“Adrienne, I really don’t think you want to hear my opinion on the situation.”
“Please Lock, you’re the only one I can rely on right now. Your opinion means everything to me. You’ve known Marshall for so long, I feel like you’re the only one who can give me insight to how he is feeling!”
Played right into the trap.
“To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know if or when he’s going to come to his senses about the whole situation. This behavior is not like him at all and I am surprised that he’s carried on this way for so long. I would have thought that your love for one another was impenetrable, but I guess everyone has their breaking point.”
My hatred for Marshall and my drive to tear the two of them apart is begging to break through my façade. Get it together, Lochlan. You can’t blow this! You still have work to do.
She starts to break down and sob at my words. Perfect. She gets up from the chair that she’s sitting on and moves across the room to where I’m sitting on the sofa, sipping my own glass of scotch, and sits down so close to me she’s practically in my lap.
“Lock, that can’t be what’s happening. I refuse to accept that. We need to find a way to get through to him! Please!” she begs and grabs a hold of my dress shirt. “Please help me!”
I move one of my hands to her cheek and wipe her tears away.
“Adrienne, I love you, you know that. You guys are my family. I will do whatever it takes to guide him back to you.” I bring her in for a hug and kiss the top of her head.
The smell of her vanilla shampoo is the best and worst kind of aphrodisiac. It’s so hard to play the role of a best friend, when all I want to do is take her and claim her for my own. Throw her down on my bed and fuck her senseless. Then, make love to her and prove to her that we’re meant for one another.
“Thank you, so much,” She replies. “I really don’t know what I would do without you.
Tonight is beginning to shape up in the same fashion.
“Has he said anything to you recently?” she asks me, hopeful that I have some news that Marshall may finally be coming around. Sometimes I tell the truth. Mostly, I lie because that’s just the kind of fucked-up son of a bitch that I am. Seeing her so upset and resentful of Marshall brings me sadistic joy.
“Not really,” I answer.
“Not really, meaning he has said something to you?”
“Adrienne, don’t do this to yourself. He isn’t in a good place right now. I’m sure that everything will be back to normal one day soon.”
I don’t have the patience to put in the effort to pretend tonight. It’s getting harder and harder to leave her alone and snuff the intense feeling of need that I have to take her.
“Please, Lock. I need something to hold on to. Anything. I don’t care what it is, I just need to know where he’s at right now.”
I sigh deeply, this time I’m not doing it for effect. I really don’t want to talk about Marshall tonight. Time to knock him down a few pegs.
“He did mention something to me the other day, but I don’t think it’s wise to tell you what it was,” I goad her.
“Lochlan!” she screams, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “Tell me!”
“He said that he can’t help but to feel resentment toward you and the situation as a whole. As much as he tries, he can’t stop kicking himself for letting it happen in the first place.”
“I don’t understand. He couldn’t have predicted that I was going to miscarry. That’s absurd.”
“No, he’s not talking about the miscarriage. He’s talking about the pregnancy.”
The look of pain on her face has my heart leaping and it takes everything I have in me to keep the corners of my mouth from curling upward in a snarl.
Marshall
The sound of my phone ringing makes my head feel as though it could split in two.
“Yeah.” I say when I pick up the receiver.
“Is this Marshall Trent?” the voice on the other end asks me.
“Depends on who’s asking. If you’re selling something, I don’t need it. Take me off your lis—”
“Mr. Trent, my name is Owen Branch and I have news about your wife’s miscarriage.”
That gets my attention.
“Who the hell are you, Owen Branch, and why do you have personal information about my wife and I?”
“I was just hired by a colleague of yours, Lochlan Finch.”
“And?”
“Well, I know it’s none of my business, but I overheard him speaking with someone on his security team about you and Adrienne.”
“We’ve known Lock for years. This isn’t anything abnormal. Get to the point.”
“Mr. Trent, there is no easy way to say this, but I heard Mr. Finch state that he gave something to Adrienne to make her miscarry.” My blood goes cold.
“That’s impossible. Lock would never do such a thing. He would never betray us like that.”
“He speaks very highly of Mrs. Trent and I don’t believe that he would ever want to hurt or b
etray her. Unfortunately, I don’t believe he feels the same way about you.”
My heart is pounding as fast as an AK-47 in my chest. I don’t want to believe it, but hearing the words escape his lips, the truth hits me.
It was just over a month ago, but it may as well have happened yesterday. Lock bringing Adrienne a drink in his apartment that day. Adrienne miscarrying that very night.
“Son of a bitch!”
“Mr. Trent, I saw Mrs. Trent and Mr. Finch entering his apartment about an hour ago. In case you’re wondering where to find her.”
The thought never occurs to me to thank him before I hang up the phone and immediately dial Adrienne’s number.
Present
Lochlan
I refuse to accept the fact that Lana isn’t getting pregnant. Between the hormone injections and all of the times that I’ve came in that sweet cunt of hers, there is no reason for her not to be pregnant.
After the shit she pulled at the banquet, every time I think about it, think about her willingly in his arms; she hardly appeared scared of him. Her body language spoke volumes! She either didn’t think about the consequences or she didn’t care about them.
Now that I know what she is capable of when I’m not around, it gives me a bad feeling that something else has to be going on here. I take the stairs two at a time, Reese is right behind me. I burst through the door and into Lana’s room. She screams and jumps up from the sofa in the sitting area of her room, where she is reading a book.
“What are you doing!” she shrieks.
“What right do you have, to question me in my own house?” I throw back at her. A look of terror crosses over her face. That shuts her up.
I look her up and down before reaching into my pocket. She is still in her little pajama set. It’s one of my favorites. A baby blue tank top and a pair of tiny, very loose shorts. The material is thin and it leaves nothing to the imagination, and I can tell she isn’t wearing any panties. If I weren’t so livid at the moment, my dick would be one twitchy mother-fucker.
As I pull the syringe and elastic tourniquet out of my pocket, her eyes go wide with fear and she starts backing up toward her closet. I’m no fool. At the back of her closet is one of the entrances to her bathroom.
Just as she turns and takes off running, I follow her and tell Reese to intercept her at the other entrance. I turn the corner of the closet and walk into the bathroom with purpose. Lana stops running as she sees Reese coming through the other entrance but, losing control over her momentum, she crashes right into him as a scream escapes her lips.
Reese turns her around so she is facing me. Lana tries to kick him and twist from his grip. He moves her across the bathroom and takes a seat on the stool of her vanity so she is on his lap.
He takes one of his legs and throws it across her lap so she can’t use them to fight anymore. His arms go around her head and chest immobilizing the top half of her body. I walk over to them and pull one of her arms out of his hold.
She starts shaking when I wrap the tourniquet around her bicep and smack the crook of her arm hard, trying to make her veins pop. I look her in the eyes.
If I were to inject her with a drug, I would see fear. The fact that I’m taking her blood this time, leaves a clear sign of guilt in her stare. She is hiding something from me.
“What are you doing?” she questions in a panic. “Lock, what’s wrong? Please, talk to me!”
I use my teeth to remove the cap of the needle as I look her in the eyes with the utmost displeasure. I only look away to plunge the needle into her vein and extract enough blood to use for several rounds of testing, if necessary.
“Is there anything that you would like to tell me before I take this to the lab?” She’s not stupid, she knows exactly what I am going to find. Looking completely beaten down, she slowly shakes her head no.
“Didn’t think so. You leave this room while I’m gone and you’ll be my next guest in the pit.” I can see the color drain from her face as the words escape my mouth. I turn and walk out of the bathroom.
* * *
Curtis is placing everything into vials and mixing it with different solutions, or whatever the fuck he does. I’m waiting for the results of Lana’s blood test to come back. I already know what I am going to find, but there is a small part of me that holds onto the hope that I’m wrong.
“It should only take about twenty minutes. Since we know what type of drugs we’re looking for, it’s easier to pinpoint.”
I don’t say anything as I sit across the counter from him and shoot him a glance. He knows that look well, so he shuts his mouth and gets on with his job. It feels like forever as I wait for the results to come back.
The second that Curtis looks up from his microscope, I have my answer. Motherfucker. I turn to the lab table next to me and throw everything off of it with one sweep of my arms. I pick up Curtis’ microscope and throw it through the glass windows separating the lab from the hallway.
I’m in full-on Hulk mode as I march out of the room and start toward the stairs leading down to the lobby. There is no waiting for the elevator for me. I have to keep moving or my body will completely explode.
When I finally make it outside, Steele is waiting there with the car. I fly into the back seat while shouting for him to drive. As soon as I get my ass in the seat, I pull out my cellphone.
“Reese,” I bark as he answers his cell phone, “Get Lana from her room and tie her up in the Pit. I’ll be home soon.” I hang up.
Within five minutes I get a call back from Reese. I’m expecting him to tell me that he has Lana strung up and ready to go. What I am not expecting however, is for him to tell me, not only is Lana not there, but her room appears to have been ransacked. Clothes are scattered over her closet floor. The chair to her vanity is on its side. The drawers in the bathroom are all open and you can tell that the contents of the drawers were rifled through.
“Pull up the tracker on Owen’s car, immediately. Once you have the location, send the ping to my phone.” I hang up again.
Lana
Lock’s anger must be clouding his judgement for leaving me in my room unsupervised. I know what he’s looking for and when he finds it, the incident in the garden will seem like foreplay. I exit my room and sneak down to Lock’s office. Picking up the receiver of his phone, I dial Owen’s extension. He doesn’t answer.
“Shit!”
I call him again. This time he answers on the third ring.
“Yeah.” He answers flatly.
“Owen! It’s Lana!” I whisper loudly.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Lock and Reese attacked me in my room and drew some blood to get tested. He knows Owen. He knows that Liza has been giving me birth control. I don’t know how, but I need to get out of here. He will kill me this time.”
“Okay, listen carefully and do exactly as I say. Alright?”
I nod as if he could see me.
“Go upstairs and change into comfortable clothing. Grab an overnight bag from your room and pack only the essentials. One extra outfit, toothbrush, etc. I have to grab the documents from the safe in my barrack. When your bag is packed, walk out onto your balcony and throw the bag over the railing onto the ground below. I will come by and pick it up. Are you following me so far?”
“Yes.” I say with a gulp.
“Good. Once you drop your bag outside, go back downstairs and casually go outside for a walk. I want you to meet me at the front gate. Once I have your bag, I’m going to grab my jeep and pick you up.”
“How are you going to get me out of here? The guards just won’t let us walk out together.”
“There are two newbies up there today. I saw them when I started my shift earlier. They’re young and dumb. They won’t be a problem for us.”
“Okay.” I say, scared out of my mind and skeptical that we have any chance of getting out of here. If we’re caught, we’re dead, but when Lock finds a trace of birth control in my system, h
e’ll kill me anyway.
“Owen, I’m scared.”
“I know. But I would never let anything happen to you. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Okay, now get moving. See you soon.” The line goes dead.
I take a deep breath as I put the phone back in its place. I walk as quickly, but quietly, as I can back up to my room.
As I make it back there, I head into the closet and change into a pair of dark gray leggings and an oversized cream sweater. I pull on a pair of black knit Ugg boots before grabbing my Michael Kors weekender off the shelf. I grab another pair of leggings, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt and throw them into my bag. The next items to go in are a pair of underwear and a bra. I walk through to the other end of my closet and enter the bathroom.
The stool where Reese held me down is still in the middle of the room. I kick the stool out of the way as angry tears burn my eyes. I tear open the drawers of my vanity and grab my toothbrush, hairbrush, hair ties, and deodorant.
I throw everything into the bag and then go out onto the balcony. I take a quick peek around to make sure that there isn’t anyone nearby and then I drop it to the ground below.
Turning back into my room, I take in the sight. If I make it out of here, if I finally break free of this lavishly decorated cage that I’ve been sequestered to for the last three years, I don’t know what I will do with myself. I do know, however, that I will never again live under someone else’s thumb.
I walk over to my door and open it slightly; just enough to see if there is anyone between my room and the stairs.
No one.
I carefully look around the door toward the other end of the hallway.
Stolen Love (The Wildheart Duet Book 1) Page 14
