The One Adored (The One Trilogy Book 3)

by North, Alexandra

  “The one who will never leave me, no matter what and never cheat on me.”

  His matter of fact voice is annoyingly calm, as he gently brushes the knife across my cheek. The man is insane! I have to get out of here.

  “Now no more delay tactics, although nicely done, love. Continue undressing and remain standing in your underwear, so I can remove those myself. Then we’ll see about maybe getting you pregnant with my child, this time, if you like. You seem to be pretty good at getting pregnant on the first fuck.” The knife drops to my bra strap where he deftly slashes through it and it snaps in half. “I’m not all that keen on kids but if it keeps you happy, I’ll do that for you.”

  I instinctively reach to support the cup of my bra. “UH UH UH! Drop your hand, pretty lady. I want to see you all of you. If you pop out then lucky me. The reveal is the best part.” His tongue rests on his bottom lips as he steps towards me, eyes wide with excitement and my eyes drop to his groin where his arousal is evident. If he was going to get away with raping me he was telling me he was going bareback and no man other than Sebastian was ever going to get that privilege.

  I feel a wave of nausea consume me. I’m statuesque; cold vibes emanating from every pore, as panic threatens to make me pass out at his next words, as he reviews his watch. “Hurry up, I need a little teaser, I think we’ll have to continue this at my planned destination. I hadn’t realised the time.”

  Planned destination?

  Where the fuck was he taking me to?

  Shit - Seb wouldn’t know where to find me if we left here? I must take my phone with me - the ‘find-my-phone app will surely help him?

  Leo continues to chatter, like he is not holding me hostage - not about to force himself on me; his calmness is entirely unnerving. “Bloody brilliant idea of mine, to dress like the stripper - not one of you dumb bitches noticed who I was, as I snuck past you all - slutty whores. Shame, I couldn’t stay to finish watching you enjoy the remaining carefree moments of your Hen-Do - your last happy memories, but I had to ensconce myself in your room. You really shouldn’t leave your bag lying around, Lucia the way you do, some undesirable might riffle through it, remove your room key, unlock your door and then replace it without you even knowing.” His blue eyes narrow considering my body appraisingly. “Thanks for making it so easy for me though - in this day and age hotels usually use cards - never thought the old-fashioned way would be best.”

  “Please, don’t do this, Leo…” I try to continue the conversation for the longer he is talking, the less time he will be touching me.

  “Shut up! No one’s going to hear you. You’re in the room furthest away from anyone here. Everyone has either gone to bed earlier, or is now comatose. You can scream if you want? I know you like to scream when you fuck, Lucia. I remember when I had to watch you with that bastard, over and over again. It gave me some pointers on what you like though - you like it a lot rougher than I had envisaged, which pleases me immensely… as I like to make my woman scream in pain!” His hot stale coffee breath brushes over my cheek and I wince as he licks one long trail from my shoulder to my neck, grinding himself into me.

  God the man repulses me. How could I ever have considered dating him? If it weren’t for the knife firmly at my back, I’d knee him in the bollocks. There’s time yet - perhaps I need to play him at his own game. Get him to relax and act like I’m into this horrific situation.

  “Withdrawing from me already, Lucia? You thought me quite amiable when you were using me to get your bank loan for your fledgling business. Not keen on me now, eh? Not up to the Silver sterling standard? Well it’s no biggy, I prefer it when my women are less, shall we say, relaxed and more on edge - makes it much more fun. Yes… that glimmer of terror in your beautiful green eyes, mixed with defiance is an intoxicating combination - makes me rock hard. Here! Feel how hard I am for you.”

  My hand is grabbed and pressed down with full force across his cock, through the site-wear cargo pants he is wearing low on his hips. I grimace; this is all wrong, so wrong.

  “Yes, that’s it, Lucia. Remember, ONE false move, and I slice that pretty face of yours. Once we learn to trust each other the knife goes.”

  Oh, Seb, where are you, I need you, baby.

  My telepathic message is sent with such force I fear I’ll burst blood vessel in my temples, as I squeeze my eyes shut in retaliation at the situation.

  “You know you really should be more amenable by now? I made sure you didn’t get as much Rohypnol as your friends, only a drop but still, I thought you’d be more susceptible to my attentions. Never mind.”

  My mind boggle in horror at this realisation - the girls won’t be coming to my rescue either.

  His hands moves to close over my breast, pinching it painfully, before I see his other hand close over my face, a grey cloth blurring my vision and a sudden wave of dizziness encompassing me, as I inhale some form of anaesthetic.

  No! I don’t want to pass out! Please God no!

  “That’s it sweetheart - off you go. I bid you adieu.”

  My last thoughts are of Seb’s face… his beautiful blackened orbs and his lips on mine. Memories of all our times together, lime green looking into liquorice blacks full of fire and passion, not these evil icy blues.

  There I was safe. With Seb and Finn.

  *******

  We arrive at The Gilded Fox in 22 minutes flat. They are the longest 22 minutes of my life. I spend the whole flight imagining all kinds of worst case scenarios; my only goal to get to Lu and get to her before that maniac does!! Jesus, why the fuck hadn’t we figured this out sooner, then he’d be behind bars, where he belonged.

  Nathan, and Gino have joined me in the ‘copter and the police are en route. I just pray that if we haven’t got there in time, Detective Murray and his team have. Thank fuck fate intervened and gave me Dawn.

  I glance down at my phone for the zillionth time, the text from Lu, now burned into my memory for eternity. The three letters would mean nothing to anyone else - a mistake, but we’d made a plan and ‘ppp’ was our code. P was the closet letter to send on the keyboard and three times meant danger. One word that fills me with dread.

  As we land in the field adjacent to the Inn, the grass blowing in a circle around us, we reiterate our carefully formulated plan.

  “You head in via the Car park, Na. Try have a recce of the outside of the Inn - if he’s here, I don’t want him seeing anyone and being spooked.”

  Nathan nods. “Gino will come in with you and make sure the girls are OK and you make Lu your priority.”

  “All the lights are out.” Chris adds.

  “They may have called it a night already - its after 1am.” Gino says, shrugging.

  I shake my head. “Maybe? But something just doesn’t feel right. Lads I’ve got to get in there. If that bastard is in there with Lu, I’ll fucking kill him.”

  “That’s why we are here… to make sure you don’t. The police will deal with him, Seb and then you and Lu can get your revenge through the proper channels without you locked behind bars with that weirdo.” Na’s calming words make sense but are not helping. I’ve got to get in there!!!

  “I’ll see you soon. Wish me luck.”

  “Go get our girl.”

  *******

  The front door to The Gilded Fox, is unlocked and wide open, as I make my way silently and stealth-like into the cosy inn. The lights are still on at the bar I notice, glasses and bottles adorn the tables and chaos prevails, but the place is eerily silent, which doesn’t bode well and my mouth dries. I’m about to head off in the direction of the back lounge when I hear a soft moan to my left, followed by a familiar female voice.

  “Abs?”

  “My head… so fuzzy…”

  Abby is groggy as hell and wandering towards me, like Bambi on ice, hair all over the place, and extremely disorientated. “Abby, where is Lu?”

  “Don’t know… I feel so strange. What were we drinkin
g? Seb? Is that you?”

  I look past her, over her head and into the corner of the room, where a few remaining hens are curled up, asleep in the seating booths. I count three. Lu or Suzie aren’t any of them.

  “Abby, darling this is very important. Lu is missing - you need to focus - she sent me an ‘alert’ text’ where the fuck is she?”

  I watch her bottom lip begin to wobble and drop it down a notch, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, before helping her to a seat. “Look, Na, is on his way in and he’ll help you soon, but I need you to just tell me anything you can - anything you can remember? Anything at all.”

  I watch her struggle to focus on my words. She was really was out of it, and that ominous feeling washes over me once again. Booze wouldn’t do this, alone. She was bleary-eyed, like she’d been drugged.

  “I think she went to bed early? I don’t really remember much after that last row of shots we did.”

  “And Suzie? Where is Suze, Abs?” Gino pushes in from behind me a look of sheer panic on his usually amiable face.

  “She went to bed ages ago. She had backache. Is something wrong?” Her look of worry flitting between G and myself makes me stop a second and pat her arm.

  “It’ll be ok, sit down and Na will see to you. G, I’m going to go look for Lu. You go check on Suzie. Abby can you begin to stir the ladies down here - the police on on their way? I think you all may have had something added to your drinks, at least Suzie most likely missed out on that, with her not drinking, thank fuck!”

  Gino nods, his face ashen with concern.

  “Abs give me your room key - I haven’t got one and I need to get into Lu’s room.”

  “Will it work?”

  “I don’t know but I have to try. Quickly - please.”

  She fumbles in her bag and hands it over hurriedly. I don’t wait to hear another word, panic begins to spill from every pore of my body and dread filling my mouth. If that bastard has touched one hair on her head, I’ll fucking kill him! I take the steps two at a time, and can hear Nathan’s booming voice, yelling my name behind me but it doesn’t stop me. It’s only at the top of the stairs I suddenly put the brakes on, realising I don’t even know what fucking room she’s in. I should have got here sooner, come straight upstairs.

  What if she’s not here or worse?

  Every second I’ve wasted was another second with his hands on her body, his lips on her skin, his scent imprinted in her memory, forever.

  I try the first few doors that I arrive at, but they are locked and listening at their doors, and I’m met with silence, so I continue on my path up the narrow corridor; then I hear the music and without any question I know that she is behind the door to my left, room number 6 and she is in real trouble. My gut screams danger and the message Leo had sent me taunting his intentions had been clear. He wanted to play, bring it on! I don’t lose - ever!

  Turning the key in the lock, it clicks and I hear my own sigh of relief at the Inn’s slack operational system and then swing the door wide open. My blood pounds in my ears as I’m geared up and raring to go, to fight for my woman and deal with what I may find on the other side. The only thing I’m not prepared for is an empty room. The music blares out from within, the bed is rumpled, her suitcase and personal items are scattered around the room and I lift them to my nose, inhaling her familiar Gucci perfume scent. I bend to lift her iPhone from the carpet and drop my face to my hands. The bastard had her and he’d been clever. I couldn’t track her phone with the find-your-phone App, which had been my next plan.

  Oh, baby, where the bloody hell has he taken you?

  *******

  My first instinct is get into the nearest car and drive, get on the road and chase the fucker as far as I can but I know it would be futile. I haven’t a fucking clue where they are going, it’s pitch black and it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack! No, I need to take a minute, no matter how hard that is.

  Nathan meets at the top of the stairs, taking them two at a time. “Where’s, Lu?” His eyes are wide with angst.

  I roll my lips and feed my hands through my hair, shaking my head. “She’s gone, Na. He has her.”

  “No! Shit! Let me go tell Detective Murray and I’ll be right back, he’s downstairs now. We’ll sort this, bro. I promise.” He slaps my shoulder hard and we both look up as we hear voices heading down the corridor. Lu?

  “Did you find her?” Gino asks hurriedly, his arm wrapped around a sleepy but seemingly fine Suzie.

  “She’s gone.”

  Na and Gino share a look and I pretend not to notice, instead standing to kiss Suzie on the cheek and pat her protruding belly. “You Ok Suze?”

  She strokes my face with tears in her eyes. “I’m fine, I slept through all this, went to bed at 10. You need to find her, Seb. Please find my sister.”

  “I will Suze, I promise you that.”

  “Where do you think he has her?” Gino raises his brows at me.

  “He? Who’s he?” Suzie twists in her husbands arms.

  “Leo Peterson.” Na answers. “He’s the one that’s been stalking Lu, caused her accident. He’s been fixated on her for months but apparently he has a vendetta against Sebastian.”

  “What? Why?” She shrieks. “I always disliked him.”

  “I slept with his wife once. I didn’t know she was married, it was a one-night stand. He found out and being the psychopath he is, has fed his hatred of me ever since.”

  “Jesus! Talk about your past coming back to haunt you.”

  “Hmmm. Well, he wanted to get his revenge by hurting me and the only was to do that was through Lu - in the process, he became obsessed with her.”

  “How did you find all this out? Does Lu know?”

  “She may do now. She’ll know its him but I’m not sure she’ll understand the reasons behind his attacks. We only found out tonight.”

  “But who told you? I thought you’d spent weeks looking into all this with your PI friend and turned up nothing? And the police have been next to useless.” She rants and Gino rubs her back to calm her.

  I sigh. “Suze, don’t get in a state, I found the woman today, a freak meeting- the one I slept with, Leo’s wife and she lead me to him. In fact…” My mind suddenly flits back to my conversations with Dawn earlier that evening. She’d talked about when they had met, he’d taken her away to get married up near Scotland, all very whirlwind.

  “What is it, bro?”

  “Dawn mentioned something about a cottage that Leo and her honeymoone’d in - it’s a long shot.”

  “I’m on it.” Nathan disappears and I watch him take his phone and make the call to Dawn.

  I lean in and kiss Suzie once again. “We’ll be back soon, with Lu, I promise. Look after her Gino.”

  “I will mate and keep us posted.”

  I wave over my shoulder and run downstairs, heading straight for Murray who is currently attempting to interview a heavily smudged mascara eyed Meg.

  “Seb? Any news? Is she Ok? I feel so bad - we were drinking one minute and out the next.” Meg vomits words at me and I bat them away.

  “Lu’s gone. He’s taken her.”

  Her screwed up eyes are struggling to maintain focus but open wide at this information but I don’t have time to explain, I’d aimed my answer at the Detective who nods.

  “Any leads?” There won’t be.

  “Not at present Mr. Silver, we are just trying to ascertain if any of the ladies saw anyone actually abduct Ms. Myers. It isn’t even clear that we are dealing with a kidnapping as yet.

  Growing more irritated by the second, I rub my head roughly. “And the drugged girls? Don’t you find THAT odd?”

  “Yes, this is something we are taking into account.”

  “What about the fact that Lu isn’t here.”

  “She may have gone home. Gone for a walk..”

  “At 1am in the morning, leaving her possessions, phone,”


  “Look, I know this is hard for you, but we are looking into every avenue. Just let us do our jobs and I will keep you up to date in the event of any information.”

  “But now that you know it’s Leo Peterson, you are questioning him, right?”

  “What did you say?”

  Murray and I both turn at the high-pitched squeal from Meg, her eyes now filling with tears, body concaving from within. “Did you just say this nutter is known to be Leo? My Leo?”

  I reach out and rub her arm gently, I didn’t have time for this but it wasn’t her fault she’d been played by sick individual. “I’m afraid so, Meg. Look you’ve had a shock, ask one of the police officer’s to get you a blanket and get you settled - you’re in shock. I must sort this so I can find Lu, you understand don’t you, love?”

  She nods weakly. “But he was always so polite. I had him in my home, with my girls. In my bed!”

  I lock eyes with Murray and both glance back at the woman who’d been unknowingly sleeping with a man that had a track record for beating women black and blue.

  “I’m so sorry, Seb. He was always a bit strange, and he talked about you and Lu, all the time, but I thought it was because he wanted to get to know my friends, because we were neighbours.” She suddenly gasps “Ohhh, that’s how he got in her house - he used the spare key I have.” Tears roll over her cheeks and she steps back, collapsing onto the bar stool behind her. “He never wanted to know me - he only ever wanted to get you through me.”

  Sensing she was disappearing into her own self-absorbed misery, I return my attentions the detective who is still busily making notes.

  “So, Leo Peterson, what’s your next move?”

  “Like I said, without the proper evidence, we can’t go accusing people, however we will ask Mr. Peterson to come down to the station to answer some questions, yes.”

  “But he won’t be there!” I yell in anger.