Princess: Ridgeview Prep Book 2

by Quinn, Londyn

  But right now, I don’t care about the consequences. Ha! How ironic is that? Me, the guy who’s always attacking people for not considering the consequences is saying fuck you to them.

  Shit is going to come down hard on my family. People in the know will make plenty of money to sell them out because everyone has a price. Whatever is happening with Moretti and Rossi and Montrose will come out, probably sooner than later, and when it does, I can rest knowing I did what I could to stop it.

  Nobody else will be able to say that.

  I don’t know where my path will lead, but I won’t let it take me away from Charlotte again.

  I choose her.

  And us.

  I zoom down the tree-lined streets in our affluent neighborhood as the sun dips below the horizon until I come to the wrought-iron gates of Hawthorne Manor. Jasper, the security guard, presses a button, waving me through. I drive up to the main house, pulling my car into a spot around the circular driveway. A smile tugs at my lips.

  I throw the car in park and grab the key from the ignition. Sucking in a deep breath, I stare up at Hawthorne Manor for a second. Christ, it has been a long time since I smiled so much. But in the past few weeks, my lips have finally remembered what to do. It’s all because of Charlotte. I sound like a complete pussy for even admitting it, but I can’t help it. God, I fucking love that gi—

  Crash!

  Shoving open the driver’s side door, I bolt out of The Judge. Running toward the front door, I slam my fists on the thick wood. My pulse throbs, a pounding between my temples drowning out all rational thought, and I jump over the side of the staircase.

  Bang! Boom!

  I don’t know what the fuck is happening in there, but Charlotte’s screams are all I need to hear to know it’s bad. Her tearful shrieks send chills rippling through me and I grab a rock from the ground, sending it crashing through one of the front windows. Glass shatters, shards flying through the air, and I leap forward, feet first through the pane. Thin slivers of glass stab me through the fabric of my tux, slicing away at my exposed skin, but I feel no pain at all.

  All I feel is panic.

  “Xander!” Charlotte screams. “Help me!”

  I run full-force at the back of the guy who’s straddling Charlotte on the couch. He has her on her back, her dress hiked up to her waist. And his pants fall just low enough for me to know exactly what he was about to do before I literally crashed his sordid party.

  I pull him off of her, flinging his tall form to the ground as Char scrambles off the couch, weeping uncontrollably as she hobbles away from her attacker.

  It’s not until he’s squirming under my foot that I see who it is.

  Blaine fucking Montrose.

  Seems like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  Neither one of these pricks knows how to control himself.

  I kneel into him, smashing fist after fist into his cocky, smug-bastard face. Blood spurts from his nose and mouth as I assault him with my rage. “What the fuck are you doing here, Montrose? Can’t accept the fact that you’re the fucking loser in this game, huh?” I pull him up by the collar and slam the back of his head into the glass coffee table. He lets out a loud groan and then rolls himself on top of me to get in a few punches of his own.

  But pretty rich boys like Blaine aren’t trained to knock a guy’s teeth down his throat. And they’re never smart enough to stand down when they’re out...well, out virtually everything.

  “Once a loser, always a loser,” he grunts, spitting blood out and throwing his full weight at me, knocking me off balance. “I told you you’d never win, Xander. That you can’t escape who and what you really are, that you’ll always be nothing more than the dirt on the bottom of my shoes. Trash,” he hisses. “Because that’s all your family will ever be, especially when we’re finished with you.”

  I let out a primal roar and dive at him, grabbing his ankles so he crashes to the floor. I grab a fire poker and swing it at him as he crawls into a corner. Like he can huddle his pussy ass in a corner and think I’m gonna just walk away.

  Not after he had his hands on my girl.

  That is punishable by amputation.

  “If you think you’re gonna get away with what you just tried to do,” I say, my voice coming in raspy pants. “You are wrong!” I bellow. “I’m gonna cut off your dick and shove it down your throat, you asshole!”

  “You’re too late, Xander!” Blaine rolls out from the corner and jumps to his feet, edging toward the fireplace. His eyes are wild, his hair sticking up in twenty different directions as he darts across the great room and back again like he’s on something.

  Or a lot of somethings.

  He definitely doesn’t look like the usual, sophisticated pompous asshat whom I’m so used to wanting to ram my fist into. I straighten up, walking toward him, my jaw twitching. I sidestep large jagged pieces of porcelain...most likely lamps that Charlotte hurled at him just before I invaded. I lean down to pick one up, admiring the sharp points. I run my finger over them and smile at Blaine.

  I can almost see his Adam’s apple bob.

  Maybe I should cut it out of his throat.

  My grin morphs into a grimace as I hurdle over the couch and throw myself at Blaine, tackling him into the piano bench. It cracks and collapses under our weight.

  “Xander, watch out! Watch—”

  I hear Charlotte yell out a warning, but the sound is muffled by the blood rushing between my temples. In this second, I can’t process anything other than what I’m about to do to Blaine Montrose. I reach back, ready to drag the thick piece of porcelain across Blaine’s cheek when my body is suddenly yanked backward.

  I let out a muffled grunt as my head cracks against the leg of a table. I put my hand to my temple, pressing it to a warm, wet spot which is now trickling down the side of my face. I roll around and jump to my feet, hands in the air since dumbass that I am, I left my gun and box cutter in the car.

  “Well, well,” a low menacing voice hisses. Whoever is behind me fists my hair, twisting me around so that I’m facing him. “The dark knight. In the flesh.”

  I struggle against his grip, then spit at him. “Get the fuck off of me!” I yell.

  “Did you think you were gonna fly in here like some underworld superhero and save the girl?” Scarface...Rossi...lets out an evil chuckle. “That’s not how this works. You were advised to stay away from things that don’t concern you. Your father and brothers were smart when they told you to just turn the other cheek. Even they know they can’t stop what’s about to happen.”

  “I told you, Xander,” Blaine creeps toward me, breathing heavily. “You’ll never be enough for her. You’ll always be beneath her.”

  “Maybe I like it there, dick,” I seethe. “Not like she’d ever let you willingly touch her with a ten-foot pole.”

  He smirks and exchanges a glance with Rossi, which gives him an approving nod. “You did good. You redeemed yourself this time. I was beginning to wonder if we’d have to kill you along with the Iazettis.” Rossi looks at me with a smile. “Because that’s the ultimate goal, Xander.

  “Kill the Iazettis. End their reign. Take over their empire.”

  He leans closer, gripping my hair tight. “You really should have fought a little harder. You knew what you were up against even if nobody else did. And now it’s too late. Now, you’re ours.”

  He cocks a gun and sticks it in-between my eyes. “There’s a matching gun pointed directly at the same spot on Charlotte’s head. If you want to be sure we won’t pull the trigger, you’re going to do exactly what you’re told. Right now, I’m making you my bitch.” He snickers and leans close to whisper against my ear. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Get ready. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

  My eyes dart toward Charlotte’s terror-stricken expression and Rossi smiles. “Are the pieces coming together yet, Xander? Here, let me help.”

  With a swift whack, the gun which was just pointed at me crashes against
my temple, sending me careening backward...into another table.

  How many goddamn tables do you really need in one fucking room?

  That’s the last foggy thought that floats through my mind just before my eyes droop closed and darkness cloaks me.

  Like the cloud of death that perpetually blankets my existence.

  Chapter 23

  Charlotte

  “No!” The word cracks from the deepest pit in my soul as I watch the gun smash against Xander’s head, his body going completely limp. “Please! He didn’t do anything to you!”

  The cool metal of the gun barrel presses harder into my temple as Blaine laughs a little, his finger on the trigger with the hammer pulled back. “Maybe you should have thought a little more about who you get in bed with, Char. I tried to warn you. Gave you countless chances to leave the dark side and come into the light with me.”

  “Enough,” Scarface growls over at Blaine while throwing Xander over his shoulder. “We got what we came for. Leave the girl.”

  “But—” Blaine tries to protest.

  Scarface’s free hand flies into the air. “I am not asking. We have our orders. It’s time to carry them out.”

  Orders? What orders?

  Oh. My. God.

  They’re going to kill Xander.

  Wait.

  That would be too easy. If they wanted Xander dead, they wouldn’t have knocked him out. They wouldn’t be taking him with them. They need him alive.

  They have to keep him alive.

  “Please, take me instead! I’m the one you want. My father will pay you. He’ll make you both so rich for just returning me to him. Take me!” I plead with Blaine but he just chuckles more. It’s the most sinister, diabolical sound I have ever heard in my life, trumping Scarface’s malice. The darkest snicker from a depraved soul. A laugh that belongs to the Devil himself.

  My entire body trembles as Blaine’s fiery eyes lock with mine. “Xander did have one thing right. You really were a very fun puppet to play with, Charlotte. Too bad we were interrupted. I really wanted to pull on those strings a little longer.” As the last words escape his lips, Blaine pulls the gun away from my head and in one swift motion, he slams the handle down right into my temple.

  Throbbing pain erupts as my vision goes white.

  He’s going to be okay.

  I repeat the phrase over and over in my head until everything goes fuzzy.

  And then black.

  * * *

  I have no idea how long I was knocked out for. My head is banging. My body is buzzing.

  Xander!

  “They have him!” I scream out to no one. I am alone in the family room sprawled out on the floor.

  I scramble for my phone that slid under the couch in my scuffle with Blaine.

  “Please pick up,” I whisper as I tap on Phoenix’s contact that I have had saved since we were young. All I could do was hope that he hadn’t changed his number. “Please!”

  The phone rings a few times and then goes to voicemail.

  I try again.

  Same thing.

  “Fuck!” I rake my fingers through my hair. It’s sticky and matted.

  Looking at my hand, I see red stains. I’m bleeding. But there is no time to focus on that. I have to help Xander.

  I clamber to my feet. I’m a little wobbly but who cares? I don’t. It doesn’t even matter that I don’t have shoes on. Heels would only slow me down. I run to the front door, grab for the first set of keys out of the dish and haul ass to the garage.

  Clicking the unlock button on the remote, I search for the one that beeps to open for me. It’s my father’s Tesla and it is going to get me to the Iazetti home, fast!

  Dropping into the driver’s seat, I wait impatiently for the garage door to finally open. The car is already in gear and I peel out as quickly as I can with squealing tires and a pounding head.

  Thank God Xander’s house isn’t too far from mine.

  Going eighty through the residential neighborhood, I nearly sideswipe about five cars. But I don’t, and that is what matters. All I care about is getting to Phoenix and letting him know that we have to save his brother.

  My heart is going as fast as the damn car. All I can hear is the sound of blood rushing throughout my body. It gushes and pulses as I huff.

  Tears of relief spring into my eyes as I slam the car in park on the street in front of the giant mansion.

  I made it.

  I don’t even bother turning off the engine or closing the car door as I leap out of the driver’s seat. I don’t have a single second to lose.

  Who knows how long Scarface has had Xander and what he has been doing to him this entire time?

  Fuck! Why did I have to pass out?

  Slamming my fists on the door, I scream for someone to answer.

  “Charlotte?” Mrs. Iazetti yanks the door open, her eyes wide. “Where is Xander.”

  I don’t answer.

  “Is Phoenix here?” I bellow, trying to keep my knees from giving out from under me.

  “Charlotte, what is going on?” she yells, gripping my shoulder. “Sweetie, you’re bleeding!”

  Her eyes are swarming with worry as she tries to get me to talk to her, but I don’t know how to tell the kindest woman I have ever met that her son was just kidnapped in front of me. How do you tell a mother something like that?

  “Please, I need to talk to Jase or Phoenix. Please!” I push past her and run for Mr. Iazetti’s office.

  They have to be in there. They always are.

  Throwing open the door, I find all three of them sitting around the desk in the middle of the room. Their conversation halts as they all look over at me.

  “Charlotte?” Mr. Iazetti leaps to his feet as I burst into the room.

  “They have Xander!” I wail. Bile rises in the back of my throat and I clap a hand over my mouth to keep my shit together before I lose it all over the office floor. I feel like I am going to faint. How can this be happening?

  What the hell is even happening?

  “What do you mean? Who has Xander? Weren’t you supposed to be at your family’s gala tonight?” Phoenix rushes for my side, gripping my wrist. As he shakes my arm, I finally look at him.

  With tears streaming down my face, I break into an explanation that I don’t even believe. It all seems so surreal. “The guy with the scar. He broke into my house. Blaine Montrose is in on it. They attacked us. They have Xander.”

  “How long ago did they take him?” Jase’s face is twisting from rage to concern with every second, like a pendulum ticking back and forth. “Fuck!”

  “I’m not too sure,” I admit before glancing down at the time on my cellphone screen. It’s eight thirty. The gala has already started. Fuck. “Not more than an hour or so. They knocked me out. I woke up and came straight here.”

  “You did the right thing,” Mr. Iazetti replies to me.

  “The man with the scar, is this him?” Phoenix shoves his phone in front of my face, holding up a picture of Scarface. It looks like a surveillance photo, far away and a little blurry, but I would know that scar anywhere.

  I nod violently. “Who is he?”

  “Do you have any idea where they took him?” Jase snarls as his fist slams onto the desk.

  “Wouldn’t I have led with that if I knew?” I scream as Mrs. Iazetti comes into the room.

  “Xander?” she whimpers, her lips trembling. “He wasn’t acting like himself today. What is happening?”

  “Nothing good, Gaia.” As Mr. Iazetti looks to his wife, his eyes soften. “But don’t worry. We’re going to handle this once and for all.”

  Phoenix grabs my shoulders, yanking me in front of him, forcing me to look him dead in the eye. “Is there anything else, Charlotte? Any other detail that can help us find Xander?”

  I shake my head. “I told you everything that I know. Why is this guy following me? What does he want with Xander?”

  As Phoenix’s jaw tightens, I see the slightest h
int of panic start to bubble up behind his normally stoic façade. “We’re going to take care of this and you’re coming with us.”

  “What?” Jase flies up, sending the chair behind him careening into a wall. It crashes against a bookcase, making me jump a little. My nerves are shot, I am completely on edge. Everyone is.

  “There is no way in hell we’re bringing her along for this,” Jase continues. “She’s a fucking liability! She always has been. Without her, Xander wouldn’t have been vulnerable enough to be taken! This is all her fucking fault and both of you know it!”

  “Phoenix is right, Jase. We need to bring Charlotte with us. If Rossi has been following her this closely, she’s important. How important to this plot, we don’t know yet. But I have a feeling that we’re about to find out.”

  “I am going, too,” Mrs. Iazetti grabs for my hand. “If she is going, I should go, as well. They have my baby!”

  Mr. Iazetti’s shoulders tense as his eyes dart from me to his wife. “No.”

  “What do you mean no?” Her chest puffs out as she pulls her spine up straighter. “He’s my son, too!”

  “I need you to stay here. I don’t need one more innocent person to worry about. We are already going to have to protect Charlotte and get Xander. I can’t be worried about them taking my wife as leverage, too. You’re not coming and that is final.”

  Mrs. Iazetti deflates next to me. I can tell she wants to keep protesting but she understands that she needs to trust her husband on this one.

  “Bring him home,” she mutters, going over to Mr. Iazetti. As she puts her small hand on his stubble-covered face, my heart shatters even more. She’s just a mother pleading with her son’s father to save her baby’s life. No mother should ever have to do something like that. None of this is fair — especially to her.

  “I promise.” Mr. Iazetti kisses her wife’s cheek as Phoenix’s cell rings.

  Putting it on speaker, Phoenix answers, “Yeah?”

  “If you want to get him back, you need to go to the Library on Tenth and Andrews. That’s where they have him.”

  “Who is this? Lorenzo?” Phoenix shouts.