Chapter 52

I smile happily as I stare at my computer screen, my mind elsewhere. I haven’t been able to focus on anything at all since Xavier and I got back from our honeymoon, my mind constantly replaying the way we were all over each other on the beach, in the jacuzzi, the sauna, and pretty much every flat surface we could find. We spent our nights lying on the beach and watching the stars, trying our best to find constellations when truthfully, neither of us knew what we were looking for. We talked about anything and everything, and it truly was all I’d hoped for and more. I’ve never felt more loved, never felt more certain that Xavier is the one for me.

My heart skips a beat when my phone lights up with an incoming call from my husband, and I smile as I pick up. “Hi, Xave.”

“Hi, Kitten,” he says, sighing. “I have a question for you.”

“Tell me.”

“How would you feel about me retiring? It’s just… I’ve finally found my real passion in life, and I just don’t think I should be in real estate anymore.”

I raise a brow. “And what, pray tell, is your real passion in life?”

He sighs again, dramatically. “Figuring out how long I can keep you on the edge with my tongue, and how many times I can make you come once I’ve decided to stop torturing you.”

“Xavier!” I whisper-shout, even though my office is empty.

My husband laughs in that sexy way that makes my heart race, and I blush fiercely. “God, what I wouldn’t do to see the look on your face right now,” he murmurs. “I should’ve just come see you.”

“You have an important meeting in ten minutes, and your mom is picking me up from my office in fifteen. I can’t believe you’d call me just to tease me when you knew I’d be out with your mother all afternoon! Now I’m going to be all…”

“All turned on? Thinking of me every second of the day, until you get home, where I’ll spread you out on your favorite chair in your library?”

“God, I hate you,” I groan, squeezing my thighs.

He chuckles, and the sound makes my heart skip a beat. I’ve always read about love in books, but never in a million years did I think the real thing would be even better. I was so certain that the books I read were idealized versions of reality, mere fragments of real life, but I was wrong. Life with Xavier is better than any romance novel I’ve ever read, and not even my favorite fictional book boyfriends can compete.

“Did you know? There’s a thin line between love and hate. I think you’re mistaking which side you’re on.”

“Oh, what I wouldn’t do to shut up that smart mouth of yours.”

“If it involves you sitting on my face, I’m all for it.”

“If you don’t stop teasing me right now, I’m going to suffocate you. Death by pussy is what I’ll put on your tombstone, don’t even try me.”

He bursts out laughing, the sound warming my heart. “God, I love you so fucking much,” he tells me, and I melt, right there and then. The words never cease to affect me.

“I love you more,” I tell him, my voice softer now. “I miss you,” I admit. “I know I saw you this morning, but⁠—”

“— I miss you too. Spending a week together got me hooked on you even more than I already was, baby. I’m having withdrawal symptoms for sure.”

“Really? Tell me about the symptoms, because I think I might be suffering from the same thing.”

He laughs. “It involves endlessly thinking of your spouse, daydreaming about the memories you made, counting down the seconds until you see them again, thinking of any excuse to call or text them, and wondering if your spouse would be willing to cancel their planned shopping spree with your mom.”

I giggle, I can’t help it. “I tick most of those boxes, but not the last one. You see, my husband gave me a credit card that supposedly doesn’t have a limit, and I have every intention of checking if it’s true.”

“Hmm, I do love the sound of that. Go spoil yourself, Kitten. I’ll be at home, waiting for you. In bed. Naked.”

I laugh again, only for the sound of a helicopter to startle me. “Ugh, reporters. I can’t believe they’ve resorted to using a helicopter,” I tell Xavier as I walk up to the window to close the blinds. “They did that when the news about Raven and Ares’s wedding broke too.”

“No!” Xavier shouts, startling me. “Stay away from the windows, Sierra. Zach issued a ban on helicopters near your office. Those are not reporters.”

An alarm goes off in my office just as my windows are kicked in. “Two men. Army green clothing. Black masks. Army style black boots,” I tell him on autopilot, courtesy of the kidnapping training Lex forced me to go to for years. “I love you,” I add, knowing there’s every chance I’ll never get another chance to speak to him again.

Xavier shouts my name, and I just about manage to shout back that he shouldn’t let Lexington or my grandmother find out before I’m grabbed and pulled out of the window and into the helicopter. I try my best to scramble out of my captors’ grip, but they’re too fast, too strong, and the last thing I see before I’m knocked out is dozens of bodyguards storming into my office, my mother-in-law not far behind them, a gun in her hands and clear panic in her eyes.

By the time I come to, I’m bound to a chair in an empty warehouse, my head pounding and my vision swimming. I blink rapidly as I try to focus on the man walking toward me. My heart sinks when I realize he isn’t wearing a mask — he thinks I won’t walk out of here alive, or he’d never have shown me his face. I take note of his brown eyes and graying gray, the thick scar on his forehead and his pale skin, along with his ill-fitting black suit and the faded tattoos on his neck. I try my best to memorize every single thing in an attempt to slip a clue into any ransom videos they ask me to make, but the fact that he’s shown me his face scares me.

“Let me guess?” I croak out. “An abandoned warehouse? What a cliche.”

I’d braced myself to be hit, but he merely laughs, catching me off guard. I’d expected him to lose his temper and inadvertently give me a clue as to where I am, or how many men there are. “Feisty. It’s clear what he sees in you.”

I take a deep breath, realization dawning. This isn’t a normal kidnapping. He isn’t after me because I’m a Windsor and able to pay a hefty ransom, which explains why he isn’t wearing a mask. It’s not money he’s after. This is revenge — on Xavier.

He sits down in an empty chair in front of me and smiles in the eeriest way, his eyes cold and dead as he opens the folder he was carrying. “You’re going to sit here, and I’m going to tell you about every single crime your husband has ever committed, and I’m going to film it all. Your precious husband will get to see the growing disgust in your eyes, your dimming love and respect for him, and then he’s going to watch you die knowing that in your final moments, you regretted ever being with a monster like him.”

I try my best not to panic and force an innocent smile. He’s a storyteller, and I’ll get to live for as long as I keep him talking. I only have to stay alive long enough for my family to find me, and the creep sitting opposite me has no idea whose wrath he’s invoking. It isn’t just the Kingstons he’ll have to contend with. It’s the Windsors too, the Sinclairs no doubt not far behind them. He has no idea how big of a mistake he made when he targeted me. I’m so much more than just Xavier’s wife, and he’s about to find out the hard way.

“Crimes?” I question in my most innocent baby voice, putting on an act, just like I was taught. “Oh no, I t-think… m-maybe there’s b-been a misunderstanding? My husband is t-the sweetest m-man.”

He laughs as he grabs a roll of tape, and my heart sinks when he tapes my mouth shut, depriving me of an opportunity to needle him and gather clues. “Now, where were we?” he asks, before he holds up a photo, his eyes sparkling crazily as he begins to tell me about a guy whose dick Xavier apparently cut off. I can only guess why, and that man is lucky I didn’t get to him first.