Page 53 of Sinner's Storm

“Already told you. Can’t have a golden cunt in my clubhouse. Tell your family they come for me and mine, it’s war.”

“What family?” I shouted, tears running down my face as I gripped the metal fence tightly, shaking it. “I have no family. Please, Mr. Stone. Don’t do this. I said I would leave and never come back. Harlow is all I have left. She needs me!”

The man walked away, never saying another word.

I stood there, for what seemed like an eternity, screaming for anyone to hear me, and when the sun set, I knew no one was coming to help me. Everything in me screamed at me to call the police. I knew the second I called them, they would come. But the second I thought of doing just that, I remembered the NDA I’d signed.

I tried calling Jason, but every time I did, the call never connected. Even when I called Calloway Investments, the switchboard told me he was not in the building. I didn’t know where he was.

In the end, I called the only other person who kind of knew what the hell was going on.

“Finley?” I cried into the phone. “Oh God, help me. He took her.”

“Whoa,” she blurted. “Delany, gonna need you to calm down and tell me who took who?”

“Mr. Stone. He took Harlow.”

“What?!” Finley shouted loudly.

“And I can’t get ahold of Jason. She’s in there and I can’t get to her. Please help me. I can’t leave her in there.”

“Where are you?”

“At the clubhouse.”

“Shit,” Finley cursed. “Okay. Delany, I need you to walk to the diner at the end of Pier 81. You passed it before you got to the clubhouse. Go there and wait. Someone will be by to pick you up. Go with them. They will help you.”

“I can’t leave her, Finley. I can’t.”

“Nothing is going to happen to Harlow. Montana is a fucking piece of shit on a good day, but he would never hurt a child. Until we can get ahold of Storm, you need to get off the streets. The harbor is not a safe place for a woman. Just head to the diner. I’ve got some calls to make,” Finley said, disconnecting the call.

Taking one last lingering look at the clubhouse, it took everything in me to walk away.

A short time later, I walked into the diner Finley told me about. Taking a seat in one of the booths, I didn’t notice the waitress that walked over. “What can I get you, honey?”

Tears streamed down my face as I shook my head. “Nothing. Thank you.”

“How about I bring you a cup of coffee?”

I sniffed, wiping away my tears. “That would be lovely. Thank you.”

“Be right back.”

Sitting there in the diner, my hands trembled as thoughts of my crying and scared daughter filtered into my brain. Since the day she was born, I’d never left her with anyone she wasn’t comfortable with. She was so little and still recovering from the bone marrow transplant she’d received. She was still under medical care. Her meds were at the penthouse. We were only supposed to be gone for an hour. I didn’t think to bring them.

Grabbing my head, I tried to hold in the scream that threatened to erupt from me. I just wanted my daughter back. I didn’t care what devil I had to make a deal with. I just wanted her in my arms, safe.

The longer I sat there, the more worried I became.

I couldn’t do this without her. I refused to. She was my world. The very air in my lungs.

I tried repeatedly to reach Jason, to no avail. I had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Since we’d married, he rarely told me anything concerning him. In fact, the only thing we talked about was Harlow and that was only when he showed his face. Typically, he would show about an hour before her bedtime and be gone before either of us woke up.

Part of me knew what we had was a marriage of convenience.

That he only married me to be closer to Harlow.

All that other crap he spewed about protecting me was nice to hear, but when I truly needed him, he was nowhere to be found. The longer I sat here in the diner, I realized the lies he told were just that—lies.