Page 19 of Stealing the Dancer
She nods, and just then there’s the sound of another explosion outside.This one is even closer than the last.
“Lock the door,” I say.She quickly backs into the panic room, and I seal her in.
Once I know she’s secure, I race back to the front of the house and find the other secret keypad by the front door.The panel on the wall opens, and I slide out two handguns.Once I’m armed, I creep around the inside of the house and look out the windows.In the distance, I can see that the explosion that was farther away was the boathouse.
“Fuckers,” I curse when I see the boat is on fire.
By the time I make it around to the driveway, I see the second explosion was my car.It looks like whoever did this is trying to keep us from having any sort of transportation to leave.That means they’re planning on attacking us.
My shoes are nearby, and I slip them on as I sneak around to the back door and slide it open.There’s a ridgeline on this side of the house so it would be more difficult for someone to enter the property this way.As quietly as I can, I creep around to the front but stay crouched behind the trees.
In the distance, I can see a group of men around a van, but I don’t recognize them.I watch them for a long while to see if they have a plan, but it looks like they’re arguing with each other.They must have set the bombs and are wondering why we haven’t come outside yet.Either that or they’re waiting for someone else to arrive.
Just as I’m about to go back the way I came and get in the panic room with Whitley, I hear what sounds like a twig snap from behind me.
It’s already too late because by the time I turn around, the baseball bat is already coming in my direction.I try to hold up my hands and stop it, but as soon as it makes contact, I’m out cold.
It’s a long time later when I finally wake up, but the sight of Whitley tied to a chair in front of me is truly a nightmare.
ChapterThirteen
WHITLEY
“Don’t do this,” I try to plead with Hagen.
The second I spotted him on the cameras in the panic room, I was sure my father found us and it was over.I did the only thing I could think of and called him from the emergency phone, hoping he would pull back.I would promise to come home with him as long as he didn’t hurt Mack.I’d plead and swear to never run away again.
Then everything turned on its head, and my father’s words knocked the air out of my lungs.
Hagen spotted one of the cameras, demanding I come out from wherever I was hiding or he’d kill Mack slowly.I couldn't let that happen.This wasn’t his fault.He’d gotten pulled into my father’s world, which is mine too.I couldn’t escape, and it was stupid to try.Now I’m going to get the only man I ever loved killed.
My arm still throbs from where Hagen grabbed me.He almost dislocated my shoulder.That pain was nothing compared to seeing Mack lying on the floor with blood running from his head, and I cried as they tied me to the chair.
Even if I hadn’t made a call to my father, I would have known the second I stepped out of the panic room that Hagen had gone rogue.It didn’t matter how mad I made my father, he never hurt a hair on my head.If one of his men glanced at me sideways, they would be gone the next day.
“Shut up, slut,” Hagen hisses at me.A few other men linger behind him, and I don’t recognize any of them.
“Why?”I whisper.
I wasn’t close to any of my father's men except Hagen, and it was more on the surface.I didn’t know much about him, but I knew he was one of the closest to my father.We usually made small talk because he was around more than the others but nothing more.
“You were supposed to be mine,” he snarls, and his whole face turns red.“Now my sweet angel is a whore.”I bite the inside of my cheek so that I don’t say something to make him angrier.What’s wrong with being a whore?Paying a sex worker is probably the only way he can get laid.
“My father agreed to that?”
“I won’t need your father's approval now.”Hagen puffs out his chest.If he thought he had a chance at getting me, then he never knew my father at all.“When I bring his little girl home, he’ll be over the moon.“Then…” He shrugs, smirking, and my stomach drops.
“You’re going to kill him?”
“It’s for the best.He’s weak.”He shakes his head in disgust.“He forgets who he is.”I don’t think my father forgets anything.“He’s retiring.Did he think he was going to toss all of us out?There’s no retiring in this life.I paid my dues, and I want my place.”
“Retiring?”I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“He’s getting out.Did he really think I wouldn’t know what he was doing?Selling off assets and moving shit around.Then I see the documents with new identities.”He bares his teeth at me, beyond pissed.
I didn’t know about any of this, but then again, my father didn’t fill me in on a lot of things.He keeps most things close to the chest, and as predictable as he can be, he’s also not.He can sometimes throw a curveball no one sees coming.
“I was supposed to take his place.”