Chapter 80

**Artemis**

My father is about to go into all the ways he’s outsmarted us when my phone goes off. I bother listening to he annoyed objections as I take it out and check the message. The image in front of me makes my blood run cold and then hot within seconds.

“Artemis!” My father yells but the sound of his voice snaps something inside me.

I stand and move around the table. His eyes follow me until I’m standing in front of him but that calmness in them doesn’t last long when I grab him by his suite and pull him to his feet.

“What have you done to her?” I yell at him.

He tries to pull my hands away but I shove him back until he hits the wall. “Control yourself Artemis. I taught you better than to let your emotions control you.”

“Artemis! Let him go!” My mother yells.

She sounds like she’s performing a scene in one of her movies.

“Let him go Artemis or else!” Tet calls out next.

I want to laugh at my brother trying to sound tough. He couldn’t’ beat me at arm wrestling if he wanted to. Thanks to Alan I am a lot stronger than him and my father. The boxing and taekwondo classes don’t hurt either. Alan enjoys getting his ass kicked by any means possible and I get dragged along with him. I never thanked him but I will now.

“Where is she? I wont ask again.” I say to my father.

My voice is low and deep so that the others can’t hear but even me holding him against a wall and speaking in a threatening tone will shake my father.

“That woman has made you weak. I raised you to do great things and this is what you do to the life I gave you? I’m disappointed in you Artemis.”

“I don’t give a fuck about what you think of me. All I want to know is where you took my wife!” I yell directly into his face.

A door slams open and I expect to be torn off my father by some of his men but no one touches me. I glance over my shoulder and see Bryant and Dane holding onto a few guys who look beaten to hell.

“We found these men heading this way. I assume you did not want to be interrupted Mr. Rhodes.” Bryant says calmly. “I knew they couldn’t cut it.”

It takes me a second to recognize the faces of the men through the bruises and blood. I can’t help but laugh when I realize who my father has been working with. These men couldn’t protect a monkey at the zoo!

“How long have you been working with him?” I ask my father.

He smirks. “Long enough to get my foot in the door and pull everything out from under you.”

He really thinks he’s got me where he wants me. This old man has lost his touch and yet has the nerve to act as if he has accomplished anything.

“Artemis!” Alan calls out. “It’s Abigail.”

I signal Bryant and Dane to hold my father for me. They throw the men they intercepted aside like they’re nothing and Dane takes my place holding my father. Tet is on his feet but when I walk past him he looks like a skittish cat. Alan passes me his phone and I see a video of Abigail being put into an ambulance.

“They let her go. I have to-“

“Go.” I tell him.

He takes his phone back and runs out of the room. Blue was not with Abigail so the men my father hired must still have her. They want something or they wouldn’t have bothered sending me the photo of her swollen face.

“Dane.” I signal him to sit my father back down.

Without asking Bryant helps my brother into his seat as well and then keep a hand resting on each of them just to be safe. I take my place at the head of the table and pull on the mask my father taught me but behind it is murderous rage and desperation. If anything happens to Blue, my father and whoever helped him will be put in a place no one would find and I would let Dane use some of his military expertise to make them pay every day of their lives. No one knows the beast that man can become, not even Bryant.

“I am going to ask one more time….” I look directly at my father. “Where is my wife?”



**Blue**


“Ah freaking asshole!” I groan as I come to again. “That was a cheap shot!”

Once again I wake up seeing the face of a man willing to hit a woman just for a photo.

“So what now? Torture?” I ask because my foot in mouth disease seems to worsen when I’m in pain.

I’m freaking out now that I’m alone but no way in hell am I going to show any weakness in front of this guy. In reality I want to fight hard to free myself and run as fast as I can like I did all those years ago. Accept that time my foster father had been too wasted to tie me properly and I was able to get out. This time I can feel how well these men have tied me up. The man is sitting in the chair where Abigail had been sitting and has a gun in his hand. It’s rested on his leg and he’s leaning back in a relaxed posture but I know he’s dangerous no matter how calm he seems.

“You really are a pretty thing even with that bruise on your face. Tell me, did your foster dad beat you before he would….” He smirks as if I should be able to fill in the details.

I know exactly what he’s insinuating but he’s wrong.

“I don’t know who you’ve been talking to but that man could never get it up to try. Beating and timing up didn’t even work.” I throw back at him.

The guy chuckles. “Is that so? Well I guess he embellished a little bit before I killed him.”

What?

“He was taken by the police.”

“He was but I have some connections and was able to grab him before they reached the station. I needed to find out all about you from a reliable source. He told me all the ways he made you scream and cry when he would have fun with you.” He smiles like he loved every second of those stories.

I on the other hand feel like I’m about to throw up. So much for playing it tough. Who was I kidding, I’ve never been good at facing my demons. It’s always easier to just run away.

“He was a coward who was too drunk to find a real man to get his ass kicked by and took it out on a defenseless kid.” I say.

“Of course he’s a coward. He begged for his life like a bitch when I held this gun to his head. But you aren’t a defenseless kid anymore are you Blue? So what are you going to do? Will you try to escape again or will you let Artemis decide weather or not your worth the trouble to save. He can always find another where to marry him who would look a lot prettier in those fancy clothes than you do.”

Wow, I have to admit…he’s good. It would be so easy for me to believe him. He’s right that if I was gone Artemis could marry again and no one would remember me. Not that I care about being remembered. I always knew I would die alone one day and be buried in an unmarked grave that no one would visit.
But…Artemis came looking for me when I tried to run away. He has said things that make it hard to believe that he doesn’t care about me, maybe even…love me.

I laugh. “You really think that all this bullshit you’re sprouting is going to scare me? I can tell you now that it doesn’t. I was alone long before I met Artemis. I never expected to live to adulthood, and here I am. Everyday I wake up is a miracle, so kill me if you want. I don’t give a shit!” I yell at him.

That cocky expression fades and anger takes over the guys once calm face. He storms toward me and pushes the gun against my head.

“I could kill you right now!”

“Then do it! Come on! Do it!” What am I doing?

Why am I encouraging this psycho to shoot me? I’ve lost my damn mind. He must have dislodge all my good senses when he smacked me.

I don’t break eye contact with him but a second longer and I’ll be hurling all over his cheap suit.

*Keep it together Blue!*