CHAPTER 23

Atlas’s POV.

My heart was racing a million miles a minute, I could feel the thumping in my head as thousands of worried thoughts invaded it. What if she was dead? Where had she run to? The airport, maybe the hotel, or the beach? There were so many possibilities, and I was completely lost at where to start.

I could just picture her, determinedly walking down the street, huffing and sobbing in her seething anger and independence, drenched by the sudden downfall of tropical rain in her spaghetti strapped dress. I felt awful, in all my closemindedness. Growing up in the mafia, I just assumed that everyone was like me, having watched criminal deals since they were eight years old. I knew I had become too comfortable around Aleara; I had let myself become open and vulnerable, love was not stability, business was. That was all Aleara was to me, just another member in my mafia who was helping in the running of the business.

“Atlas,” Jay turned to me as I flung open the front seat of one of the SUVs, climbing in, “The Russian’s are gone,” to say my stomach dropped was an understatement. My stomach did a full three sixty before plunging down into the pit of my stomach, repeatedly.

Those fuckers.

My heart raced and the pounding invaded my mind, my head began to go light, my hands clammy, lips dry. I couldn’t focus. What was this feeling? I didn’t feel ‘stressed’ or ‘panicked’. I had built my life around being calm and calculated, unaffected by the chaos around me.

“Sir are you alright?” one of my men asked. A sudden rage hit me like a wave.

“Do I fucking look alright to you? My date has run away, and now those fucking Russians are out to find her, we’re still sitting in this parking lot, it’s pouring with rain, and I can’t even see out of the damn windscreen!” I shouted, my chest rising and falling rapidly. My eyes widened and my jaw twitched, I looked livid.

The man winced, as if I had thrown some kind of sharp object at him, sliding back into the seat and falling silent with defeat. I turned to Jay whose expression was unreadable, just like always.

“Atlas,” he mumbled. I brought my eyes up to his and made a poor attempt to focus, “We will find her,” he assured me. I nodded and dragged my hands over the cold leather wheel.

“I know we will, we have to, and if anyone has even set eyes on her, they’re going to die,” I promised before slamming my foot down on the accelerator and speeding out of the front driveway. We had to find Aleara, I had to find her, my love was drunk and alone, wandering through the streets in the rain with the Russian Mafia running around.



Aleara’s POV.

I was sopping. Of course, it had started to rain, with the way this night was going and my luck, I wouldn’t be surprised if something came out of the bushes and mauled me.

My heeled feet ached and limped down the street, kicking rocks and twigs as I went, disgusted in myself and what my life had some to. He was never going to love me; how could I have been so naïve to think that he would have even considered starting to feel.

“Asshole,” I mumbled, “fucking asshole, absolute shitfaced bitch,” anger boiled within me as I thought about what had happened, that douche had left me mid dance to go and charm someone else, was he going to come back to the hotel and pretend like it didn’t happen as well? Wouldn’t surprise me.

What was it with men and their lack of decency in my life? At this rate I either was going to die alone or die with someone who doesn’t give a fuck about me, why didn’t I have any good guys around me, why did they all have to be gun bearing criminals?

I pulled strands of stuck down hair from my face and forcing it behind my ears, wringing out the ends, I hated rain. My dress was saturated, and I was miserable. I wanted to go home. I wanted to see my family and my friends; I wanted my life back.

From behind me I heard a sudden rumbling as I continued to limp down the street, growing louder and louder, and then the light around me grew brighter also. My heart began to quicken. It was too early for anyone to be out here with peaceful intentions, I mean, who in their right mind drives around at 2am. I had a bad feeling about this.

I shot a quick glance back, a black SUV, Atlas?

I stopped walking, I wanted to go home, I’d give him a cold shoulder and plan an escape to the airport in the early morning, when I was dry and not dressed like a whore.

The car rolled slowly to a stop, the tinted windows making it impossible to see who was inside. I squinted, the heavy downfall clouding my vision.

Slowly, the back window of the car rolled down, revealing a man.

My stomach fell through the floor as I opened my mouth to scream.



Atlas’ POV.

We had been driving around for exactly thirty-six minutes and nothing had turned up. I had been checking the clock every two minutes or so. This island wasn’t big, and you could drive the entire coastline in half a day, must less walk even half of it. At the speed I was going, I dare say that I could drive this tiny island in two hours.

She couldn’t have gone far at all, Jay said she had just left when he told me.

As time went by, the dread in my stomach continued to grow, brewing and boiling inside of me, ready to explode if she didn’t show up in the next two minutes.

We were literally on a single lane street, you couldn’t drive in any other direction then the one we were going. Unless her drunk ass fell into a bush, she had to be along this road.

As we rounded a corner, my eyes were blinded by the high beamed lights of another black SUV. I glanced over at Jay, who returned my same concerned expression. There wasn’t a heap of black SUVs on this island, not ones identical to ours at least, it had to be another cartel.

“Did you get a plate?” I looked over at Jay who nodded. His face suddenly dropped.

“Atlas,” his voice sounding grim, “you’re not going to like this,” I gulped.

“What?” I growled, trying my best to come out as strong and calculated when really, I just wanted to panic.

“It belongs to the Russians,”

Fuck. If I didn’t find her in the next thirty seconds around this next corner then I had a pretty good idea of where she was, and I wasn’t going to be happy about it.



Aleara’s POV.

“Someone’s a long way from the party ay?” the drawling voice of the Russian scum from the party echoed through my ears as I stood frozen in my tracks.

“I was just getting some fresh air,” I stammered slowly, forcing the words out so that they made some kind of sense.

“Do you often walk this far just to get some fresh air,” he paused, “In the pouring rain?”

“I like the rain,” I lied. Oh god, Atlas better show up right now and kick this guy’s fat ass.

“We could give you a lift back to the party if you like, get you out of the rain ay,” he smirked slyly, showing his lack of teeth, I wanted to be sick. No way in hell I was getting in the car with him.

“I’m good thanks, I’ll just keep walking,” I turned on my heels to continue when the door opened and a thug like man stepped out, covered in tattoos and scars. This man looked like something out of a horror movie, like he should have been carrying a meat cleaver instead of a gun, his eyes were wide and haunted, pupils small and traumatized, he was like an enslaved zombie.

The Russian scum, Victor, let out a low and paralysing laugh, “Atlas did say that I would never be able to afford you, but he never said I wouldn’t have the ability to kidnap you.”

“He’s going to kill you,” I sneered, gritting my teeth and trying to sound like I knew what I was saying. Atlas probably didn’t even know that I had run off, he was most likely still hanging out with his other girlfriend in some side room.

“He won’t be able to find any of us. He’s not coming for you sweetheart,” he let out another chuckle. He wouldn’t be chuckling in a moment when I kicked the shit out of him.

From behind, whilst I was watching the zombie mobster, someone hit me over the head with something heavy and hard. My knees began to shake and quiver, slowly letting me down to the ground, the cold and loose gravel paining my face.

My world faded from view and all I could force out of my mouth was one word.

“Atlas."