Ten of the guards scrambled toward their cars the moment they got the location from Dax, who was now fully awake, his face grim as he ordered one of the guards to go get her.
"Go bring the lady," he ordered the dark-haired guard standing beside the stairs.
The guard nodded and moved up the stairs. A few minutes later he walked back in, holding a woman roughly Aurora’s size, someone Saint immediately recognized as the girl he’d met drunk at the club.
"How the hell did she get here?" Saint asked, staring at Dax, who looked completely unbothered.
"I told Sarfo to get her the moment Adrian told me Aurora went missing."
The guards pulled Jules into a seat, her hands tied behind her back, a dark strip of cloth covering her eyes so she could only hear the voices of the two men arguing nearby.
She twisted her wrists, working them against the rope until it finally loosened enough to slip free. Her fingers found the blindfold next, tugging it down around her neck as her eyes adjusted to the light. On the table beside her sat her phone, left there carelessly by whoever had searched her bag. She grabbed it not after noticing the two people in the room totally unfocused they’d sent the guard to get something for them, hands trembling, and dialed the only number that mattered.
"Aurora." Her voice cracked the second the call connected, every ounce of composure she’d been holding onto since they grabbed her outside her apartment unraveling at once. She barely got the warning out, telling Aurora to move fast, that they’d come for her too, before footsteps thundered down the hallway behind her.
The phone was ripped from her hand before she could say another word. A man she didn’t recognize wrenched her arm back, hissing at her to stay quiet as he dragged her toward the heavy oak table at the center of the room. Cold metal locked around her wrist a second later, the chain rattling as she yanked against it uselessly.
Minutes passed in silence, her breath the only sound in the room, until the phone buzzed again on the table beside her, out of her reach. She watched, helpless, as the man who had shackled her scooped it up and pressed it to his ear without a word of greeting.
"Come home, wife," he said, flat and cold, before ending the call and tossing the phone back onto the table like it meant nothing at all.
Two SUVs and three different-colored G63s stopped right in front of Aurora as men draped in black coats stepped out, their leather shoes striking the ground with a precision that seemed out of place on the cracked pavement.
Aurora swallowed, stepping back from them as a crowd began to gather, several people already pulling out their phones. She wiped the tears from her face the moment she spotted Henry standing among the sea of onlookers, wondering what on earth was going on.
She hadn’t expected him to walk toward her with that smirk on his face, the same one he’d worn the day she asked why he was kissing Lilah, the girl everyone at school hated.
She rushed toward one of the guards she recognized instantly, the one who always stood outside her door at Saint’s penthouse.
The guard pulled her gently behind him just as Henry reached them, mouth slightly open. He’d seen guards around Aurora before, but never this many, and never this intimidating.
"Umm..." He cleared his throat, clearly trying to figure out how to speak without stumbling over his words.
Aurora stared at him, pressed close to the guard she’d always been wary of back at the penthouse, wondering if Henry had come to mock her or to beg.
Pedestrians slowed as they passed, phones raised, cameras flashing. Behind her, a woman whispered something, and though she wasn’t standing close, the chill in the Chicago air carried the words straight to her.
"Is she being abducted in broad daylight?" the woman asked the blonde standing beside her.
"I don’t think so. Not with police lurking around like watchdogs," the older woman muttered back.
Aurora’s eyes swept the crowd, counting nearly ten police officers nearby, all of them looking entirely uninterested in what was happening.
"Aurora." Henry’s voice pulled her attention back to him.
"I want us back together. I love you, and I think you know that, but I can’t leave Lilah either. I promise I’ll be a good boyfriend to both of you," Henry blurted out.
Aurora didn’t respond. Instead, she was pulled toward the car as Adrian shot Henry a death glare, leaning in to whisper something in his ear.
Aurora watched Henry’s face drain of color as he stumbled backward, disappearing into the wall of guards.
Adrian climbed into the car beside her while the others loaded into theirs, and they pulled away, the crowd thinning as everyone returned to their day.
"What did you say to him?" Aurora asked, pressing her lips together as Adrian kept his eyes locked on the road.
"Something Boss would’ve said to him," he answered, picking up speed. Aurora gripped her seat tightly as the car fell into complete silence.
Adrian opened the car door for Aurora as she stepped out, the fear that had briefly faded came rushing back. She gripped the hem of her dress, pressing her lips into a thin line as the guards trailed behind her.
"Alyssa," she whispered, realizing she’d left the little girl who had already started to matter to her, but she’d needed to get herself out of that cage no matter the cost.
She and Adrian walked into the house together while some guards stayed outside. Her eyes caught Jules before she even noticed the tall, masculine frame standing at the far end of the sitting room, back turned to them.
"Jules!" She rushed to her side and dropped down beside her. Jules’s tears spilled harder the moment she saw her, and Aurora felt her own composure crack, the tears she’d been holding back finally breaking free. Before she could say another word, she was hauled over a shoulder, kicking, screaming for him to stop, Jules screaming right along with her, though she couldn’t move. She was still chained to the table.
He lost every ounce of control he’d fought to hold onto the moment her small frame passed through that door, looking as innocent as if she’d never tried to run from him at all. He turned and came face-to-face with the woman who had nearly driven him out of his mind, crouched beside her sobbing best friend.
His blood boiled. In five long strides he threw her over his shoulder and carried her up the stairs, her cries growing louder with every step. The only thing running through Saint’s mind was that she needed to be punished. Passing the corridor toward her room, her screams only intensified.
He kicked open a door at the far end of the hallway, darkness swallowing them both. He dropped her at the far side of the room, sweat soaking through his shirt, his head spinning. Pulling himself together, he switched on a dim red light that lit only half the space.
"Do you know what you’ve caused?" he groaned, sounding almost in pain, crouching in front of Aurora, her body pressed against the cold wall as she whimpered, sniffling.
"I’m sorry, Saint," she pleaded, shaking violently, her eyes red and swollen.
"You can’t be forgiven that easily, Aurora. You need to be punished so you won’t do this again." His voice was harsh but low. He stood, switched off the light, and shut the door behind him, leaving her alone in the dark.